Union at risk from Whitehall ‘complacency’ to devolution
● Constitutional experts deliver scathing assessment of approach to home nations
Deep-rooted complacency and the UK Government’s inability to adapt to the changing face of devolution has led to “ad-hoc” governance and the union on the brink of collapse, a new report from the University of Cambridge has said.
The paper, co-authored by former permanent secretary in the UK Government’s department for exiting the EU, Philip Rycroft, and Professor Michael Kenny, the director of the Bennet Institute, is a scathing assessment of Whitehall’s approach to the devolved nations.
It states that complacency around informal networks between governments and “benign fiscal policies” reflecting the Labour Party’s dominance at the start of devolution assumed the establishment of new parliaments would bring about no fundamental changes and required no new internal governance structures.
The report is highly critical of several administrations including David Cameron, Theresa May and Boris Johnson’s governments in offering “piecemeal” reform following the Scottish independence referendum, with Whitehall departments having “no sense that maintaining the Union is part of everyone’s job”.
It also stated that Brexit and the Covid-19 pandemic had highlighted the “inadequacy of the ad-hoc approach long adopted by the United Kingdom Governments”.
Prof Kenny said without a “major overhaul” of how Whitehall approaches the devolved nations, the Union is at“serious risk ”.
He said: “Existential threats to the Union, crystallised during the
Scottish referendum, and exacerbated by Brexit and coronavirus, keep exposing the inadequacy of the ad hoc approach long adopted by UK governments.
“Trying to undercut nationalism in the devolved territories by incrementally devolving new powers is no longer sustainable, and betrays the fundamentally un-strategic mindset which prevails in Westminster and Whitehall,” Professor Kenny continued.
“Without a major overhaul of the way in which central government approaches its relations with Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, this 300-year-old Union is at serious risk.”
Mr Rycroft, who also served as a senior civil servant in the Scottish Government before moving to Whitehall and is a senior visiting fellow at the Bennett Institute, said there is often a lack of consideration about policy impact on devolution and the union.
“The cost of getting things wrong on devolution is seen as somebody else’s problem for most Whitehall departments – even in the wake of Scotland’s referendum,” said Rycroft, a Senior Visiting Fellow at the Bennett Institute.
“There is little emotional engagement across government with the trends towards independence, no sense that maintaining the Union is part of everyone’s job.
“Concern for the territorial settlement is not in the bloodstream of the UK state the way it is in countries such as Spain or Canada.
The report argues for much greater awareness of devolved nations and states that an improved understanding of devolution should be a prerequisite for promotion within the civil service.
It also criticised the nature of interaction between the UK and the devolved nations during the pandemic and Boris Johnson’s “muscular brand of unionism”.
Mr Rycroft said: “There is no good justification for devolved ministers hearing about policies that will have significant knock-on effects for their own territories at the last minute. Yet it is still a regular occurrence.”
Prof Kenny added: “Effective co-operation in the early days of the pandemic suggests that devolution itself is not the root cause of widening divisions over the last year.
“It was dismantled by political decisions primarily made by Number 10.”
The UK government was contacted for a response.
A Scotsman poll last week found support and opposition to independence was split 50/50. However, as reported in our sister title Scotland on Sunday, fewer than one in five people believe independence is one of Scotland’s most important issues.
Respondents were asked to pick their three “most important issues facing Scotland”, with half stating the economy was one of the key topics.
Health was the second most-selected option, chosen by 45 per cent of Scots, followed by employment and welfare at 35 per cent.
Education was one of the most important issues for 31 per cent of people, then Brexit (25 per cent) and Scottish independence (19 per cent).