‘Scots Votes for Scots Laws’ should be supported by members of the House of Lords who are pushing for constitutional reform, says SNP MP Angus B MacNeil.
Mr MacNeil, MP for Na h-Eileanan an Iar, presented a 10 Minute Rule Bill (Scots Votes for Scots Laws) in the House of Commons in November which is due to have its second reading on March 11th.
The proposal would see an amendment to the Scotland Act 1998 to give Scotland more decision-making powers in light of the vote to approve English Votes for English Laws last year.
Mr MacNeil will write to Labour peer Lord Peter Hain, who is a member of the steering group of the Constitution Reform Group (CRG), to highlight the Scots Votes for Scots Laws (SVSL) proposal.

Mr MacNeil said: “The only way Scotland will have real powers is not through reform of the union but by full control of its own affairs through independence.
“In the meantime, however, it seems to me that the proposals put forward by this cross party group of “Better-Together” Lords should lead to SVSL.
“Lord Hain and fellow members of the Constitution Reform Group want a new settlement for the UK and they argue that the UK’s nations and possibly regions should decide which powers are held at the centre, rather than the other way around. The mechanisms they advocate to achieve this will be interesting and of course crucial.

“It should be realised that such an approach already exists in the example of Denmark towards the Faroe Islands and Greenland.”

He added: “Scotland has seen three efforts on devolution which we have been told was the ‘settled will of the Scottish people’, but clearly this group of ennobled gentlemen agree with me that the desire to have powers to make better decisions in Scotland has not yet been achieved.

“We need to get to a situation where Scotland takes back its powers, where its Government, MSPs and the majority of its Westminster parliamentarians agree, giving a triple lock or a triple blessing.”

The Scots Votes for Scots Laws proposal ensures that the promise to Scotland by the Prime Minister, eight days before the referendum, is met.

Mr Cameron said that if Scotland voted to stay in the Union then all options of devolution were there and all were possible. He then refused to accept any of the 80 amendments to the Scotland Bill proposed by 95% of Scotland’s parliamentarians in the House of Commons.
Mr MacNeil said: “I have written to Lord Hain calling for him to back the Scots Votes for Scots Laws proposal which will have its second reading in the House of Commons on March 11th.
“Much can be learned from the Faroese and Greenlandic examples where they are part of Denmark but are self-governing. They inform Denmark what they require rather than the other way around, indeed it is up to them to take powers as opposed to being given them.”