Oral Answers to Questions

Deidre Brock Excerpts

Wednesday 29th March 2023 Commons Chamber

The Secretary of State was asked—

[Deidre Brock (Edinburgh North and Leith) (SNP)]

1. What recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of the operation of the devolution settlement.

[Drew Hendry (Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey) (SNP)]

6. What recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of the operation of the devolution settlement.

[The Secretary of State for Scotland (Mr Alister Jack)]

I take this opportunity to congratulate Humza Yousaf on becoming Scotland’s new First Minister. I look forward to working with him. I heard him say that he wanted to put the independence drive into “fifth gear”; I would gently remind him that most Scots actually want him to put it into reverse and to work with the United Kingdom to tackle the issues that really matter to them, such as cost of living pressures and growing our economy.

The devolution settlement gives Scotland the best of both worlds. Scotland benefits from the wide influence and economic strength of the UK, while also enjoying considerable devolved powers in vital areas such as health, education and justice to tailor policies to meet the needs of people in Scotland.

[Deidre Brock]

In his response to the hon. Member for Blaydon (Liz Twist) on 22 February, the Secretary of State claimed that the Scottish Government had not asked for an exemption from the UK Internal Market Act 2020 for the Scottish deposit return scheme. The Scottish Government have since published the timeline to show that that is incorrect and that the proposal has been under detailed discussion within the resources and waste common framework since last October, with the final detailed case for exclusion presented on 13 February. In the light of that, will he correct the record and apologise for inadvertently misleading Parliament?