Part 12: General provision
Section 72 – Ancillary provision
213.This section empowers the Scottish Ministers, by regulations, to make various types of ancillary provision for the purposes of, in connection with, or to give full effect to the Act or any provision made under it.
214.Regulations under this section may modify any enactment (including the Act itself). The word “enactment” is defined in schedule 1 of the Interpretation and Legislative Reform (Scotland) Act 2010(19) and includes Acts of the Scottish or UK Parliaments as well as secondary legislation.
215.If regulations under this section textually amend an Act then they are subject to the affirmative procedure, but otherwise they are subject to the negative procedure (see sections 28 and 29 of the Interpretation and Legislative Reform (Scotland) Act 201020).
Section 73 – Commencement
216.This section sets out when the provisions of the Act will come into force (i.e., take effect).
217.Some of the final sections, including this section, will come into force automatically on the day after the Bill for the Act receives Royal Assent. The substantive provisions will be commenced in accordance with regulations made by the Scottish Ministers under this section. Such regulations may include transitional, transitory or saving provision related to commencement and may make different provision for different purposes. In particular, this allows different provisions to be commenced on different days.
218.Regulations under this section will, unless exercised in conjunction with powers under other sections, be laid before the Scottish Parliament but will not be subject to any parliamentary procedure (see section 30 of the Interpretation and Legislative Reform (Scotland) Act 201021).
Section 74– Short title
219.This section provides that the Act may be cited as the Scottish Elections (Representation and Reform) Act 2025.
