Вопрос 17: What are the devolved national legislatures of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland?

Each of the three regional devolved parts of governance in the UK, in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales, because of the bodies' functions, must be seen in terms of the political concept of The Separation of Powers to be part of the Legislature of the United Kingdom. This is a recent development in the make up of the Legislature of the United Kingdom from the 1990s, since there are legislative members of the Northern Ireland Assembly, and the other devolved governances, who are not Members of Parliament. The central UK Parliament had been the only legislative body in The UK. This is a substantial amendment to the Legislature of The United Kingdom, since it is not required of persons to be Members of Parliament anymore to legislate within the nation.

The Northern Ireland Assembly (Irish: Tionól Thuaisceart Éireann,[1] Ulster Scots: Norlin Airlann Semmlie)[2] is the devolved legislature of Northern Ireland. It has power to legislate in a wide range of areas that are not explicitly reserved to the Parliament of the United Kingdom, and to appoint the Northern Ireland Executive. It sits at Parliament Buildings at Stormont in Belfast.

Stormont was given power to legislate over almost all aspects of Northern Ireland life, with only a few matters excluded from its remit: succession to the Crown, making of peace or war, armed forces, honours, naturalisation, some central taxes and postal services were the most important (a full list is in section 4 of the Government of Ireland Act 1920). The Parliament did not try to infringe the terms of the Government of Ireland Act; on only one occasion did the United Kingdom government advise the King to withhold Royal Assent.

The Scottish Parliament (Scottish Gaelic: Pàrlamaid na h-Alba; Scots: Scottish Pairlament)[1][2][3][4] is the devolved national, unicameral legislature of Scotland, located in the Holyrood area of the capital, Edinburgh.

The Scotland Act 1998, which was passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom and given Royal Assent on 19 November 1998,[46] governs the functions and role of the Scottish Parliament and delimits its legislative competence. For the purposes of parliamentary sovereignty, the Parliament of the United Kingdom at Westminster continues to constitute the supreme legislature of Scotland,[47]; however, under the terms of the Scotland Act, Westminster agreed to devolve some of its responsibilities over the domestic policy of Scotland to a new directly elected Scottish Parliament.[47] Such matters are known as "devolved matters" and include education, health, agriculture and justice.[48] The Scotland Act enabled the Scottish Parliament to pass primary legislation on these issues. A degree of domestic authority, and all foreign policy, remains at present with the UK Parliament in Westminster.[48] The Scottish Parliament has the power to pass laws and has limited tax-varying capability.[49] Another of the roles of the Parliament is to hold the Scottish Government to account.

The specific devolved matters are all subjects which are not explicitly stated in Schedule 5 to the Scotland Act as reserved matters. All matters that are not specifically reserved are automatically devolved to the Scottish Parliament.[48] Most importantly, this includes agriculture, fisheries and forestry, economic development, education, environment, food standards, health, home affairs, Scots law – courts, police and fire services, local government, sport and the arts, transport, training, tourism, research and statistics and social work.[48] The Scottish Parliament has the ability to alter income tax in Scotland by up to 3 pence in the pound.[49]

Reserved matters are subjects that are outside the legislative competence of the Scotland Parliament.[49] The Scottish Parliament is unable to legislate on such issues that are reserved to, and dealt with at, Westminster (and where Ministerial functions usually lie with UK Government ministers). These include abortion, broadcasting policy, civil service, common markets for UK goods and services, constitution, electricity, coal, oil, gas, nuclear energy, defence and national security, drug policy, employment, foreign policy and relations with Europe, most aspects of transport safety and regulation, National Lottery, protection of borders, social security and stability of UK's fiscal, economic and monetary system

English law is regarded as a common law system, with no major codification of the law. Since devolution in 2006, the Welsh Assembly has had the authority to draft and approve some laws outside of the UK Parliamentary system to meet the specific needs of Wales. Under powers conferred by Legislative Competency Orders agreed by all parliamentary stakeholders, it is able to pass laws known as Assembly Measures in relation to specific fields, such as health and education. As such, Assembly Measures are a subordinate form of primary legislation, lacking the scope of UK-wide Acts of Parliament, but able to be passed without the approval of the UK parliament or Royal Assent for each 'act'. Through this primary legislation, the Welsh Assembly Government can then also draft more specific secondary legislation. With devolution, the ancient and historic Wales and Chester court circuit was also disbanded and a separate Welsh court circuit was created to allow for any Measures passed by the Assembly.