Britain is a unitary state as opposed to a federal one. This means that all ultimate power in the UK is held by the central government at Westminster. Any power that both the local government and regional government appear to have is delegated to it by the central government and can be taken back at any time. Scotland entered the union through the Act of Union 1707 and saw the appointment of the first Scottish secretary was recognised in 1885.
The Acts of Union 1707 was two Parliamentary Acts passed in 1706 by the Parliament of England and in 1707 by the Parliament of Scotland which introduced the Treaty of Union that had been agreed on the 22nd July 1706 after negotiation between commissioners representing the parliaments of the two countries. The Acts joined England and Scotland together into a single United Kingdom named ‘Great Britain’. The Acts took effect on 1st May 1707 and on this date the Scottish Parliament and the English Parliament untied to form the Parliament of Great Britain.
The English purpose of the Act was to ensure that Scotland would not choose a monarch different from the one on the English throne. Both countries had shared a King for much of the previous century, but the English were concerned that an independent Scotland with a different King might make alliances against England. In Scotland, it was claimed that the Union would enable Scotland to recover from the financial disaster, as a result of the Darien scheme, through English assistance.
The Scottish Parliament had significant power devolved to it at the time of its creation. Though areas such as foreign policy, employment legislation and control of the monetary system were reserved for the Westminster Parliament, Scotland took control of areas such as education, agriculture, and law and home affairs.
In its 1997 election manifesto, the Labour Party had committed itself to a referendum on the question of devolution for Scotland. The referendum that took place in September 1997 presented the Scottish electorate with two questions: whether there should be a Scottish Parliament and whether the Parliament should have tax-varying powers. The questions offered voters the chance to vote ‘no, no’, ‘yes, no’ or ‘yes, yes’.
No party won an overall majority in the Parliament elections so the LibDem and Labour groups went into coalition to form an administration. Though the administration has been criticised in some areas, such as the debacle over Scottish public examination results, it has made significant moves in other areas such as addressing the issue of student loans.
In 1999, after almost three centuries, a devolved Scottish Parliament was opened after a referendum in Scotland. As a devolved institution, the roles of Scotland changed. The new Scottish Parliament does not affect the powers and authority of the Parliament of the United Kingdom to make laws for Scotland, which remains a constituent country of the UK.
Whilst it has power to make laws in Scotland – in addition to the UK Parliament – over many home affairs issues, there are other reserved powers such as defense and foreign affairs over which it has no power.
