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The West Lothian Question

The West Lothian question is a question posed by Tam Dalyell, MP for the Scottish constituency of West Lothian during the debate over Scottish devolution in the 1970s, and which is still relevant after the 1999 establishment of the Scottish Parliament. The name was coined in 1977 by Enoch Powell.

The question is twofold:

How can it be right that MPs elected to Westminster from Scottish constituencies have no ability to affect the issues of their constituents which have been devolved to the Scottish Parliament and  If power over Scottish affairs is devolved to a Scottish Parliament, how can it be right that MPs representing Scottish constituencies in the Parliament of the United Kingdom will have the power to vote on issues affecting England (including those that don't affect Scotland), but English MPs will not have the power to vote on Scottish issues?

With the creation of the Scottish Parliament, this anomaly has come into existence, though without great protest in England - yet.

While it seems unlikely that Scottish MPs will be prevented from voting on English domestic affairs, the number of MPs to which Scotland is entitled (which was previously disproportionately high for its population) was reduced at the United Kingdom general election, 2005, from 72 to 59.

Protests have been growing recently, especially after legislation for the creation of foundation hospitals in England, an extremely controversial policy, was passed due to the votes of Scottish MPs when a majority of English MPs had voted against. A key vote of proposals to introduce university top-up fees, in the Higher Education Act 2004 also passed only due to Scottish MPs voting (even though almost a third of the provisions of the bill directly extended to Scotland), and this has generated further calls for reform, especially as the policy directly affected the funding for Scottish universities, even though they are under the jurisdiction of the Scottish Parliament.


Reality of the West Lothian Question

Recently, with the new constitutional landscape in the UK questions have arisen over the legitimacy of the West Lothian Question - which was first posed back in the 1970's.

Many commentators point out that the principles of the West Lothian question are logically inconsistent. Fundamental to the UK Constitution is the principle of parliamentary sovereignty, that the Parliament of the United Kingdom at Westminster is the sovereign legislature of all nations of the United Kingdom. The Scottish Parliament was formed by statute - the Scotland Act 1998 - and is, thus, a creation of Westminster. The enactment of the Scotland Act 1998 conferred no sovereign status on the Scottish Parliament, and crucially has not changed the status of the UK Parliament as the supreme legislature of Scotland.

As a consequence critics argue that the legal ability of English MPs to vote on Scottish legislation has not been diminished by devolution. Furthermore some argue that it is simply not true that English MPs do not get to vote on issues that are purely within the legislative competence of the Scottish Parliament - the so-called devolved issues. The use of the Sewel Convention whereby the Scottish Parliament consents to Westminster legislating on issues that are technically devolved to it are an increasingly common feature with an average of a dozen bills per year passed by Westminster impingeing on the legislative competence of the Scottish Parliament.
Some examples of such legislation passed by Westminster include:

Sunday Working (Scotland) Act 2003,
Gender Recognition Act 2004,
Civil Partnerships Act 2004
Scottish Parliament (Constituencies) Act 2004,
Children Act 2004,
Higher Education Act 2004
Inquiries Act 2005,
Constitutional Reform Act 2005
Serious and Organised Crime Act 2005.

This is in addition to the many bills passed by Westminster pertaining to the reserved issues which are controlled Westminster for the whole of the United Kingdom, such as defence, national security, foreign affairs and monetary and economic issues.

A situation akin to that presented by the West Lothian Question did exist between 1921 and 1972, when there was a Parliament of Northern Ireland that legislated for Northern Ireland, whilst Northern Ireland continued to send MPs to Westminster, who could vote on matters affecting Great Britain only, although with disproportionately fewer MPs than would be expected from the relative populations. During this era Ulster Unionist Party was closely associated with the Conservative Party.

Proposed solutions

There are calls by some for a Devolved English Parliament. If this (and the existing Welsh Assembly) had full legislative powers, this would resolve the question. But so far there is little sign of this being wanted by the English. Others propose barring Scottish MPs from voting on matters that do not affect Scotland or cutting the number of Scottish MPs even further to about 40 (following the precedent of the creation of the Northern Ireland Parliament when the number of MPs at Westminster was dramatically cut to a number below the standard ratio of electorate to MPs for the rest of the country). They believe that the compromise of a reduced voice for Scotland in exchange for Scottish MPs being able to vote on English matters would be the most acceptable solution.

Another solution might be the dissolution of the United Kingdom leading to the constituent countries - England, Scotland and Wales - regaining their status as independent states. Whilst this is unlikely, it is not infeasible given the strength of the independence movement - especially in Scotland, and to a lesser extent Wales.
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