Elections for the Scottish Parliament take place today. The major parties contesting the election have all published manifestos setting out their policies: they contain numerous proposals to alter the devolution settlement or seek independence, change how parliament operates, improve democratic engagement, and reform standards and operations at the centre of government. In this post, Dave Busfield-Birch explains what changes have been proposed.  

Voters in Scotland go to the polls today to elect a new Scottish Parliament, and their choices could have significant constitutional repercussions. The major parties have made many manifesto commitments, and it is not possible to highlight every policy proposal that may have constitutional implications. This post, therefore, will limit itself to several key areas of constitutional interest, highlighting points of agreement (and disagreement) that may affect negotiations on government formation after the election is over. It also restricts its analysis to the manifestos of the following parties: Reform UK, Scottish Conservatives, Scottish Greens, Scottish Labour, Scottish Liberal Democrats and Scottish National Party (SNP).

Independence and Scotland’s relationship with Westminster

The Greens and the SNP want independence for Scotland, and to rejoin the European Union. The SNP’s manifesto position is that an SNP majority is a mandate for an independence referendum and that the UK government should devolve powers to enable the Scottish Parliament to legislate for such a poll. The Greens do not mention the word ‘referendum’, and its proposed route to independence is unclear from its manifesto.

Should independence not be achieved, the Greens want to establish ‘a forum for real collaboration across the nations’ and intend to push for the abolition of the UK Internal Market Act 2020. The Greens also want new powers for Scotland. Alongside specific commitments on matters such as the ability to tax share and dividend income, and the devolution of rail, drugs legislation and JobCentre Plus, the party states that it intends to ‘[i]nitiate the Section 30 process in the Scotland Act to call for the devolution of the remaining powers reserved to Westminster, including power over taxation, workers’ rights, energy regulation, migration, and foreign affairs’. The party’s position until that happens is that the Scottish Parliament should be ‘ambitious’ and legislate in areas where the Scotland Act is ‘ambiguous’ on devolved and reserved powers.

Labour does not mention the words ‘independence’ or ‘referendum’ in its manifesto, but is known to be pro-Union. Of the other parties, the Conservatives spend the most time talking about how to prevent it: by abolishing the position of Cabinet Secretary for the Constitution, legislating to prevent ‘spending taxpayers’ money on pro-independence propaganda’, and making all civil servants sign a pledge to be neutral on the question of independence when carrying out government work.

The Liberal Democrats state clearly that they oppose independence and another referendum, instead calling for a UK Constitutional Convention and ‘a new written Federal Constitution’. This would include the creation of ‘common frameworks’, a new dispute resolution process for resolving differences between nations, and a ban on the UK parliament unilaterally changing the powers of the devolved parliaments or passing laws in their areas of responsibility.

Reform does not mention less or more powers for Scotland, saying it is in favour of ‘a formal 10 yearly review’ of powers, to be undertaken by a joint Holyrood–Westminster committee.

The Scottish Parliament

Reform wants a smaller Scottish Parliament, which it intends to accomplish by cutting the number of First Past the Post constituencies from 73 to 57 (aligned to the existing Westminster constituencies). It makes no mention of changing the regional list system, through which a further 56 MSPs are currently elected. No other party has proposals to expand or reduce the parliament.

Standards in parliament are firmly on the political agenda. The recall of MPs by their constituents is proposed by the Conservatives, Greens, Labour, Liberal Democrats and Reform. Notably, the SNP does not have a manifesto commitment on this, despite being in favour of it in principle in the last parliament. In terms of how MSPs conduct themselves, the Conservatives want non-attendance in parliament to be covered by the right to recall, and Reform wants attendance and voting in person to be compulsory. The Liberal Democrats want to subject MSPs to safeguarding legislation to better protect vulnerable constituents and bring parliament in line with other professions. Labour intends to tighten the rules on second jobs and revise lobbying regulations but does not advocate specific proposals for either.

Labour is one of several parties making proposals intended to improve scrutiny. These include creating a rule of parliamentary privilege, giving committees greater powers to compel witnesses to attend and submit evidence, and instituting elections for conveners so that the people leading committees have the support of MSPs from other parties. Reform also supports electing conveners, proposes a maximum committee size of seven, and favours changes to standing orders to allow debates and question periods to be ‘more interactive and less performative bypermitting interventions and ad hoc questions’. The Conservatives want to improve scrutiny by creating dedicated bill committees for legislation, rather than requiring this work to be done by existing committees.

Elections and democratic engagement

The most significant change proposed in the area of elections and democratic engagement is probably the Liberal Democrat plan to change the voting system for MSPs to the Single Transferable Vote, which is the system used for local elections in Scotland.

The Scottish Conservatives want to re-enact a ban on voting by people in prison, which appears to be the only change to voter eligibility in any of the manifestos. The Greens want to create a system of automatic voter registration and to change how candidates are nominated, replacing the need to pay a cash deposit with a requirement instead to collect (an unspecified number of) signatures.

