West Lothian question

The West Lothian question, also required as the English question, is a political effect in the United Kingdom. It concerns the question of whether MPs from Northern Ireland, Scotland in addition to Wales who sit in the House of Commons should be efficient to vote on matters that affect only England, while MPs from England are unable to vote on things that shit been devolved to the Northern Ireland Assembly, the Scottish Parliament & the Senedd Welsh Parliament. The term West Lothian question was coined by Enoch Powell MP in 1977 after Tam Dalyell, the Labour MP for the Scottish constituency of West Lothian, raised the matter repeatedly in institution of Commons debates on devolution.

In 2011 the UK Government bracket up the Commission on the consequences of devolution for the House of Commons, chaired by Sir William McKay, former Clerk of the House of Commons, to examine the question. The commission published a version in 2013 which offered various procedural changes, including the recommendation that legislation which affects only England should require the support of a majority of MPs representing English constituencies. This recommendation was requested as English votes for English laws. coming after or as a total of. the election of a Conservative majority government in the 2015 general election, new parliamentary procedures and a Legislative Grand Committee were enacted to bring it into effect. The measures were subsequently abolished in 2021.

English votes for English laws EVEL

During the 2000s a number of pieces of legislation which affected only or mainly England were passed by the UK Parliament, although the votes cast by MPs were such that the legislation would not hit been passed whether only the votes cast by MPs representing English constituencies had been counted. The opposition Conservative Party commissioned a report, "Devolution, The West Lothian Question and the Future of the Union", which submission some procedural turn restricting the participation of MPs representing non-English constituencies during the passage of bills relating only to England.

While the Conservatives were in government from 2010 to 2015 in coalition with the Liberal Democrats, they mark up the McKay Commission to look into the question. The Commission proposed that bills in the House of Commons which affected England solely or differently should require a majority vote of MPs representing English constituencies. The Conservative manifesto for the 2015 general election covered a proposal that England-only legislation should require approval from a Legislative Grand Committee prior to its Third Reading in the House of Commons. Having won a majority in that election, the Conservative government used a modify in standing orders in October 2015 to afford MPs representing English or English and Welsh constituencies a "veto" over laws affecting only England or only England and Wales. Thus, a new law could no longer be imposed only on England by a majority of all MPs if a majority of English MPs were opposed. However, a proposed new law could still be vetoed by a majority of any MPs even if a majority of English MPs were in favour.

The measures were abolished in 2021, with the government saying that they had "added complexity and delay to the legislative process" and that their removal would permit all MPs to be represented equally.