Scottish Government
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Legislative reform
A Bill to update the way the Scottish Parliament deals with legislation was introduced by the Minister for Parliament Bruce Crawford today.
The Bill replaces a number of orders made at the time of devolution with new legislation to control:
- how legislation made by the Scottish Parliament is interpreted
- how the Parliament scrutinises subordinate legislation
- how the Parliament deals with the special procedure that applies to orders that are subject to special Parliamentary procedures.
The Interpretation and Legislative Reform (Scotland) Bill also gives Scottish Ministers the power to make certain amendments to legislation to consolidate the legislation.
Mr Crawford said:
"For the first ten years of devolution the Scottish parliament has been operating and legislating under the transitional orders designed to allow the parliament to get up and running quickly.
"This Bill will ensure the important issues of how Parliament scrutinises subordinate legislation and how our Parliament's legislation is interpreted are governed by provisions made by the Scottish parliament.
"It will also allow us to make the process of consolidating legislation easier - helping to make sure our laws are as simple and easy to understand as quickly as possible."
The Scottish Government introduced the Interpretation and Legislative Reform (Scotland) Bill to the Scottish Parliament yesterday. It will replace the three remaining Transitional Orders which were made by the UK Government under the Scotland Act in preparation for the Scottish Parliament's establishment.
The proposals in relation to subordinate legislation are based upon the recommendations made by the Parliament's Subordinate Legislation Committee in their Report on the Regulatory Framework in Scotland (SLC Report, 12th Report,2008 (Session 3)).
The Scottish Government consulted on a draft Bill between January 13 and April 12, 2009.
