Monday 10 November 2008

Calman and Number 10 go nuclear

Read that paragraph 13 from the No 10 response to the Calman Commission again (my bold italics) :

"13. Nevertheless, there are areas of policy where the inevitable overlap between devolved and
reserved matters has the potential to cause difficulty. Some of these relate to the devolution of
land use planning powers, and analogous powers under the Electricity Acts which are the subject of executive devolution (i.e. they are exercised by Scottish Ministers even though the Scottish Parliament does not have legislative competence over them).

It was clearly not the intention of Parliament in passing the Scotland Act that the use or threatened use of devolved powers should undermine the delivery of reserved policies. The Government suggests that the Commission may wish to consider how such problems might be avoided".

Could this be interpreted as a veiled threat to take the power to commission new nuclear power stations back to Westminster parliament level?

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