Select committee: Constitution Committee
Recommendation 138
10th Report - Respect and Co-operation: Building a Stronger Union for the 21st century
Published 20 Jan 2022
Constitution Committee Future Governance of the UK All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
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
From: Constitution Committee, 10th Report - Respect and Co-operation: Building a Stronger Union for the 21st century, 20 January 2022
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 2 September 2022 (deadline 20 March 2022).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government welcomes the Committee's report and shares its aim of a stronger Union, agreeing with some recommendations, declining others and giving a mix of commitments and 'will consider' responses on the rest.
- On the Sewel convention, the government says it "will carefully consider the Committee's recommendations" in its discussions with devolved counterparts. On the Cabinet Manual, it intends to publish a revised draft "within this Parliament".
- On intergovernmental relations, it "notes" that the IGR review assures a Prime Minister and Heads of Devolved Governments Council meeting "at least annually", and that this does not preclude more frequent meetings.
- It does not intend to establish an English devolution task force, pointing instead to ongoing engagement on the Levelling Up White Paper. On the Ministerial Code, it says it "will consider" the recommendation for the next version but does not think revision "is necessary".
- On funding pots for local government, it agrees that effective central coordination matters and will "set out a plan for streamlining the funding landscape this year".