Government response to the Committee's report on The Governance of the Union (27 November 2024)

This is the government's response, published 29 November 2024.

Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.

The government shares the Committee's view on the importance of a strong relationship with the devolved governments, agrees with several of its conclusions, and says it is "committed to resetting the relationship", while it notes or will consider some recommendations.

• On the Sewel Convention, the government says it "has committed to working on a new Memorandum of Understanding on legislation", to "establish a mutual baseline for engagement".
• On upholding and reviewing intergovernmental relations, it says this is "a joint responsibility shared by the UK Government and the devolved governments", for the governments to "take forward and agree together".
• On transparency, it agrees this is important and says it "intends to publish routine transparency information on intergovernmental relations", while "respecting the confidentiality of intergovernmental meetings".
• On a memorandum to the Lords on devolution implications of bills, it will "consider the proposals" as part of its Sewel manifesto work and "can update the Committee on this work in due course".

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