Your Right to Decide

The United Kingdom is a voluntary Union of nations

The United Kingdom has been called a voluntary Union, and a Union of equals.

What this means for Scotland is that it is a nation within the UK, and that the UK’s existence as a Union state depends on the continued consent of its parts. Whether any part of the UK stays part of it is a matter of choice.

The Welsh Government, which supports Wales’s continued membership of the Union, believes that:

“Whatever its historical origins, the United Kingdom is best seen now as a voluntary association of nations taking the form of a multi-national state …”^[3]

Welsh Government, 2021

Before the independence referendum in 2014, political leaders across the UK and across the political spectrum characterised the Union as an equal partnership:

“A future in which Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and England continue to flourish side by side as equal partners.”^[4]

Theresa May, Home Secretary, 2012

“Today we are equal partners in the United Kingdom.”^[5]

Alistair Darling, Chair, Better Together, 2012

“The UK is a union of belonging and sharing. It is a union of equals and partnership…”^[6]

Johann Lamont, Scottish Labour Leader, 2014

The multi-national character of the United Kingdom is reflected in the views of people living across the UK, who overwhelmingly see the territory they live in as a nation and consider the UK to be made up of multiple nations rather than only a British nation.^[7] It has also long been accepted and articulated by the UK Government and by others:

“Scotland is a nation and voluntarily entered into Union with England as a partner and not as a dependency.”^[8]

The Royal Commission on Scottish Affairs, 1954

“Scotland is not a region, but a member nation of the United Kingdom.”^[9]

The Labour Party, 1970

“And if the Union is to flourish in the future a more concerted recognition of Scotland’s status as a nation will be necessary. It should be a mark of Scotland’s self-confidence in her own status as a nation that she shares her sovereignty with the other parts of the United Kingdom. But the willingness to share that sovereignty must never be taken for granted.”^[10]

The UK Government, 1993

“Scotland is a proud historic nation in the United Kingdom and the plans we put forward in this [devolution] White Paper will give it an exciting new role within the United Kingdom.”^[11]

The UK Government, 1997

“The Acts of Union of 1707 […] marked the beginning of a single multi-national state…”^[12]

The UK Government, 2013

As we have set out previously, the Scottish Government believes that Scotland “is not a region questioning its place in a larger unitary state [but] a country in a voluntary union of nations.”^[13]

Scotland’s continued nationhood has been a feature of the Union since its inception, and was built into the Acts of Union.

Even after political union with England in 1707, Scotland remained a separate and distinct legal jurisdiction, with a large number of national institutions retained: its own laws and courts, a separate education system, a distinct system of local government, and a separate and independent national church. The National Health Service was separately established in Scotland after the Second World War,^[14] and since devolution in 1999, new national institutions have been created to serve the people of Scotland, such as Social Security Scotland and Revenue Scotland.

These are not just symbols of continued nationhood, they are important and active national institutions right at the heart of the lives of the people of Scotland.

The Scottish Government, however, does not consider that assurances of a Union of equals, or a voluntary Union, have been fulfilled.^[15]

A Union of equals would be one where the different decisions of the people of Scotland were respected, and where the autonomy and decisions of democratically-elected institutions like the Scottish Parliament were respected too.

Scotland, as part of the UK, left the European Union on 31 January 2020, despite 62% of voters in Scotland supporting remaining in the EU, including a majority in every council area.^[16] No account was taken of Scotland’s different decision in the approach of the UK Government to EU exit or its negotiation.

And since the EU exit referendum, both before and after the change of UK administration in 2024, the UK Government has asserted a role in devolved areas, despite the Scottish Parliament and Government being the democratically accountable institutions in these areas under the devolution settlement:

• Westminster has passed legislation reducing the powers of the Scottish Parliament without the Scottish Parliament’s consent. This includes the Internal Market Act 2020, which the new UK Government has refused to amend or repeal,^[17] despite none of the devolved parliaments of the UK consenting to it. The Internal Market Act has been described as an “international outlier,”^[18] and as undermining “the authority and status of the devolved institutions” and limiting “the ability of the devolved governments to set and apply their own ambitious standards…”^[19]
• UK Government Ministers have repeatedly given themselves powers to intervene directly in matters within the responsibility of the Scottish Parliament, without the agreement of the Scottish Parliament^[20]
• UK Government Ministers have given themselves a direct role in devolved policy-making and decisions on public spending on devolved matters such as in the Shared Prosperity Fund, by-passing the democratically accountable Scottish Parliament^[21]

Additionally, the UK Government has not agreed to inter-governmental discussions about mandates secured in elections where a majority of MSPs elected have supported a referendum on Scottish independence.^[22]

If the Union were a Union of equals then each part of it would have a legally enshrined right to make a decision about whether to leave it, not just Northern Ireland.^[23]

Commentators have identified the point of devolution being that Scotland can take its own decisions, and can decide to do things differently:

“For the last 15 years, Scottish institutions have been accountable through the Scottish Parliament. The Scotland Bill puts it beyond doubt that this is irreversible. Devolution is permanent, and the Scottish Parliament is master in its own house: its power is paramount in devolved matters, and it controls its own composition […] More important, the Scotland Bill reminds us what devolution is for: it means Scotland can run a different social model from the rest of the UK.”^[24]

Professor Jim Gallagher, 2015

The Scottish Government believes that restrictions on Scotland’s ability to decide to do things differently, even within devolved areas, along with the continued unwillingness to accept Scotland’s right to decide its future, suggest that the Union is not the equal or voluntary association of nations it has been claimed to be.