THE Scottish Affairs Committee will examine the effectiveness of English Votes for English Laws (Evel) later today – the controversial measure that prevented MPs from Scottish constituencies from voting at some stages of the legislative process for laws deemed to apply only to England or Wales.
The session comes six months after the mechanisms were first used and it will hear from new leader of the House of Commons David Lidington.
Michael Clancy, director of law reform at the Law Society of Scotland, will also give evidence, along with Daniel Gover, a research fellow at Queen Mary University of London, and Dr Daniel Kenealy, lecturer in social policy at the University of Edinburgh.
Committee chair Pete Wishart said: “As a committee we are deeply concerned about the impact that Evel is having on the ability of MPs from Scotland to represent their constituents and fully scrutinise the bills put before us. We are also concerned about the process for deciding who can vote on what legislation, and a lack of recognition of the knock-on effects to Scotland’s finances of laws that have been ruled to be outside our remit.”
“We will be asking Mr Lidington what he will be doing to monitor the impact of the legislation, and what he sees as its successes and failures.”
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here