Commentary on provisions of Act
The Scotland Act 1998 sets out the framework of Scottish devolution. The limits on the power of the Scottish Parliament to legislate for Scotland are set out in the 1998 Act. For the purposes of the Scotland Act 2016, the limitations that are relevant are those preventing the Scottish Parliament from making provision relating to reserved matters or modifying the law on reserved matters or most provisions the Scotland Act 1998 itself. Reserved matters are defined in Schedule 5 to the 1998 Act. Reserved matters are areas of law where the UK Parliament has exclusive competence to legislate. For example, the Scottish Parliament cannot make law relating to nuclear weapons. Some of the reservations in Schedule 5 contain exceptions. For example, oil and gas is reserved but the manufacture of gas is specifically excepted from that reservation and the Scottish Parliament can therefore legislate about the manufacture of gas. This 2016 Act alters Schedule 5 to 1998 Act (see Parts 1 - 4) to give the Scottish Parliament more powers to legislate. This is done by amending the reservations and or adding new exceptions to the reservations.
	Where a Minister of the Crown has functions in those areas of law that are being devolved to the Scottish Parliament, the 2016 Act also addresses the transfer of functions to the Scottish Ministers.