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First Minister publishes Concordat agreements with Whitehall
09/12/1999
The First Minister, Donald Dewar today published the third tranche of bilateral concordats - co-operation agreements - between the Scottish Executive and individual Whitehall Departments. They follow the publication in October of the Memorandum of Understanding and the previous tranches of bilateral concordats published on 11 and 25 November. This third tranche contains the following concordats with:
- Ministry of Defence
- Lord Chancellor's Department
- Home Office
- HM Treasury
- Department of Social Security
- Department of Health
A Concordat will also be published today on the responsibilities for European Structural Funds.
Mr Dewar said:
"When we published the Memorandum of Understanding with the UK Government, we promised that other, more detailed, bilateral documents would be issued describing the relationship between Departments in the Scottish Executive and their Whitehall counterparts.
"The first and second tranches of bilateral Concordats were published on 11 and 25 November. The documents we are publishing today make up the third tranche of bilateral Concordats which continue the robust framework for co-operation and communication between the devolved administrations and Whitehall."
NOTES FOR NEWS EDITORS
1. Ministry of Defence
- The aim of this Concordat is to help ensure that the business of Government in Scotland and across the United Kingdom as regards defence matters continues to be conducted smoothly and efficiently. All matters relating to the defence of the United Kingdom remain the direct responsibility of the UK Government. This is to provide for a strong integral defence policy and a seamless and effective defence capability for the UK as a whole. However, in many instances defence matters and devolved matters are inter-related. Recognising this inter-relationship is important and the Concordat sets out to do this in a way that will ensure good working relationships. (The annex to the Concordat tries to give a picture both of the scope of the reservation of defence and of the areas of defence that are inter-related with devolved issues.)
2. Lord Chancellor's Department
- This Concordat intends to promote constructive co-operation and communication between the Scottish Executive and the Lord Chancellor's Department. It sets out a working framework within which Ministers and officials may continue and develop relationships between the administrations. The primary aim is to ensure that if either is planning action impinging on the responsibilities of the other, it gives adequate forewarning.
3. Home Office
- The purpose of this Concordat is to indicate the elements of good practice between the Scottish Executive and the Home Office. It sets out a framework for encouraging good communication, promoting understanding of the operation of policy and practice in the respective jurisdictions and ensuring that the actions of one administration do not unwittingly create difficulties for the other.
4. HM Treasury
- The Concordat between the Scottish Executive and HM Treasury sets out a framework for regular consultation between officials to ensure co-operation and effective performance. It highlights that the Scottish Executive's Principal Finance Officer (PFO) will attend Treasury's regular meetings of PFOs and that HM Treasury will undertake to provide advance notice, wherever practicable, of UK legislation which will have an impact on the Scottish Parliament tax varying powers.
5. Department of Social Security
- This Concordat sets out ground rules for managing the relationship between the Scottish Executive and the Department of Social Security for consultation, exchange of information (including terms on which information is shared), finance, access to services, resolution of disputes and review of relations.
6. Department of Health
- The health and social care Concordat sets out the framework for continued co-operation between the health departments in Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland. It follows the principles set out in the Memorandum of Understanding and the overarching concordats; and sets out the ground rules for the way the departments will work together on, for example, matters within the competence of the European Union; and covers the way in which the chief professional officers in the different administrations will keep in touch.
7. European Structural Funds
- This is a Concordat between the Scottish Executive and DTI, DETR, MAFF, DfEE and DCMS which sets out the detailed responsibilities of each Department in relation to the administration of European Structural Funds throughout the UK. The key aim is to give all parties the assurance that working relationships will be conducted and agreed in a helpful manner and that there is no intention to fundamentally change the existing balance of the relationship and responsibilities between the different Departments. The Scottish Executive will therefore carry out the role which the Scottish Office undertook in relation to Structural Funds.
8. The Scottish Executive published the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) and supplementary agreements on 1 October and copies were presented to the Scottish Parliament as document SE//99/36. The text is available at
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/library2/memorandum
9. The texts of these, and the previous, bilateral concordats are available at: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/concordats
News Release: SE1618/1999
9 Dec 1999