Legislative Consent Memorandums
Legislative Consent Memorandums are lodged in the Scottish Parliament by the Scottish Government. They relate to Bills under consideration in the United Kingdom Parliament (Westminster) which contains what are known as “relevant provisions”. These provisions could:
- change the law on a “devolved matter” (an area of policy which Westminster devolved to the Scottish Parliament in the Scotland Act 1998); or
- alter the “legislative competence” of the Scottish Parliament (its powers to make laws) or the “executive competence” of Scottish Ministers (their powers to govern).
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Under an agreement known as the “Sewel Convention”, Westminster will not pass Bills that contain relevant provisions without first obtaining the consent of the Scottish Parliament. The consent itself is given through a motion (a Legislative Consent Motion) which is taken in the Chamber – but the detailed scrutiny is undertaken by a Scottish Parliament committee on the basis of a memorandum. On occasion, a memorandum is lodged which invites the Parliament to note that the Scottish Executive does not intend to lodge a legislative consent motion on a particular bill.
The procedure for scrutiny of Legislative Consent Memorandums and Motions is set out in Chapter 9B of the Parliament’s standing orders.
For further background information, and comment, on the Sewel Convention see the SPICe Fact Sheet Sewel Convention Bibliography.
Table showing statistics on the number of memorandums and motions by session.
To access a particular memorandum, click on the title of the relevant UK Parliament Bill.
2007 - 2008 Session
Legislation Consent Memoranda from previous United Kingdom Parliament Sessions:
2006 - 2007
2005 - 2006
Earlier “Sewel” Memoranda
View earlier Memoranda prepared by the Scottish Executive prior to November 2005 (pdf).
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The Chamber
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