Interparliamentary Forum - 27 October 2023

On Friday 27 October 2023, the Inter-Parliamentary Forum (IPF) met at the Scottish Parliament. Chairs and Convenors of Committees from the Scottish Parliament, Senedd Cymru, House of Commons and House of Lords attended

A joint statement was issued, as below.

Joint statement

The Interparliamentary Forum (IPF) met for the fourth time on 27th October 2023 in the Scottish Parliament. The meeting was chaired by Clare Adamson MSP, Convener of the Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee and attended by representatives from the House of Commons, Senedd Cymru, and the House of Lords. An official from the Northern Ireland Assembly also attended as an observer.

Attendees were welcomed to the Scottish Parliament by the Presiding Officer, Alison Johnstone MSP.

Following updates from each legislature, the Forum discussed on-going challenges of intergovernmental relations including operation of the UK Internal Market Act, and the scrutiny of intergovernmental working. We noted the increased need for effective intergovernmental working in managing the regulatory environment across the UK outside of the EU continues to raise substantial challenges in reaching agreement between the governments of the UK.

We further note that there has been some progress in addressing these challenges through increased transparency in the reporting of intergovernmental activity. However, across each of our legislatures concerns have been raised in relation to the transparency and future scrutiny of Common Frameworks. We recognise there is an intergovernmental agreement to provide an annual report for each Framework once these have been fully implemented. However, only one Framework has been fully agreed and there has been no reporting on the operation of the other Frameworks.

We agreed to write to the Secretary of State and Minister for Intergovernmental Relations, the Cabinet Secretary for the Constitution, External Affairs and Culture and the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution requesting that annual reports be provided to all legislatures on each provisional Framework in addition to those fully agreed.

We also held an exchange of views on intergovernmental relations with Angus Robertson MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Constitution, External Affairs and Culture.

Attendees

• Clare Adamson MSP, Convener of the Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee
• Baroness Andrews, Chair of the Common Frameworks Committee, House of Lords
• Lord Hope of Craighead, Member of both the Common Frameworks Scrutiny Committee and the Constitution Committee, House of Lords
• Huw Irranca-Davies MS, Chair of the Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee, Senedd Cymru
• Llyr Gruffydd MS, Chair of the Climate Change, Environment and Infrastructure Committee, Senedd Cymru
• Robin Millar MP, Member of the Welsh Affairs Committee, House of Commons
• Pete Wishart MP, Chair of the Scottish Affairs Committee, House of Commons
• William Wragg MP, Chair of the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee, House of Commons