The Scotland Act 1978 was an Act of the

Parliament of the United Kingdom The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative suprema ...

intended to establish a Scottish Assembly as a

devolved Devolution is the statutory delegation of powers from the central government of a sovereign state to govern at a subnational level, such as a regional or local level. It is a form of administrative decentralization. Devolved territories ...

legislature A legislature is an assembly with the authority to make law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its p ...

for

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

. At a referendum held in the following year, the Act failed to gain the necessary level of approval required by an amendment, and was never put into effect.

Background

Following

Winnie Ewing Winifred Margaret Ewing (' Woodburn; born 10 July 1929) is a Scottish politician, lawyer and figure within the independence movement who served as President of the Scottish National Party from 1987 to 2005. Ewing was a Member of the Scottish ...

's groundbreaking win for the Scottish National Party in the

1967 Hamilton by-election The Hamilton by-election in Hamilton, Lanarkshire, Scotland, was held on 2 November 1967. It saw a surprise victory for the Scottish National Party candidate Winnie Ewing. The SNP took 46% of the vote in a constituency which they had not even con ...

, the United Kingdom government responded to the growing support for Scottish independence by setting up the Royal Commission on the Constitution, better known as the ''Kilbrandon Commission'' (1969–1973). In response to the Royal Commission's report, James Callaghan's Labour government brought forward proposals to establish a Scottish Assembly. In November 1977 a ''Scotland Bill'' providing for the establishment of a Scottish Assembly was introduced; it received the

Royal assent Royal assent is the method by which a monarch formally approves an act of the legislature, either directly or through an official acting on the monarch's behalf. In some jurisdictions, royal assent is equivalent to promulgation, while in oth ...

on 31 July 1978.

The proposed Scottish Assembly

Had the Scotland Act 1978 entered force, it would have created a Scottish Assembly with very limited legislative powers. There would have been a Scottish Executive headed by a "First Secretary", taking over some of the functions of the Secretary of State for Scotland. Two possible contenders for the post of First Secretary were

The Reverend The Reverend is an honorific style most often placed before the names of Christian clergy and ministers. There are sometimes differences in the way the style is used in different countries and church traditions. ''The Reverend'' is correctly ...

Geoff Shaw, leader of

Strathclyde Regional Council Strathclyde ( in Gaelic, meaning "strath (valley) of the River Clyde") was one of nine former local government regions of Scotland created in 1975 by the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 and abolished in 1996 by the Local Government ...

, and

Professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professors ...

John P. Mackintosh, MP – but both died in 1978. Assembly members would have been elected by the "

first past the post In a first-past-the-post electoral system (FPTP or FPP), formally called single-member plurality voting (SMP) when used in single-member districts or informally choose-one voting in contrast to ranked voting, or score voting, voters cast thei ...

" system. The Scottish Assembly would have had the power to introduce primary legislation, to be known as "Measures" (rather than Acts), within defined areas of competence. Meetings of the Scottish Assembly would have been held at the Old Royal High School in Regent Road, Edinburgh; the former school hall was adapted for use by the Scottish Assembly, including the installation of microphones and new olive green leather seating. Some other new offices would also have been created, such as a Comptroller and Auditor General for Scotland.

Referendum and repeal

The Scotland Act included a requirement for a "post-legislative"

referendum A referendum (plural: referendums or less commonly referenda) is a direct vote by the electorate on a proposal, law, or political issue. This is in contrast to an issue being voted on by a representative. This may result in the adoption of a ...

to be held in Scotland to approve the Act's coming into force. During its passage through Parliament, an

amendment An amendment is a formal or official change made to a law, contract, constitution, or other legal document. It is based on the verb to amend, which means to change for better. Amendments can add, remove, or update parts of these agreements. The ...

introduced by George Cunningham (a Scot who represented an English seat) added a further requirement that the approval at the referendum be by 40% of Scotland's total registered electorate, rather than by a simple majority. The referendum was held on 1 March 1979. A total of 1,230,937 (51.6%) voted at the referendum in favour of an Assembly, a narrow majority of about 77,400 over those voting against. However, this total represented only 32.9% of the registered electorate as a whole. The Labour government accepted that the Act's requirements had not been met, and that devolution would therefore not be introduced for Scotland. Under the terms of the Act, it was then

repeal A repeal (O.F. ''rapel'', modern ''rappel'', from ''rapeler'', ''rappeler'', revoke, ''re'' and ''appeler'', appeal) is the removal or reversal of a law. There are two basic types of repeal; a repeal with a re-enactment is used to replace the law ...

ed by a Statutory instrument to be approved by Parliament. The Scottish National Party subsequently voted against the government in a

vote of no confidence A motion of no confidence, also variously called a vote of no confidence, no-confidence motion, motion of confidence, or vote of confidence, is a statement or vote about whether a person in a position of responsibility like in government or mana ...

which led to the resignation of the

Callaghan government Callaghan most commonly refers to O'Callaghan, an Anglicized Irish surname. Callaghan may also refer to: Places * Callaghan, New South Wales, Australia * Callaghan, Edmonton, Canada * Callaghan, Virginia, United States * Callaghan, Texas, United ...

, and an election was called. The vote to approve the statutory instrument repealing the Act was not held until 20 June 1979, by which time a Conservative government had come to power under

Margaret Thatcher Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She was the first female British prime ...

. The Order-in-Council was subsequently made on 26 July 1979.

Postscript

In 1998 a new Scotland Act was passed, leading to the establishment of the Scottish Parliament. A key difference between the two Acts is that under the 1978 legislation a very limited number of specific powers would have been devolved to Scotland, whereas under the 1998 legislation it is the powers reserved to Westminster which are specifically limited; everything not mentioned in the 1998 Act is automatically the responsibility of the Scottish Parliament.

References

External links