Question to the Scotland Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, pursuant to his oral contribution of 1 March 2017, Official Report, column 280, whether he intends to bring forward primary legislation to devolve further powers to the Scottish Parliament.

The Scottish devolution settlement was created in the context of the UK’s membership of the EU. As we leave the EU, our priority will be ensuring the right powers are returned to Westminster and the right powers are passed to the devolved administrations. Our guiding principle will be ensuring that no new barriers to living and doing business are created within the United Kingdom. On this basis we will work with the devolved administrations to determine the level best placed to make new laws and policies on these issues. We have already committed that no decisions currently taken by the devolved administrations will be removed from them and we will use this opportunity to ensure more decisions are devolved.