Commentary on provisions of Act Section 66: Bodies that may be required to attend before Parliament
This section inserts a new section 23A into the Scotland Act 1998 ("the 1998 Act"). It applies, with modifications, section 23 of the 1998 Act which gives the Scottish Parliament the power to require persons and UK Ministers to appear before it to give evidence or produce documents in relation to any subject for which the Scottish Government has general responsibility. The section gives the Scottish Parliament the power to compel witnesses and documents from the bodies specified in subsection (2) in relation to the functions exercised by those bodies that are discharged in relation to Scotland. These bodies are the Commissioners of Northern Lighthouses, the Office of Communications, and the Gas and Electricity Markets Authority. Because of the modifications made by this section to section 23 of the 1998 Act, the Scottish Parliament will be able to compel persons from the specified bodies to give evidence and produce documents in relation reserved matters. UK Ministers will remain compellable only on the basis in section 23 i.e. only where they are exercising a function which the Scottish Government has general responsibility for.
	Subsection (1) applies section 23 of the 1998 Act and sets out that the Scottish Parliament’s power to require persons to attend its proceedings to provide evidence and produce documents extends to the bodies specified in subsection (2) in relation to the functions of those bodies that are exercised in relation to Scotland.
	Subsection (2) sets out the three bodies in relation to which the requirements outlined in subsection (1) can be imposed.