Holyrood’s Finance & Constitution Committee has launched a call for views on the UK Government’s controversial Internal Market Bill, which was was introduced at Westminster on 9 September.
According to its explanatory notes, the purpose of the Bill is to “preserve the UK internal market, providing continued certainty for people and businesses to work and trade freely across the whole of the UK.”
All parts of the Bill trigger the need for legislative consent from the Scottish Parliament – but the Scottish Government has indicated it will not recommend that consent be given.
The Finance & Constitution Committee is therefore seeking views from all interested organisations and individuals to help inform its parliamentary scrutiny of the Bill and of the Scottish Government’s legislative consent memorandum.
The deadline for submissions is 24 September 2020.
Finance & Constitution Committee Convener Bruce Crawford MSP said: “The creation of a UK internal market and how it operates will impact on a wide range of Scottish organisations, including Scottish businesses – especially food production and agriculture, environmental and consumer organisations, as well as the third and voluntary sector and the wider public.
“It is vital therefore that we hear from people who are going to be affected by this Bill, but we only have until 24 September to do so. This is time critical.”
The Committee is scrutinising the UK Internal Market Bill as well as the forthcoming Legislative Consent Memorandum.
In order to inform its scrutiny, the Committee is seeking views, especially in the following areas:
- Impact on the Devolution Settlement
- Operation of the internal market
- Enforcement, Governance and decision taking
- Funding
- Secondary Legislation and Parliamentary scrutiny.
- More information on how to respond can be found here on the committee’s Call for Evidence page: https://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/CurrentCommittees/116038.aspx
Oral evidence on the Bill will begin later this month.
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