The Greens also want to ‘embed’ the use of citizens’ assemblies in public life. They propose ‘a standing national Climate Assembly’, a citizen’s assembly to develop proposals to reform the justice system, and pledge to support local and regional assemblies, ‘building on the success of the Dunfermline City Assembly model’. They also want to make greater use of participatory budgeting. The Liberal Democrats also want to establish national and local citizens’ assemblies, but make no specific proposals on how many, or what topics they might examine.

Government

Recent controversies have resulted in numerous proposals on ministerial standards. The Conservatives want to create an offence of misconduct in public office, and pass a Government Transparency Bill to ‘improve candour within the public sector’. The Liberal Democrats are proposing a new ‘duty to record’ to stop ‘the deletion of Covid WhatsApps or use of false statistics by SNP ministers’.

Several changes to the Ministerial Code are proposed. The Liberal Democrats want to enshrine it in legislation as part of an Accountability Act that would seek to ‘clamp down on scandal and incompetence’. Labour wants the Code overseen by an independent ethics adviser – whose remit would extend to special advisers and civil servants – and to include a public interest test for government legal action.

Recent concerns about the role of the Lord Advocate – who is both the head of prosecutions in Scotland, and a legal adviser to the Scottish government – have resulted in the Conservatives, Labour and Liberal Democrats proposing that those dual roles be separated. This would require legislation in Westminster.

As for the size and shape of government, Labour wants to create a ‘Scottish Treasury’ and form a Delivery Unit in the First Minister’s office, but also wants to make government smaller by reducing the number of ministers. The Conservatives are recommending ‘strict limits’ on the number of ministers and special advisers, as well as new rules to restrict the appointment of former ministers from the governing party to lead public bodies.

Quangos are much discussed. The Liberal Democrats want to review ‘the cluttered quango landscape’. Labour wants to reduce quango numbers by at least a third. The Conservative target is lower (one quarter) but is accompanied by a commitment that no new quango will be established unless another is abolished. Reform goes even further, promising to ‘shut down the Quangos’ and return their powers to ministers.

Civil servants are also in the minds of prospective ministers. Reform wants to ‘reboot’ the civil service by reviewing employment numbers and policies, and recruiting department heads from the private sector. The Conservatives want to reduce staff numbers to ‘2016 levels’, and to change pay practices, promising to review public sector exit packages and to require that large salaries are ‘personally approved by Scottish Ministers, who would have to conduct a value for money assessment before signing them off’.

Local government

Greater devolution within Scotland is a theme across most manifestos. Labour wants to pass a Local Democracy Act and ‘push power out of Holyrood’, with Scottish regions offered the opportunity to control local skills and employability schemes, transport, and housing. It is also proposing a consultation on ‘Regional Mayors’ for those areas that want one. Reform is willing to consider more directly elected mayors, promising to examine the viability of doing so for local councils.

The Conservatives, Liberal Democrats and Reform all want increases in local government powers. The Liberal Democrats are proposing more powers over local taxation, and Reform has committed to allowing councils to ‘raise their own revenue, decide their own spending and keep their own surpluses’. The Conservatives intend to pass a Local Power Bill to give councils ‘freedom to spend their budgets on your local priorities’ and prevent ministers from overturning local planning decisions.

Additionally, the Conservatives would amend the Councillors’ Code of Conduct to limit the ability of council officials to make complaints against elected councillors. A new Code of Conduct for staff would prohibit officials from ‘making or threatening to make complaints against elected councillors for challenging policy decisions or recommendations’.

A Human Rights Bill?

Alongside commitments to oppose UK policies on a range of matters related to civil liberties and discrimination, some parties have plans of their own on human rights policy. The SNP wants to introduce a Human Rights Bill to incorporate ‘a range of conventions’ into Scottish law. The manifesto acknowledges that the devolution settlement makes this difficult without the consent of UK ministers, but commits to moving ‘swiftly’ to do so following independence should Westminster resist in the interim. The Greens also propose such a bill – without saying if this would be within the parliament’s competence – and pledge, among other things, that it will include the creation of a Scottish Environmental Court to uphold a new ‘right to a healthy environment’.

Conclusion

The SNP’s past electoral successes and commitment to independence mean that the constitution has regularly been a major policy area in Scottish elections. The SNP, unlike Plaid Cymru in Wales, has a potential partner for independence in the Greens, but the other parties are united against it, as is the current UK government, and any party likely to replace Labour in Downing Street in the foreseeable future.

Independence is not the only issue where Westminster’s approval will be needed, and even for matters within the Scottish Parliament’s competence, manifesto commitments may have to give way to parliamentary maths and political realities, particularly if no single party can secure a majority. If constitutional change of any kind is to happen, it will require cross-party cooperation, regardless of who ends up being First Minister. 

This is the second in a two-part series of posts offering analysis of the parties’ manifestos in Wales and Scotland. The post on Welsh manifesto commitments on the constitution was published on Tuesday 5 May.

About the author

Dave Busfield-Birch is the editor of the Constitution Unit blog.

Featured image: Flags (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) by Jonnee,