Territorial Extent
20.Sections 71 to 75 (and Schedule 5), 76, 81 and 88 of the Act extend only to England and Wales. Section 77 and Schedule 6 extend to England and Wales and Northern Ireland only. Section 79 and Schedule 8 extend to England and Wales and Scotland only. All other sections and Schedules extend to the whole of the United Kingdom.
21.The Scottish Parliament’s consent was sought and obtained for the provisions in the Act that trigger the Sewel convention. The provisions relate to the establishment of the Committee on Climate Change under Part 2 of the Act, the conferral of powers on the Scottish Ministers under Part 3 of the Act, the preparation by the Secretary of State of a UK-wide report on the impact of climate change under section 56 and the power to acquire units relating to greenhouse gas emissions under section 87. Part 1 of the Act, although it imposes duties only on the Secretary of State, may also be viewed as affecting devolved matters in relation to setting targets and carbon budgets for Scotland. The Sewel convention provides that Westminster will not normally legislate with regard to devolved matters in Scotland without the consent of the Scottish Parliament; the Scottish Parliament granted its approval on 20th December 2007. If there are amendments relating to such matters which trigger the Convention, the consent of the Scottish Parliament will be sought for them.
22.By similar convention, the consent of the Northern Ireland Assembly was sought in relation to the same aspects of the Act and also the duty on the relevant Northern Ireland department to prepare a programme on adaptation to climate change under section 60 in Part 4 of the Act; the Northern Ireland Assembly granted its approval on 10th December 2007.