The Scottish Parliament recently passed its 200th Act, representing a significant legislative output over its 14-year history. But this is likely to expand even more quickly as fiscal powers are transferred from Westminster to Holyrood
In the final week before the Scottish Parliament’s annual recess there were two milestones that that show how far devolution has progressed north of the border
The first milestone involved the passage of the Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (Scotland) Act. This may sound like an arcane piece of law, but its importance lies in the fact that it is the first tax legislation passed by a Scottish Parliament for 308 years.
The Act covers what was previous a reserved matter in Scotland and replaces the UK government’s system of stamp duty. In Scotland, from April 2015 it will become a devolved tax, with some commentators suggesting it will be more progressive and be related to property value.
It will enable the Scottish Parliament to set and collect a proportion of its own revenue for the first time. This means that the much heralded transfer of fiscal powers from Westminster to Holyrood, as a result of the Scotland Act 2012, is now beginning to become a reality.
With legislative proposals for a new landfill tax already making progress through Parliament, taxation is becoming a matter that MSPs will increasingly become familiar with. The next step for the MSPs will be to finalise legislation in the autumn on how Scotland will manage its own tax affairs.
The Scottish Government has already consulted on its own tax management proposals and the responses have just been published. The content of the paper in itself provides a useful reference point as to what the new powers will mean.
A new body ‘Revenue Scotland’ (Scotland’s version of HMRC) has already been introduced to administer the devolved taxes. It is, however, when the proposals for tax avoidance and collection of unpaid taxes are set out, issues not relevant to a devolved administration until now, that it becomes clear that Scotland is entering a new era in which more tax legislation will be likely.
It was volume of legislation that gave us the second milestone of the week when the Forth Road Bridge Bill became the 200th Act passed by the Scottish Parliament. The Act itself was not high-profile and merely dissolves the existing bridge management body and transfers the functions from the existing bridge authority to a new body to oversee the new Forth crossing.
But it is noteworthy in demonstrating the large volume of legislation passed over the Parliament’s 14-year life. On a more practical level, the Act sets the legislative basis for the forward management of the recently named Queensferry Crossing, itself the largest capital investment undertaken in Scotland since devolution.
While it has taken more than 300 hundred years for Scotland to get to its first tax Act of the modern era, it is only the beginning. Further tax legislation will see the Scottish Parliament continuing quickly to extend its influence and importance.
Don Peebles is policy and technical manager at CIPFA in Scotland
