United Kingdom Internal
Market Act 2020 (Exemptions)
2. Gillian Mackay (Central
Scotland) (Green)
To ask the Scottish Government whether the United Kingdom
Government has communicated any intention to provide exemptions
to the United Kingdom Internal Market Act 2020 in relation to
legislation passed by the Scottish Parliament. (S6O-02229)
The Cabinet Secretary for
Constitution, External Affairs and Culture ()
The United Kingdom Internal Market Act 2020 radically undermines
the devolution settlement in Scotland and was imposed on this
Parliament without its consent. We can see the outcome most
clearly with the Deposit
return scheme—the bill that this Parliament passed is
now threatened by the 2020 act, placing the whole scheme at risk,
including significant industry investment. Regrettably, the UK
Government has yet to reach a decision on excluding Scotland’s
Deposit
return scheme from the act.
We have been engaging with the UK Government on this issue for
nearly two years now. UK ministers have acknowledged that we have
followed the agreed exclusions process. We cannot wait any longer
in providing businesses with the clarity that they urgently need.
We need a positive decision from the UK Government, and we need
it now.
Gillian
Mackay
I have previously welcomed the creation of 140 new jobs in
Motherwell as part of the DRS. Those are just
some of the hundreds of jobs that are being created across
Scotland as a result of the scheme. However, the jobs are now at
risk because of the UK Government’s deliberate delay in excluding
the scheme from the 2020 act.
Many other issues are being considered that might need such an
exclusion, including a potential ban on disposable vapes. The
common frameworks are meant to provide a forum for timely and
collaborative decision making. Does the cabinet secretary agree
that the DRS experience has shown those to be
ineffective and that that could put at risk some of the public
health and environmental measures that we are trying to take?
I agree with the member. The Scottish Government warned that the
2020 act would undermine devolution and that it would create
confusion and uncertainty for businesses. Sadly, we have been
proven right, as the example from the member’s region shows.
Brexit has been used as a pretext for eroding devolution and the
powers of the Scottish Parliament. The common frameworks offer
one of the few options that are available to us for engagement on
mitigating some of the effects of a Brexit that Scotland did not
vote for.
The Scottish Government has spent a great deal of time trying to
make common frameworks work as intended. We now need the UK
Government to show a similar commitment to take full account of
the work that has been undertaken collaboratively through the
common framework, to agree to an 2020 act exclusion and to lift
the threat of the act from Scotland’s Deposit
return scheme.
Alasdair Allan (Na
h-Eileanan an Iar) (SNP)
Does the cabinet secretary believe that the tensions arising from
the 2020 act demonstrate that, under Westminster’s control,
Scotland’s devolution settlement can be undermined at the whim of
the UK Government, particularly by any hypothetical Secretary of
State for Scotland who might harbour a scarcely concealed desire
to act like a governor-general?
As I have noted, a Brexit that Scotland did not vote for is being
used to roll back the powers of a Parliament that Scotland did
vote for. The 2020 act, which was imposed on this Parliament
without its consent, is the result. Despite that, we have acted
in good faith to mitigate the act’s worst effects, and we have
been engaging through common frameworks to that end. That is what
we are doing in respect of Scotland’s Deposit
return scheme. We need the UK Government to finally
recognise the evidence that has been gathered through the common
framework, to agree to an exclusion and to remove the threat that
the act poses to the scheme.
UK ministers have acknowledged that the Scottish Government has
followed the agreed procedure. The fact that we are still waiting
for a decision shows the vulnerability of the devolution
settlement and the ability of the Scottish Parliament to use its
powers to benefit the people of this country.
