DEVOLUTION MONITORING PROGRAMME 2006-08 Scotland Devolution Monitoring Report January 2007 Peter Jones (ed.) Honorary Senior Research Fellow The Constitution Unit www.ucl.ac.uk/constitution-unit ISSN 1751-3855 The Devolution Monitoring Programme From 1999 to 2005 the Constitution Unit at University College London managed a major research project monitoring devolution across the UK through a network of research teams. 103 reports were produced during this project, which was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (grant number L 219 252 016) and the Leverhulme Nations and Regions Programme. Now, with further funding from the Economic and social research council and support from several government departments, the monitoring programme is continuing for a further three years from 2006 until the end of 2008. Three times per year, the research network produces detailed reports covering developments in devolution in five areas: Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, the Englsh Regions, and Devolution and the Centre. The overall monitoring project is managed by Professor Robert Hazell and Akash Paun at the Constitution Unit, UCL and the team leaders are as follows: Scotland: Peter Jones Honorary Senior Research Fellow, The Constitution Unit, UCL Former political correspondent for The Economist Wales: Dr Richard Wyn Jones & Dr Roger Scully Institute of Welsh Politics, University of Wales, Aberystwyth Northern Ireland: Professor Rick Wilford & Robin Wilson Queen’s University, Belfast English Regions: Martin Burch & James Rees, IPEG, University of Manchester Alan Harding, SURF, University of Salford The Centre: Professor Robert Hazell, The Constitution Unit, UCL Akash Paun, The Constitution Unit, UCL The Constitution Unit and the rest of the research network is grateful to all the funders of the devolution monitoring programme. Scottish Executive All devolution monitoring reports are published at: www.ucl.ac.uk/constitution- unit/research/devolution. Contact Akash Paun on [email protected] for further information. Scotland Devolution Monitoring Report January 2007 Peter Jones (ed.) Scotland Devolution Monitoring Report January 2007 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 7 CHRONOLOGY (SEPTEMBER TO DECEMBER 2006) 10 1. THE SCOTTISH EXECUTIVE 17 1.1 Scottish Ministers and the Lord Advocate 17 1.2 The Management Group and Taking Stock 18 1.3 Quangos, Regulation and the Legislative Programme – too much government? 20 1.5 Relocation 22 1.6 Freedom of Information 23 1.7 Academic Freedom 24 2. THE SCOTTISH PARLIAMENT 25 2.1 Petitions 25 2.2 The Finance Committee – Governance and the Budget Review 25 2.4 Committee Reports and Inquiries (11 September 2006 – 31 December 2006) 30 2.5 Parliamentary Bills (11 September 2006 – 31 December 2006) 34 2.6 Non-Executive Bills 34 2.7 Sewel (Legislative Consent) Motions passed 36 3. THE MEDIA 37 3.1 Media Crisis 37 3.2 Agendas and Campaigns 38 3.3 The Union 39 3.4 Elections 40 4. PUBLIC ATTITUDES AND ELECTIONS 43 5. INTERGOVERNMENTAL RELATIONS 44 5.1. General 44 5.2 British-Irish Council 45 4 Scotland Devolution Monitoring Report January 2007 5.3 Adjusting the devolution settlement 45 5.4 The Sewel Convention – UK Government response to Committee Report 46 6. SCOTLAND, EUROPE, AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS 47 6.1 The USA Strategy 47 6.2 The Fresh Talent Initiative 48 6.3 Malawi 49 6.4 Scotland and Ireland 50 6.5 China 50 6.6 Fair Trade 50 7. RELATIONS WITH LOCAL GOVERNMENT 51 7.1 Finance Settlement 51 7.2 Local Government Finance Review 52 7.3 Local Government Elections 54 7.4 Housing Transfers 55 7.5 Accounts Commission 56 7.6 Pensions and Pay 57 7.7 Election promise 58 8. FINANCE 59 8.1 Hot numbers 59 8.2 Budget and Growth 59 8.3 Scotland’s Fiscal Balance 60 8.4 Local authority funding and the Business Rate 62 8.5 The Pre-Budget Review 62 8.6 Bottom lines 62 9. DISPUTES AND LITIGATION 64 10. POLITICAL PARTIES 65 5 Scotland Devolution Monitoring Report January 2007 10.1 A thickening plot 65 10.2 Nationalism once more resurgent 66 10.3 Labour, Coalition and the Union Dividend 68 10.4 The Lib Dems’ pick and choose 70 10.5 The Conservatives in the doldrums 71 10.6 After the SSP 72 10.7 Scottish Greens and Coalition 73 11. PUBLIC POLICIES 74 11.1 Implementing Public Policies: do Scots love their fudge? 