The 'West Lothian question' examines whether it is just
[1] that members of the UK Parliament elected from
Scotland can vote on issues only affecting England, but English MPs, in turn, cannot vote on these same aspects in relation to Scotland. With the passing of the
Scotland Act in 1998, and the creation of the Scottish Parliament in 1999, this anomaly
[2] has come into existence. The question is twofold:
★ How can it be right that MPs elected to
Westminster from Scottish constituencies have no ability to affect the issues of their constituents which have been devolved to the
Scottish Parliament, and
★ If power over
Scottish affairs is devolved to a Scottish Parliament, how can it be right that MPs representing Scottish constituencies in the Parliament of the United Kingdom will have the power to vote on issues affecting
England (including those that don't affect Scotland), but English MPs will not have the power to vote on Scottish issues?
The issue has also been called the "English question."
History
The question was first posed
on
14 November 1977 by
Tam Dalyell,
Labour Member of Parliament (MP) for the
Scottish constituency of
West Lothian, 1962 to 2005 during a
British House of Commons debate over
Scottish and
Welsh devolution (see
Scotland Act 1978 and
Wales Act 1978):
"For how long will English constituencies and English Honourable members
tolerate... at least 119 Honourable Members from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland exercising an important, and probably often decisive, effect on British politics
while they themselves have no say in the same matters in Scotland, Wales and
Northern Ireland?"
He illustrated his point by pointing out the paradox of a Member of Parliament for West Lothian being able to vote on matters affecting
West Bromwich but not his own constituency of West Lothian.
The name "West Lothian Question" was coined by the
Ulster Unionist (formerly
Conservative) MP
Enoch Powell in his response to Dalyell's speech: "We have finally grasped what the Honourable Member for West Lothian is getting at, let us call it the West Lothian Question."
Titling the issue as a "question" may be a homage to nineteenth century political issues such as the
Irish Question and the
Eastern Question.
Current situation
While
Scottish MPs have not been prevented from voting on
English domestic affairs, the number of MPs to which Scotland is entitled (which was previously disproportionately high for its population) was reduced at the
2005 General Election from 72 to 59.
Legislation for the creation of
foundation hospitals in England and to introduce university top-up fees (within the
Higher Education Act), was passed only due to Scottish MPs voting in favour of these respective sections. The majority of English MPs voted against these measures.
[3] Meanwhile, top-up fees were clearly rejected in Scotland.
Summing up the view held by those critical of the current devolution settlements, the
Shadow Constitutional Secretary,
Oliver Heald, said:
"It is not sustainable to have measures imposed on England on the back of the votes of Scottish MPs, when the same measures in Scotland are the responsibility of the Scottish Parliament."[4]
Arguing in favour of the ''status quo'', the then
Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs,
Lord Falconer of Thoroton, said:
"All matters — even those seemingly limited to England — impact on the Union. The funding settlement with the nations and regions of the UK means that what is decided on public funding in England, for example, affects Scotland and Wales and Northern Ireland. These are national issues for the United Kingdom and so they should be debated at the national Parliament in Westminster by all MPs, not by subsets depending on the location of their constituency."[5]
When Prime Minister
Gordon Brown released his constitutional reform agenda, the
Liberal Democrats criticized the plans for not including anything related to electoral reform to resolve the West Lothian question.
[6]
Key considerations
Executive power hierarchy
The Scottish Parliament was formed by statute – the
Scotland Act 1998 – and is thus a creation of
Westminster. The enactment of the Scotland Act 1998 conferred no sovereign status on the Scottish Parliament, and has crucially not changed the status of the Westminster Parliament as the supreme legislature of Scotland, with Westminster retaining the ability to override, or veto, any decisions taken by the Scottish Parliament. The Westminster parliament remains the executive body; power is ''devolved'' rather than handed to the Scottish Parliament.
As a consequence, the ability of all Westminster MPs to vote on Scottish legislation has not been legally diminished by devolution, as made clear by Section 28(7) of the Scotland Act 1998, which states that the legislative powers of the Scottish Parliament do ''...not affect the power of the Parliament of the United Kingdom to make laws for Scotland''.
[7]
During
devolution, a convention was created to manage the power of Westminster to legislate on matters within the legislative competence of the Scottish Parliament. This is known as the Sewel Convention, and the related Scottish parliamentary motions are now known as
Legislative Consent Motions (previously Sewel Motions).
[8] These motions (of which there are around a dozen per year) allow all English, Welsh, Northern Irish, and Scottish MPs to vote on issues, which among other things, are within the Scottish Parliament's legislative competence. The Sewel Convention states that the Westminster Parliament will not normally legislate on devolved matters in Scotland without first obtaining the consent of the Scottish Parliament. However, given that the Sewel Convention is a legally unenforcable procedural device,
[9] and the UK Parliament has legislative supremacy; were the
Scottish Parliament to deny consent, Westminster would be able to ignore this and pass the law anyway – although this has never happened in practice.
