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 plans for the Scottish Parliament to be able to assume legislative competence over areas which are currently exercised by the EU and are not listed in schedule 5 of the Scotland Act 1998 after the UK leaves the EU.

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.