Background and Summary
3.The Act makes changes to the devolution settlement for Scotland and gives effect to many of the recommendations as set out in the Commission on Scottish Devolution’s (Calman Commission) final report, Serving Scotland Better: Scotland and the United Kingdom in the 21st Century published in June 2009. The Act follows the Coalition Government’s commitment to ‘implement the proposals of the Calman Commission’ in The Coalition: Our Programme for Government published in May 2010. A Command Paper setting out the Government’s response to the non-legislative recommendations of the report, as well as any areas where the Government will not proceed to legislation, was published at introduction.
4.The Act also makes a number of technical amendments to the Scotland Act 1998 not related to the Calman Commission’s report, but which will update the operation of the devolution settlement.
5.The Act achieves many of its aims by way of amendment to the Scotland Act 1998, which is referred to as “the 1998 Act” throughout these Explanatory Notes.