Court rules against Holyrood Brexit Bill
JUDGES have ruled that parts of the Scottish Government’s Brexit Bill were outside its legislative powers.
The Supreme Court yesterday unanimously ruled that ‘as a whole’ the legislation was within Holyrood’s competence, but that MSPs had acted outwith their powers in relation to one section.
MSPs passed their own Brexit Bill in March, following a row with the UK Government over Westminster’s EU Withdrawal Bill.
However, the case was then referred to the Supreme Court by the UK Government’s law officers.
The seven judges also said that changes which were later made to the legislation by the UK Parliament meant a further 21 provisions could no longer stand.
The judgment led to a fresh clash between the Scottish and UK Governments, with both claiming victory over the ruling.
At a hearing in London in the summer, the Supreme Court was asked to rule on whether or not the European Union (Legal Continuity) (Scotland) Bill passed in March was constitutional and ‘properly within devolved legislative powers’.
Announcing the court’s decision yesterday, its president, Lady Hale, said that one section of the Bill was outside the Scottish parliament’s powers because it would have the effect of making UK law ‘conditional’ upon the consent of Scottish ministers.
She also said other sections of the Bill would ‘modify’ provisions of the UK Parliament’s own Brexit Bill, which came into force in June. Lady Hale added: ‘We wish to make it clear that it is no part of our function to determine or to influence the political questions which underlie this dispute. Our role is a purely legal one.’
Holyrood Constitutional Relations Secretary Mike Russell said he would now hold talks with opposition parties on how to proceed.
He added: ‘For the first time ever, UK law officers delayed an Act of the Scottish parliament from becoming law by referring it to the Supreme Court. Then the UK Government, for the first time ever, invited the UK Parliament to pass a Bill which they knew would cut the powers of the Scottish parliament without its consent.
‘The UK Government changed the rules of the game midway through the match.
‘This is an act of constitutional vandalism but that does not take away from the fact this judgment makes clear MSPs were perfectly entitled to prepare Scotland’s laws for Brexit at the time this Bill was passed.’
But the Tories, who opposed the legislation – put forward by Scottish ministers as an alternative to the EU Withdrawal Act – instead said the Bill should be scrapped.
Judges at the Supreme Court said that while the Scottish Bill ‘as a whole would not be outside the legislative competence of the Scottish parliament’, a key section of it could limit Westminster’s ability to make laws for Scotland.
Scottish Tory constitutional spokesman Adam Tomkins said: ‘Today’s Supreme Court ruling is a clear, unambiguous and of course unanimous judicial vindication for those of us who considered the SNP’s so-called continuity Bill unlawful.’
Mr Tomkins said the Supreme Court ‘has eviscerated the Bill, leaving it in tatters’.