Chamber and committees

Good morning, and a very warm welcome to the 10th meeting in 2023 of the Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee. Our first agenda item is to decide whether to take item 3 in private. Do we agree to take item 3 in private?

Members indicated agreement.

Under our second agenda item, we will continue to take evidence as part of our inquiry into how devolution is changing post-European Union and how it should evolve to respond to the challenges and opportunities of the new constitutional landscape.

We are joined by Professor Aileen McHarg, professor of public law and human rights at Durham University. Welcome to the committee. Thank you very much for providing written evidence to the committee. You have highlighted a number of ways in which the legal and constitutional framework for devolution could be strengthened. Are there any priority areas among the suggestions that you have made? What are the biggest challenges?

Dr Allan has a supplementary question.

I am referring to both the Scottish Government and the UK Government. You talked about the nature of some of the decisions that were taken at Government level. Does the Parliament have a role to play in protecting the devolution settlement? Does it have a voice or a mechanism for influencing what happens if changes are proceeded with? Do the Governments have to lead on this, or is there any other way that we could do it?

Okay—you go first.

Okay. We have exhausted the committee’s questions. Thank you very much, Professor McHarg, for your written submission and your attendance at committee today. We will now move into private session.

I have a final question. Sarah Boyack mentioned the visit that we had from the Saxon State Parliament constitution committee earlier this week. Are there models or examples out there—albeit most countries have written constitutions, which we do not have—from which we could take best practice in dispute resolution? Could we look at some of the committees that have been set up elsewhere and the mechanisms that are available elsewhere to help us?

If I may make a final observation, you mentioned regional devolution for England. Part of the evidence that we have heard is that we will always have these particular issues as long as the UK legislature performs a function for the whole of the UK at the same time as it legislates for England and Wales in certain areas, and for England in many more areas. Do you see this leading to a splitting of the UK function, into a legislature for England, so that there would be four devolved nations, and an overarching UK Parliament, or is that very much a long-term and unrealistic view? How will devolution in England, whether it is on a city-wide or regional basis, impact on the very problems that we are talking about, when they have, at the moment, just the UK Government?

Can I ask a supplementary question before we move on? Is that okay?

On the Sewel convention, a lot of what we have covered has been about intergovernmental relations. Are the stresses on the Sewel convention a fundamental issue, or do you think that the personalities involved in Government relations at the moment might have an influence on what happens to the convention?