The Scottish Political System Since Devolution From New Politics to the New Scottish Government Paul Cairney imprint-academic.com Copyright © Paul Cairney, 2011 The moral rights of the author have been asserted. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without permission, except for the quotation of brief passages in criticism and discussion. Published in the UK by Imprint Academic, PO Box 200, Exeter EX5 5YX, UK Published in the USA by Imprint Academic, Philosophy Documentation Center PO Box 7147, Charlottesville, VA 22906-7147, USA ISBN 9781845402020 A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library and US Library of Congress For my lovely partner Linda, our beautiful children, Evie, Alfie and Frankie, and our smelly but handsome dog (who can be seen here: http://smallvillagebigdog.wordpress.com/ ) Table of Contents List of Tables v List of Abbreviations vi Preface ix 1. Introduction 1 2. Political Parties and Elections in Scotland 19 3. The Scottish Parliament and Scottish Government: Does Minority Government Make a Difference? 39 4. From Scottish Executive to Scottish Government 59 5. Intergovernmental Relations: Scotland, the UK and the EU 85 6. Intergovernmental Relations and Government Beyond the Centre 117 7. Changes in Public Attitudes 143 8. Changes in Public Policy 175 9. Finance 203 10. Changes in the Constitution 221 11. Conclusion: Has Devolution Been a Success? 241 References 259 Index 270 List of Tables 2.1 UK General Elections, Results in Scotland, 1945–2010 25 2.2 Scottish Parliament Election Results 1999–2011 26 2.3 Westminster and Scottish Parliament Elections, Labour and SNP, 1997–2011 27 5.1 Reserved and Devolved Policy Areas 87 7.1 Forced/ Best Choice National Identity Preferences 1974–2007 146 7.2 Moreno Question 1986–2009 146 7.3 Free Choice National Identity 1997–2003 147 7.4 Constitutional preferences in Scotland 1998–2005 150 7.5 Constitutional preferences in Scotland 1997–2009 150 7.6 Support for Scottish Independence 1998–2009 152 7.7 Support for a Separate Scottish State, 2003–7 153 7.8 Support for a Negotiated Independence Settlement, 2007–11 154 7.9 Who ought to have (who has) the most influence over the way Scotland is run? 158 7.10 ‘Perceived Impact of Scottish Parliament on Scotland’s Voice in the Union’ 159 7.11 Trust in Scottish and UK Governments to work in Scotland’s interests 1999–2007 160 7.12 The Scottish Parliament has achieved: 161 7.13 The effect of the Scottish Parliament on the way that Britain is governed, 2000–3 162 List of Abbreviations AMS Additional Member System ASBO Anti-social Behaviour Order CAP Common Agricultural Policy (EU) CCR Collective cabinet responsibility CCT Compulsory Competitive Tendering CFP Common Fisheries Policy (EU) COSLA Convention of Scottish Local Authorities CPD Continuous Professional Development CSG Consultative Steering Group DCA Deparment for Constitutional Affairs ECHR European Convention on Human Rights ECtHR European Court of Human Rights EIS Educational Institute for Scotland EU European Union EYF End Year Flexibility (Scottish Executive savings from assigned budget) FM First Minister FOI Freedom of information HMIe Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Education IGR Intergovernmental relations JMC Joint Ministerial Committee LCM Legislative Consent (Sewel) Motion LSVT Large scale voluntary transfer (council housing stocks) LTS Learning and Teaching Scotland MLG Multi-level governance MMP Mixed Member Proportional (electoral system) MOU Memorandum of Understanding MP Member of Parliament (Westminster, UK) MPA Ministerial Parliamentary Aide (later Parliamentary Liaison Officer) MSP Member of the Scottish Parliament NCT Negotiating Committee for Teachers NDPB Non Departmental Public Body (quango) NEBU Non-Executive Bills Unit NHS National Health Service NICE National Institute for health and Clinical Excellence PFI Private Finance Initiative PPP Public Private Partnerships PR Proportional representation PSA Public Service Agreement Quango (QNG) Quasi–autonomous Non-Governmental Organisation SCC Scottish Constitutional Convention SCF Scottish Civic Forum SCVO Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations SEPA Scottish Environmental Protection Agency SFT Scottish Futures Trust SMC Scottish Medicines Consortium SNCT Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers SNP Scottish National Party SOA Single Outcome Agreement SPADs Special advisers SPCB Scottish Parliament Corporate Body SPICe Scottish Parliament Information Centre SQA Scottish Qualifications Authority SSP Scottish Socialist Party STUC Scottish Trades Union Congress STV Single transferable vote (not Scottish Television) Preface I wanted to start the book with something punchy about the importance of Scottish devolution. I settled on ‘Devolution in 1999 was a major event in Scottish politics’ but, as a careful academic, instantly felt the need to qualify this statement to death—which would defeat the purpose. Instead, I decided to qualify it here. There are two standard qualifications. The first is that devolution is a ‘process, not an event’. This statement is