Holyrood ‘should have role in developing post-Brexit laws’

The Scottish Parliament should have a role in adapting laws and regulations in areas currently governed by the EU after Brexit, a committee convenor has said.

Exterior view of the Scottish Parliament, Holyrood.

MSPs have called for the opportunity to scrutinise and agree on all policy areas, rather than having them “imposed” on devolved governments.

Holyrood’s finance and constitution committee has been examining the issue of “common frameworks” – establishing policy and regulatory approaches which are currently controlled by the European Union.

The committee has identified 111 areas of EU law as falling within the devolved competence of the Scottish Parliament in addition to 12 reserved areas subject to ongoing discussions between the UK and devolved governments.

Finance and constitution committee convener Bruce Crawford, MSP, said: “The parliaments and assemblies of the UK are key to providing transparency, scrutiny and accountability, so we’re firmly of the view that the Scottish Parliament should have a formal role in relation to the process for developing, agreeing and implementing legislative and non-legislative common frameworks.”