Reserved matters
Legislation relating to ''reserved issues'' such as
defence,
national security,
foreign affairs and
monetary and
economic issues are voted on by all the MPs at Westminster to ensure consistency across the whole of the
United Kingdom. The Scottish Parliament is not able to pass laws on these issues itself, as they were not devolved. The West Lothian Question is not related to this situation, as all parts of the Union have a say roughly proportional to their population and all are equally affected.
Parliament of Northern Ireland
A situation akin to that presented by the West Lothian Question did exist between 1921 and 1972, when there was a
Parliament of Northern Ireland that legislated for
Northern Ireland, whilst Northern Ireland continued to send MPs to Westminster, who could vote on matters affecting Great Britain only.
However, during this period Northern Ireland had disproportionately fewer MPs than would be expected from the relative populations, with the numbers cut from the twenty-nine elected at the
1918 general election to thirteen from the
1922 general election, and later to twelve with the abolition of
University constituencies in 1950.
Proposed answers
English votes on English laws
It has been proposed that
Scottish MPs should be barred from voting on matters that do not affect Scotland.
This has been the policy of the major opposition
Conservative Party since 1999. In July 1999, the then-Conservative leader
William Hague said that "English MPs should have exclusive say over
English laws… People will become increasingly resentful that decisions are being made in
England by people from other parts of the UK on matters that English people did not have a say on elsewhere… I think it is a dangerous thing to allow resentment to build up in a country. We have got to make the rules fair now."
[10]
Labour opposed this policy, with the then-
Secretary of State for Scotland John Reid accusing Hague of "fanning the flames of
English nationalism". Reports have said that opposition or support for the current system falls on whether the party would benefit; Conservatives hold majority support within England, while the Tories have lately been underrepresented in Parliament due to Labour's popularity there.
[11] The Liberal Democrats also support regional government for England.
Both the Conservative and
Scottish National parties follow a policy that
MPs for Scottish seats will not vote on issues that only affect England. During his final years in the
Commons, Labour MP Dalyell (who originally posed the question in Parliament) also voted in line with such a policy. However there were times when the political parties were in disagreement as to whether a matter affected countries other than England, such as the
Higher Education Act 2004 where the SNP argued that its passing would reduce Scotland's
block grant via the
Barnett Formula, and therefore decided to vote against the bill.
During the
2006 Liberal Democrats leadership election contender
Simon Hughes pledged that if he were elected the
Liberal Democrats would also follow such a rule. Simon Hughes is also on record for supporting a full
devolved English Parliament.
Opponents of this proposal argue that it introduces further confusion and effectively creates two Parliaments in a single chamber. Furthermore, it would not overcome the problems created should Scottish MPs become Ministers in Westminster with responsibilities for devolved matters (as happened in 2007 when the Scottish
Chancellor,
Gordon Brown, was elected the new leader of the Labour Party and hence
Tony Blair's successor as
Prime Minister and earlier during
John Reid's tenure as
Secretary of State for Health). An
ICM opinion poll conducted for the
BBC's ''
The Daily Politics'' show found that 52% of those questioned from across the UK opposed the idea of a Scottish
Prime Minister,
[12] (although this must be taken as meaning a PM that is the MP for a Scottish seat, as Blair was born in Edinburgh). Furthermore taken to its extremes, this would end the constitutional principle of
parliamentary sovereignty and may exclude Scottish MPs from voting on funding of
English matters, while the entire
UK Parliament continues to set the
Consolidated Fund levels available to the Scottish Parliament in the
Budget.
As a slight variation, it has been proposed that an English
Grand Committee, along the lines of the
Scottish and
Welsh Grand Committees (made up of all the MPs from relevant nation) be formed to debate on the effects of legislation on England.
Fewer Scottish MPs
There is also the option of cutting the number of Scottish MPs even further to about 40, as happened during the existence of the
Parliament of Northern Ireland when the number of MPs at Westminster was below the standard ratio of electorate to MPs for the rest of the UK. It is argued that this would trade a reduced voice for Scotland in exchange for Scottish MPs being able to vote on English matters, and therefore may form an acceptable solution. However, while such a solution would have attraction to England, it is difficult to see how accepting reduced voting strength on major issues that affect Scotland in exchange for a say in matters that don't apply to Scotland, could be an attractive trade from a Scottish perspective.
English devolution
English parliament
The creation of a
devolved English parliament, with full legislative powers, akin to the
Scottish Parliament is seen by some as a solution to this problem, with full legislative powers also being conferred on the existing
Welsh Assembly. The Westminster (United Kingdom) Parliament would continue to meet and legislate on matters of UK-wide competence such as Defence, Foreign Affairs and economic matters with the parliaments of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland legislating locally.