generally attributed to former Welsh Secretary Ron Davies who used it to assure Welsh people that their initial devolution settlement would be improved as devolution became popular and its institutions and politicians more mature. However, it is also used by commentators in Scotland to counter the sense of a devolution ‘settlement’ which will go no further. Devolution is going further even if independence doesn’t happen. Second, we play down the importance of that event in two main ways. We identify points of continuity in Scottish politics, suggesting that administrative devolution existed long before political devolution and that key institutions—relating to education, local government, the legal system and the church—are decades or centuries old. Indeed, Kellas’ (1989) famous argument is that a ‘Scottish Political System’ existed before 1999. We also question the novelty of ‘new politics’, a rather vague term generally used to describe our hopes and dreams regarding devolution (Mitchell, 2000). But, still, devolution in 1999 was a major event in Scottish politics. We can say the same for the next sentence on the shift from a unitary to a quasi-federal state, and then my suggestion that we have a new political system. These are problematic statements but I don’t want you to fall asleep before I get past my introductory paragraph. Just go with it if you know the unitary/union state/quasi-federal literature or the political system debate already, ignore it, or read up on it (I recommend McGarvey and Cairney, 2008) and come back to this book later. This study of Scottish devolution draws heavily from the devolution monitoring programme led by Robert Hazell in the UCL’s Constitution x The Scottish Political System Since Devolution Unit. The Scottish Devolution Monitoring effort has been led by Graham Leicester, James Mitchell, Peter Jones, Akash Paun, Charlie Jeffery, Nicola McEwen, and Paul Cairney (also note the Constitution Unit’s ‘Devolution and Health’ reports, which ran from 1999–2001). There have been many contributors to the individual parts of the Scottish reports on which I draw: David Bell, Eberhard Bort, Julie Brown, Paul Cairney, Alex Christie, John Curtice, John Harris, Charlie Jeffery, Michael Keating, Peter Lynch, Lynne MacMillan, Nicola McEwen, Neil McGarvey, James Mitchell, Akash Paun, Kirsty Regan, Nicholas Rengger, Jane Saren, Philip Schlesinger, David Scott, Mark Shephard, Alan Trench, Barry Winetrobe, and Alex Wright. I would like to take this opportunity to thank them for their hard work. I have this nagging feeling that some contributors will think that I am just pinching their work and calling it my own, when in fact I am trying to get the most out of these reports. In particular, I would like to thank Neil McGarvey and Barry Winetrobe, who read most of the chapters and gave me some very useful comments. Further, Michael Clancy from the Law Society of Scotland reminded me of the importance of the ECHR to public policy in Scotland and John Curtice provided some figures to complete chapter 7. Final thanks to Anthony Freeman, Imprint Academic, for being so patient. I originally thought of this book as an ‘impact’ output, as part of the Research Councils UK focus on the effective dissemination of knowledge from academics to practitioners (and vice versa). Then, like many people, I realised that impact means something else (note: I don’t claim to know what it is—just that I know it is something else). The project was funded initially (1999–2005) by the Leverhulme Trust and the Economic and Social Research Council (http://www.ucl.ac.uk/ constitution-unit/research/research-archive/archive-projects/devolut ion-monitoring99-05). From 2006–9 it was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, Ministry of Justice, Scottish Executive/ Government, Scotland Office and Wales Office (http://www.ucl. ac. uk/constitution-unit/research/research-archive/archive-projects/dev olution-monitoring06-09). As far as I know, this is the first book to draw conclusions from a comprehensive reading of the reports, but it should not be the last. The reports present a problem for referencing. The aim of referencing is that the reader can use the reference to check or follow up the text in the original source. In my opinion the best way to do this is to depart slightly from the Harvard system, to note in the text the month as well as the year of publication (e.g. Shephard, August 2002: 8) so that the reader can go instantly to source (using the weblinks above, Preface xi or going through the Constitution Unit if those links change) rather than fish around the bibliography (they are not listed there!). Some early reports have no authors attached to sections, so I list the month, year and page. I have all of the reports on file, and so can keep this document on one side and click to open the reports on the other. It’s a good system (once you get used to looking for page numbers at the bottom, not in the Adobe box at the top) and I recommend it to you (although, of course, you will be holding a hard copy unless you are sneaking a look at a few pages on Google books).