74 11.2 Policy Styles, Policy Learning and Delivering Mental Health Policy 77 11.3 Physical Health (and visible citizenship) 80 11.4 Public Health 83 11.5 Education and Children 84 11.6 Education and Lifelong Learning 85 11.7 Environment, Fishing and Rural Affairs 85 11.8 Energy 86 11.9 Crime and Punishment 86 11.10 Transport 87 11.11 Public Campaigns, Pilots and Publicity 88 6 Scotland Devolution Monitoring Report January 2007 Executive Summary Peter Jones • Aided by opinion polls suggesting a Labour decline and a Scottish National Party advance, plus some SNP donations by prominent businessmen, electioneering got into gear early. There has been bravura SNP talk of winning power in May, though Nicol Stephen, Scottish LibDem leader, has made it clear that if the SNP come to talk, he will have no truck with holding a referendum on independence. • Labour returned to the negative campaigning of the ‘divorce is an expensive business’ 1999 election theme, and also tried to raise the positive aspects of the Union amidst the somewhat muted commemorations of the 300th anniversary of the Union between Scotland and England. Jack McConnell, Labour first minister, has also raised the prospect of running a minority government, seeking support for a legislative programme on an issue-by-issue basis, a prospect which Annabel Goldie, the Scottish Tory leader has said she might support. • Opinion polls have given the impression that 50+ per cent of Scots support independence. Deeper analysis suggests actual support is in the 30-35 per cent range, correlating more closely with support for the SNP which is up a little when compared to 1999. Labour support over the same period has slumped badly. • The executive suffered two cabinet ministerial resignations, both Labour. Peter Peacock quit as education minister because of ill-health and Malcolm Chisholm resigned after voting with the SNP over Trident nuclear missiles. They were replaced, respectively, by Hugh Henry and Rhona Brankin, both deputy ministers. Colin Boyd, Lord Advocate (head of prosecution service and the cabinet’s chief legal advisor) also resigned and was replaced by Scotland’s first female holder of the post Elish Angiolini, solicitor-general. • Changes in Executive civil service management followed an external review praising some aspects of civil service work but suggested room for improvement at the strategic level and that there were too many overlaps. This was interpreted by the press as a damning report. The Management Group was split into a smaller Strategic Group, setting overall objectives, and a Heads of Department Group, meeting weekly to implement the objectives and trouble-shoot. 7 Scotland Devolution Monitoring Report January 2007 • The Audit Committee and Audit Scotland examined pay awards for teachers and hospital consultants. The teachers’ pay deal was criticised as getting a poor return for a considerable investment in teachers and the consultants’ contracts as having been negotiated at a UK level with little regard for Scottish circumstances. • Newspapers and TV marked the Act of Union anniversary with supplements and programmes, with added piquancy: speculation of an end to the Union; and sales decline of Scottish newspapers versus increased sales for London-based titles. • The media is relishing the forthcoming election campaign, branding it the most open and exciting for years. Newspapers are also particularly interested in more powers for Holyrood, which was ruled out by Jack McConnell in a lecture. • Executive statisticians endured the annual ritual of seeing estimates of public spending and revenues in Scotland being chewed up by the political mincing machine and spat out as either showing that Scotland has a massive ‘black hole’ deficit of £11.2bn (unionists) or that it is political chicanery (nationalists). Economic statistics suggest that the Scottish economy has been closing the gap with the UK average. The Executive’s Total Managed Expenditure is scheduled to be £31.3bn in 2007-08, up 5.2 per cent on the figure the year previously. • Local authorities got an extra funding boost of £201m, granted with the hope of modest pre-election council tax rises. An Executive-commissioned independent review of local government finance ruled out local income tax and recommended a market-value based property tax. This was promptly ruled out by Jack McConnell, first minister, for fear of alienating voters in high-value areas. • Development links with Malawi have been strengthened with groups being set up to improve Malawi’s health care and business development. A Scottish-Irish agreement on boosting science education and other mutual interests was signed by Jack McConnell and Bertie Ahern, the Taoiseach. • Progress in mental health and welfare policy demonstrates four of the positive reasons given for having devolution: development of different administrative styles; faster legislative up-dating; difference in policy-making which has highlighted greater stakeholder ownership of the resulting policy in Scotland; and learning by different jurisdictions of the lessons and results of these differences. • Some of the latest figures on meeting targets for treatment times and reducing death rates from some diseases contrasted with the financial crisis in parts of NHS England suggest that the portrayal of health care in the 2007 election campaign may be a 8 Scotland Devolution Monitoring Report January 2007 mirror image of the 2005 general election in Scotland when the theme was of an NHS performing badly in comparison to England. 9 Scotland Devolution Monitoring Report January 2007 Chronology (September to December 2006) 1 Sept.