Recommendation 3

HM Government Acknowledged

Interim report recommendations: (7) Evidence heard on the role of the Office of the Secretary of State for Scotland (Scotland Office) echoes the findings of the previous Committee, which found that Scottish and UK Ministerial counterparts preferred to communicate directly, rather than via the Office of the Secretary of State for Scotland. While the Secretary of State and officials at the Scotland Office provided us with accounts of additional engagement with the Scottish Government, there is a continuing risk of the Scotland Office finding itself out the loop on UK-Scotland issues relating to the pandemic. (Paragraph 71 of interim report) (8) The Government must specify and define a clear role for the Office of the Secretary of State for Scotland in the context of COVID-19 and similar UK-wide emergencies. We understand that the Department is committed to being Scotland’s voice in Whitehall and has already arranged a series of communications between respective Ministers and officials in the Scottish and UK administrations. In that case, we think there is potential for it to play a formal coordination role in ensuring that relevant ministers in the UK and Scottish Governments are meeting regularly and are invited to all intergovernmental discussions. This may help fill the ‘vacuum’ in ministerial level communication between the UK and Scottish Governments that has been described to us. (Paragraph 72 of interim report) The final report summarises some of the evidence given by the Secretary of State for Scotland and the Office of the Secretary of State’s Director when they attended the evidence session on 17 September 2020. The Office has long had a clear role in relation to all kinds of emergencies affecting Scotland: • We advise UK departments on the devolution system and on the Scottish legal system. Second Special Report of Session 2019–21 5 • We ensure that Scotland is represented in both planning for and responding to emergencies. • We represent the views of Scottish stakeholders in the UK Government, and also, as appropriate, the views of the Scottish Government. A coordinated, ‘four nations’ approach to an emergency that respects the competence of the DAs to make separate decisions in devolved areas, such as public health, requires careful management. The Office is key to that management. The Office played an instrumental role in ensuring that (a) the Coronavirus Act 2020 covered the whole of the UK with appropriate respect for devolved competence, and (b) that it was possible to secure a Legislative Consent Motion in the Scottish Parliament for the devolved provisions in the Act. The UK Government can only deliver devolved functions in Scotland if there are appropriate Orders under the Scotland Act 1998 (section 93) passed by both the UK and the Scottish Parliaments. Those orders then enable agency agreements to be drawn up between the two administrations. To date, around 65% of the testing for COVID-19 carried out in Scotland has been provided and funded by the UK Government. The UK Government’s provision of this essential testing capacity, a devolved function, was made possible by an agency agreement under the Scotland Act. The Office has also coordinated the secondary legislation for other agency agreements to allow the UK Government to support the response in Scotland. These include the legislation for the agreements (a) to allow the Joint Biosecurity Centre to function in Scotland and (b) to enable the DHSC contact tracing app to operate in Scotland. (The Order in respect of the app was passed by both Parliaments before the Scottish Government announced that it was to adopt a different app.) The Office also advised on the subsequent agreements made in respect of the Joint Biosecurity Centre. We also provided wide ranging information to HM Treasury on how the UK Government’s macro-economic interventions were working in Scotland, such as the protection of the jobs of over 900,000 Scottish workers through our furlough and self- employed support schemes. The provision of this information was one of the reasons why modifications, such as part time furloughing and a more flexible approach to the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS), were introduced. Much of the work of representing the interests and views of Scottish stakeholders, including when appropriate the Scottish Government, is effective because it takes place quietly and behind the scenes. It was underrated by some of the Committee’s academic witnesses, precisely because it is not in the public domain.