Lord Advocate defends Scottish government’s continuity bill in Parliament

The Lord Advocate has made an unprecedented address at Holyrood defending the Scottish government over the Withdrawal from the European Union (Legal Continuity) (Scotland) Bill against the presiding officer’s claim that it is ultra vires.

James Wolffe QC said the bill had been “carefully framed” to comply with domestic and EU law.

The bill details how powers currently exercised by Brussels will be distributed upon repatriation following Brexit.

Both the Scottish and Welsh governments have tabled their own legislation, in the event they cannot strike a deal with Westminster, instead of putting forward the UK government’s EU Withdrawal Bill for devolved consent.

Presiding officer Ken Macintosh said that bill “anticipates the impact of the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union”, and therefore “assumes that the Parliament can make provision now for the exercise of powers which it is possible the Parliament will acquire in the future”.

But Mr Wolffe told the chamber that “nothing will be done that is incompatible with EU law, before withdrawal from the EU”.

He said: “The bill does nothing which will alter European Union law, or which undermines the scheme of EU law, while the United Kingdom remains a member of the EU.”

He added: “If, contrary to the view of the Scottish government, this bill is incompatible with EU law, then the same reasoning would apply equally to the UK government’s bill.”