Votes at 16 for Scotland should have had full parliamentary scrutiny

23 Feb 2015 02:34 PM

The House of Lords Constitution Committee has stated that the use of secondary legislation to allow the Scottish Parliament to grant voting rights to 16 and 17 year-olds in Scottish Parliament and Scottish local elections makes it impossible for Parliament to scrutinise the proposal effectively.

The Government are seeking to amend the 1998 Scotland Act by statutory instrument to give the new powers to the Scottish Parliament. Statutory instruments cannot be amended by either House of Parliament, and the Committee says that that is "not an appropriate way to proceed with significant constitutional change".

Further concerns

The Committee sets out further concerns about the legislation including:

Chairman's comment

Commenting Lord Lang of Monkton, Chairman of the House of Lords Constitution Committee, said:

"Changes to the law which impact on the UK Constitution, as the proposal to give the Scottish Parliament the power to amend the voting age clearly does, should be subject to full and proper Parliamentary scrutiny—not implemented by an unamendable statutory instrument.

"The proposed change will have knock-on effects across the rest of the UK and we are concerned that not enough thought has been given to this impact."

The statutory instrument will be considered by the House of Lords on Thursday 26 February.

Further information