The Scotland Act 2016 (c. 11) is 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 ...

. It sets out amendments to the

Scotland Act 1998 The Scotland Act 1998 (c. 46) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which legislated for the establishment of the devolved Scottish Parliament with tax varying powers and the Scottish Government (then Scottish Executive). It was o ...

and devolves further powers to

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 ...

. The legislation is based on recommendations given by the report of the

Smith Commission The Smith Commission was announced by Prime Minister David Cameron on 19 September 2014 in the wake of the 'No' vote in the 2014 Scottish independence referendum. The establishment of the commission was part of the process of fulfilling The Vow ...

, which was established on 19 September 2014 in the wake of the Scottish independence referendum.

The Act

The act gives extra powers to the Scottish Parliament and the Scottish Government, This article contains quotations from this source, which is available under th
Open Government Licence v3.0
© Crown copyright. most notably: * The ability to amend sections of the

which relate to the operation of the Scottish Parliament and the Scottish Government within the United Kingdom including control of its electoral system (subject to a two-thirds majority within the parliament for any proposed change). * The ability to use such amendment to devolve powers to the Scottish Parliament and Scottish Ministers over areas such as

abortion Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus. An abortion that occurs without intervention is known as a miscarriage or "spontaneous abortion"; these occur in approximately 30% to 40% of pre ...

, welfare foods, onshore oil and gas activity, rail franchising,

energy efficiency Energy efficiency may refer to: * Energy efficiency (physics), the ratio between the useful output and input of an energy conversion process ** Electrical efficiency, useful power output per electrical power consumed ** Mechanical efficiency, a ra ...

, and advice. * Management of the

Crown Estate The Crown Estate is a collection of lands and holdings in the United Kingdom belonging to the British monarch as a corporation sole, making it "the sovereign's public estate", which is neither government property nor part of the monarch's priv ...

in Scotland. * Control over

Air Passenger Duty Air Passenger Duty (APD) is an excise duty which is charged on the carriage of passengers flying from a United Kingdom or Isle of Man airport on an aircraft that has an authorised take-off weight of more than 5.7 tonnes or more than twenty se ...

in Scotland. * Enhanced control over 8 social security benefits including Best Start Grant, Carer's Assistance, Cold Spell Heating Assistance, Disability Assistance, Discretionary Housing Payments, Employment Injury Assistance, Funeral Expenses Assistance, Winter Heating Assistance and the housing elements of

Universal Credit Universal Credit is a United Kingdom social security payment. It is means-tested and is replacing and combining six benefits for working-age households with a low income: income-related Employment and Support Allowance, income-based Jobseeker' ...

and also the ability to top up reserved benefits. * Substantial control over

income tax An income tax is a tax imposed on individuals or entities (taxpayers) in respect of the income or profits earned by them (commonly called taxable income). Income tax generally is computed as the product of a tax rate times the taxable income. Tax ...

including Income Tax rates and bands on non-savings and non-dividend income.

Permanence of the Scottish Parliament and Scottish Government

This Act recognises the Scottish Parliament and a Scottish Government as permanent among UK's constitutional arrangements, with a referendum required before either can be abolished. However, according to some commentators, the act institutes a weak statutory mechanism, which does not stipulate provisions or guarantees for such a referendum, or makes duties of Crown Ministers in this respect publicly answerable to the Scottish electorate. # The Scottish Parliament and the Scottish Government are a permanent part of the United Kingdom's constitutional arrangements. # The purpose of this section is, with due regard to the other provisions of this Act, to signify the commitment of the Parliament and Government of the United Kingdom to the Scottish Parliament and the Scottish Government. # In view of that commitment it is declared that the Scottish Parliament and the Scottish Government are not to be abolished except on the basis of a decision of the people of Scotland voting in a referendum.

Amendments

About 120 amendments and new clauses were lodged on the bill by opposition parties but these were rejected by the Commons.

Fiscal framework

During the passage of the bill, almost a full year of negotiations took place between the Scottish and UK Governments concerning the fiscal framework that accompanied it. This was necessary because of the intention to reduce the block grant given to the Scottish government by

HM Treasury His Majesty's Treasury (HM Treasury), occasionally referred to as the Exchequer, or more informally the Treasury, is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for developing and executing the government's public finance policy and ...

to take account of the additional income the Scottish government will receive through retaining a portion of the revenues from income tax that is generated in Scotland. The

said that there should be “no detriment” to either government in this context, something which is technically difficult to achieve. A Scottish government proposal was that future adjustment to the block grant should be based on the “per capita index”, which takes into account the growth in tax receipts across the UK, not just Scotland. This is significant because Scotland's economy and population were not growing as fast as the UK's. However, the Treasury position was that this would be unfair to the rest of the UK.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Scotland Act 2016 Taxation in Scotland Public finance of Scotland Road transport in Scotland Scottish devolution Constitution of the United Kingdom United Kingdom Acts of Parliament 2016 March 2016 events in the United Kingdom Acts of the Parliament of the United Kingdom concerning Scotland 2016 in Scotland

The Act

Permanence of the Scottish Parliament and Scottish Government

Amendments

Fiscal framework

See also

References