However opponents of this proposal argue that it would simply add another layer of government and an 'expensive talking shop'.
Lord Falconer of Thoroton, the
Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs, has stated that he believes that an English Parliament would 'dwarf all other institutions.'
[13]
Regional assemblies
Government policy has been to establish English
regional assemblies with no legislative powers. Originally it was planned that these would be directly elected. The
London Assembly was the first of these, established following a
referendum in 1998, in which public and media attention was focused principally on the post of
Mayor of London,
[14] but further progress was thwarted when a
referendum in the
North East rejected the proposal for an elected assembly in November 2004
[15] leading to the shelving of similar proposals for other English regions. Nevertheless, the unelected regional assemblies remain in place.
Dissolution of the Union
Another solution might be the dissolution of the
United Kingdom leading to the
constituent countries —
England,
Northern Ireland,
Scotland, and
Wales — becoming independent
sovereign states. Problems exist, however, on the constitutionality of such a break-up and the necessity of
Westminster to agree to any such arrangement (which would require MPs from other areas of the UK to, in effect, allow independence of any particular constituent country or area).
The result of the
2007 Scottish Parliament general election has complicated matters, with the
Scottish National Party claiming a mandate for an independence referendum, as they hold the largest number of seats, with 37% of the counted vote (19% of the electoral vote, based on a 51.8% turnout). As all other major parties are pro-Union, the SNP chose to form a minority government (47 seats out of 129 at Holyrood, or a minority of 18 seats).
Re-centralisation
The abolition of the
devolved Scottish Parliament,
National Assembly for Wales and
Northern Ireland Assembly would also fundamentally address the anomaly created by their establishment.
Stop asking the question
In 1998, the Lord Chancellor,
Lord Irvine of Lairg, said that the best answer to the question was to stop asking it.
[16]
Further reading
★ ''Devolution: the end of Britain?'', Tam Dalyell, Jonathan Cape, London, 1977
★ ''A Stronger or Weaker Union? Public Reactions to Asymmetric Devolution in the United Kingdom'', Professor John Curtice, University of Strathclyde, Publius - the journal of federalism, Volume 36, Number 1, Winter 2006, Oxford University Press (
PDF file)
★ ''The West Lothian Question'', Oonagh Gay, House of Commons Library SN/PC/2586,
26 June 2006 (
PDF file)
References
1. If it's English vote for English law, the UK's end is nigh, ''The Guardian'', June 12, 2006
2. ''"It is a clear anomaly, yes. But the right question to ask yourself is: how do you deal with that anomaly in a way that most promotes the Union?"'' - Lord Falconer of Thoroton, Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs, ''Today'' programme, BBC Radio 4, 10 March 2006
3. Scots MPs attacked over fees vote, BBC News Online, 27 January, 2004
4. Falconer rules out an English parliament claiming it would destroy the Union, ''Daily Telegraph'', 11 March 2006
5. Lord Falconer of Thoroton, Ministerial speech, 10 March 2006
6. The King is Dead, ''The Economist'', July 5, 2007
7. Scotland Act, section 28(7)
8. Sewel Motions, Scottish Executive website
9. , House of Commons Standard Note
10. "English votes on English laws", BBC News Online, July 15, 1999
11. "The Battle for England", ''The Times'', May 9, 2005
12. English voters 'oppose Scots PM', BBC News Online 14 May 2006
13. No English parliament — Falconer, BBC News Online, 10 March 2006
14. 'Overwhelming vote for Mayor', BBC News Online, 8 May 1998
15. North East votes 'no' to assembly, BBC News Online, 5 November 2004
16. Bagehot, "The Economist", page 36, 8 July 2006
See also
★
Politics of England
★
Politics of Scotland
★
Barnett formula
★
Devolved English parliament
★
English nationalism
★
Scottish independence
★
Scottish mafia
★
Welsh nationalism
★
Britishness
External links
★
Talking Politics: The West Lothian Question,
BBC News Online,
June 1,
1998
★
The West Lothian spectre, Parliamentary sketch by
Simon Hoggart], ''
The Guardian'',
November 7,
2001
★
Hansard text of a debate on the subject in 1998 (scroll down for the start, and continue on to subsequent pages)
★
7 January 1998
★ by Oonagh Gay,
26 July 2006
★
"''That'' question is back to haunt us", Scottish Daily Mail,
22 May 2005
★
Campaign for an English Parliament
★
English Constitutional Convention
★
English Democrats Party
★
Witanagemot Club
★
Democracy for England Campaign
★
A Critique of the Conservative party policy of English Votes on English Matters (EVoEM) (pdf)
★
Letter to Sir George Young MP
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