Devolution Flashcards
What powers did the Scotland Act 1998 give to the Scottish Parliament
- Primary Legislative Powers
- THe ability to raise income tax by up to 3p in the pound (Scottish Variable Rate - SVR)
Give 5 examples of primary legislative powers devolved to Scotland following the 1998 Scotland Act
- Law and Order
- Health
- Education
- Environment
- Transport
What powers did the 2012 Scotland Act give to the Scottish Parliament?
- Ability to lower or raise income tax by up to 10p in the pound (Scottish Rate of Income Tax - SRIT)
- Borrow up to 5 billion pounds to set up its own tax authority
What powers did the 2016 Scotland Act give to the Scottish Parliament?
- Further major transfer of powers to Holyrood:
- Equal opportunities
- Abortion laws
- Speed limits
- Gaming machines
- Create income tax rates across any number of bands
- Make its own laws regarding who could vote for the Scottish Parliament - subject to a 2/3 vote by the Holyrood Parliament
What is the name of Scotland’s Parliament?
Holyrood
Why did Scotland receive further power in 2016?
Part of a promise of the ‘No’ campaign during the Scottish Independence Referendum
Give an example of Scotland exercising devolved power
They merged police forces into a centralised form, for budgeting and logistical reasons
Give an example that displays the lack of power the Scottish Government has
Westminster shut down the Gender Reform Act that was proposed by Scotland
What powers did the 1998 Government of Wales Act give Wales
- Set up Welsh Assembly
- Gained the ability to devise secondary legislation in specific areas (broadly equivalent to those held by the Secretary of State for Wales)
Give 5 examples of secondary legislative powers devolved to Wales following the 1998 Government of Wales Act
- Agriculture
- Fisheries
- Education
- Housing
- Highways
What powers did the 2006 Government of Wales Act devolve to the Welsh Assembly
- Request further power from Westminster
- Gain primary legislative powers if approved by referendum
- Set up an executive body called the Welsh Assembly Government (now called Welsh Government)
What powers did the 2014 Wales Act devolve?
Tax raising and replacement powers
- Stamp Duty
- Business Rates
- Landfill Tax
What powers did the 2017 Wales Act devolve?
- Greater primary legislative powers
- Control over electoral system (subject to a 2/3 majority in the government)
- Gained the power to vary the rate of income tax by up to 10p on the pound - setting up the Welsh Revenue Authority
- The power to change its name - which it did in 2020 to Senned Cymru
When did the Good Friday Deal occur?
Good Friday 1998
How did the Good Friday Deal achieve?
A devolved government in which power would be shared between the nationalists and the unionists in Northern Ireland
How did the Good Friday Agreement ensure no one party would gain too much power
- STV was selected as the voting system, which provided multiparty constituencies where multiple different representatives, representing different beliefs (Protestant and Catholic) can represent one constituency
- Power sharing - the first minister is the leader of the largest party and the Deputy First Minister is the leader of the second largest party
What is the name of the Northern Irish assembly
Storemont
What powers does Storemont have?
- Primary legislative (the ability to write laws)
- Minor tax raising powers (much less than the other two) however corporation tax was devolved in 2015
Name 4 of the main parties in Northern Ireland
- Democratic Unionist Party (DUP)
- Ulster Unionist Party
- Sinn Fein
- Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP)
What are the issues with the power sharing agreement
It has led to the suspension of the assembly 3 of the 7 times it has been formed - most recently from 2022-2024 where after losing the election, the DUP refused to assent to the election of the speaker, which prevented the assembly from appointing a new executive
Name the 3 times Storemont was suspended
- 2002-2007
- 2017-2020
- 2022-2024
Give 5 policies that the Westminster government reserves
- Foreign Policy
- Immigration
- Defence
Explain how COVID displayed the devolved power
The rules differed between the regions
- England allowed schools to open 1st June
- Scotland allowed schools to open 31st August
- Wales allowed schools to open in September
- Northern Ireland allowed schools to open in September
Give 3 arguments for a devolved English government
- It would bring parity across the UK regarding devolution
- An English Parliament could be located away from the capital and thus reduce London’s dominance
- It would provide a solution to the West Lothian question
Give 3 arguments against a devolved English government
- Insufficient public demand - a referendum to set up an elected assembly for the northeast was rejected with a majority of 78% in 2004
- There would be an imbalance in the union as 85% of the UK’s population is in England - no other federal system has one region that is so dominant within the whole nation
- The West Lothian question has already been resolved by EVEL
Give an example of a devolved power overriding that of Westminster
- In 2020, BoJo announced plans to build a relief road for a section of the M4 in South Wales.
- However, similar plans had already been scrapped by the Labour government in charge after they declared a climate emergency in 2016
- The Welsh Government argued that transport was an entirely devolved issue so the prime minister had no say in road building in Scotland
