The Act - Background
3.The provisions of the Act are of a highly technical nature. The Act broadly restates the existing law contained in the three statutory instruments listed in paragraph 4 below. Any departures from the existing position are highlighted where appropriate. Specifically the Act deals with:
	the publication, interpretation and operation of Acts of the Scottish Parliament (“ASPs>”) and instruments made under them;
	the making of subordinate legislation in the form of a Scottish statutory instrument (“SSI”), the procedures which apply to it in the Scottish Parliament and its publication; and
	the special procedure which applies to orders that are subject to special parliamentary procedure.
4.Up until now these matters have been regulated by three transitional Orders made by the UK Government under the Scotland Act 1998, namely:
	the Scotland Act 1998 (Transitory and Transitional Provisions) (Publication and Interpretation etc. of Acts of the Scottish Parliament) Order 1999 (S.I. 1999/1379) (“the Interpretation Order”);
	the Scotland Act 1998 (Transitory and Transitional Provisions) (Statutory Instruments) Order 1999 (S.I. 1999/1096) (“the SI Order”); and
	the Scotland Act 1998 (Transitory and Transitional Provisions) (Orders subject to Special Parliamentary Procedure) Order 1999 (S.I. 1999/1593) (“the SPP Order”).
5.Before introducing the Bill, the Scottish Government carried out an extensive consultation exercise which included the publication on 12 January 2009 of a consultation paper and draft Bill - http://www.scotland.gov.uk/256959. The Act substantially implements the proposals contained in that consultation paper but is not identical to the draft Bill as it includes changes made before introduction as well as amendments made during its parliamentary passage.