Recommendation 138

We recommend that to increase confidence in the Sewel convention, as well as strengthening interparliamentary scrutiny of intergovernmental relations more generally, the House of 186 Institute for Government, Legislating by consent: How to revive the Sewel convention 187 QQ 176–77 (Professor Richard Wyn Jones) and Q 221 (Professor Jim Gallagher) 188 Q 108 (Michael Gove MP) 189 See also Constitution Committee, Devolution: Inter-Institutional Relations in the United Kingdom (2nd Report, Session 2002–03, HL Paper 28), para 130. The Committee said it found “it strange that an issue which is fundamentally about co-operation between legislatures has turned in practice into co-operation between executives.” 44 RESPECT AND CO-OPERATION: BUILDING A STRONGER UNION Lords should strengthen its scrutiny of bills that engage the Sewel convention as follows: (a) On introduction of a bill to the House of Lords which engages the Sewel convention, the Government should submit a memorandum to the House about the devolution implications, explain what engagement has taken place with the relevant devolved administrations. (b) In our scrutiny of the bill, the Committee will take into account the Government’s memorandum, progress in securing legislative consent and any further evidence or materials, including the view of a committee of a relevant devolved legislature, we consider necessary. As the Committee has done previously,190 we may occasionally advise the House on the wisdom of proceeding with a bill in the absence of legislative consent.191 Depending on the timing of each devolved legislature’s consideration of a legislative consent memorandum and motion, including the possibility of amendments requiring the consideration of supplementary memorandums and motions, we might have to issue a report at a later stage. (c) The Procedure and Privileges Committee should consider if a devolved legislature’s consent, or lack of consent, should receive greater prominence in House of Lords Busin