TWO warnings in a single day have been issued over potential encroachment by Westminster on Scotland's devolved parliament.
First a cross-party committee of MSPs slammed a UK bill on post-Brexit support that they said could create new "conflict" between Holyrood and Westminster.
Now it has raised fears about a separate piece of legislation over professional qualifications for workers.
There will be a debate in Holyrood about the Professional Qualifications Bill legislative consent memorandum (LCM) tomorrow. That bill aims to give gives the UK Government the power to amend the varying arrangements between professions and doesn't differentiate between trades regulated by Holyrood — such as lawyers, teachers and some health and social service workers — and Westminster.
The Economy and Fair Work Committee says it has the same "key concerns" about that as with the separate Subsidy Control Bill. Both bills have been drawn up by UK ministers and the latter would set up a framework to allow the mutual recognition of overseas qualifications to be dealt with via regulations on a profession-by-profession basis.
But there are "substantive concerns" about the impact on Scotland's parliament, the committee says.
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Its convenor Claire Baker MSP said: "Although our committee welcome the latest amendments to the Bill, our key concerns remain.
"Despite the assurances of the UK Government that it does not intend to make regulations in areas of devolved competence without the agreement of the relevant devolved administrations, there is currently no requirement on the face of the bill for the UK Government to obtain consent. The Committee believes the assurances should be a commitment with statutory underpinning.
"We are also concerned that this bill would enable UK ministers to make regulations within the Scottish Parliament’s competence, yet it would exclude the Scottish Parliament from any formal scrutiny.
She went on: "We are disappointed that, just as with the Subsidy Control Bill LCM, the Scottish Government’s delayed introduction of this LCM gave us limited time for scrutiny.
"We call on the Scottish Government to ensure that all future LCMs be lodged in a timely manner to allow for appropriate scrutiny by committees."
Meanwhile, the subsidy legislation "presents the "risk" that the UK Government will intervene in devolved areas "without proper consultation or knowledge of local circumstances", the committee said – all except Tory members Alexander Burnett and Jamie Halcro Johnston, who dissented.
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On that, Baker commented: "The complete absence of detail on how this new subsidy control regime would work is not acceptable.
"In its current form, this new regime could see UK ministers cutting across the devolution settlement and intervening in devolved areas without consultation or knowledge of local circumstances.
"We find it wholly unsatisfactory that this bill would allow UK Government and UK ministers to legislate in a way which will have a direct impact on devolved areas of our economy, while bypassing scrutiny of the Scottish Parliament or Scottish ministers.
"But our concerns do not end with the impact on devolved matters. We have heard evidence that the proposed subsidy scheme could create an imbalance between communities at a local or regional level, who may not have the means or ability to compete for subsidy with larger businesses and orgs, and that will be the case across the UK."
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