Scotland Act 1998
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| Long title | An Act to provide for the establishment of a Scottish Parliament and Administration and other changes in the government of Scotland; to provide for changes in the constitution and functions of certain public authorities; to provide for the variation of the basic rate of income tax in relation to income of Scottish taxpayers in accordance with a resolution of the Scottish Parliament; to amend the law about parliamentary constituencies in Scotland; and for connected purposes. |
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| Citation | 1998 Chapter 46 |
| Territorial extent | UK, except section 25 (witnesses and documents:offences) which extends only to Scotland |
| Dates | |
| Royal assent | 19 November 1998 |
| Commencement | Various dates from 19 November 1998 to 1 April 2000. |
| Other legislation | |
| Amended by |
Scottish Parliament (Constituencies) Act 2004 Constitutional Reform Act 2005 Scotland Act 2012 Wales Act 2014 Scotland Act 2016 |
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Status: Amended
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| Text of statute as originally enacted | |
| Revised text of statute as amended | |
The Scotland Act 1998 (1998 c. 46) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It is the Act which established the devolved Scottish Parliament.
The Act was amended by
The Act was introduced by the Labour government in 1998 after the Scotland referendum, 1997 showed that Scotland was in favour of both of the set questions, firstly for the creation of a parliament for Scotland and secondly, that this parliament should have tax varying powers. The Act creates the Scottish Parliament, sets out how Members of the Scottish Parliament are to be elected, makes some provision about the internal operation of the Parliament (although many issues are left for the Parliament itself to regulate) and sets out the process for the Parliament to consider and pass Bills which become Acts of the Scottish Parliament once they receive royal assent. The Act specifically declares the continued power of the UK Parliament to legislate in respect of Scotland; thereby upholding the concept of Westminster's absolute Parliamentary sovereignty.
The Act also provides for the creation of a 'Scottish Executive' though one of the early actions of the SNP administration that won power in the 2007 elections was to rebrand the Scottish Executive, as the group of Ministers and their civil servants had been known, as the Scottish Government. Despite the re-branding, the 'Scottish Executive' still uses the original description for a number of purposes (s.44 of the Scotland Act defines the nature of the body but does not use the words "shall be known as" with regard to a name as is the case with various other bodies whose names are thus fixed by statute). It consists of a First Minister and other Ministers appointed by the Queen with the approval of the Parliament, including the Lord Advocate and the Solicitor General for Scotland.
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