Territorial extent and application
- Section 8 sets out the territorial extent of the Act; that is the jurisdictions which the Act forms part of the law. The Act extends to England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
- There is a convention that Westminster will not normally legislate with regard to matters that are within the legislative competence of the Scottish Parliament, the National Assembly for Wales or the Northern Ireland Assembly without the consent of the legislature concerned.
- To the extent that the provisions of the Act fall within the legislative competence of the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh Assembly and/or alter the executive competence of the Scottish Ministers and Welsh Minister, legislative consent has been obtained. The Scottish Parliament passed a Legislative Consent Motion on the 27 November 2018 and the Welsh Assembly passed a Legislative Consent Motion on 12 March 2019.
- To the extent that the provisions fall within the legislative competence of the Northern Ireland Assembly, legislative consent would normally be sought. In the absence of the Northern Ireland Executive and sitting Assembly, it was not possible to obtain a Legislative Consent Motion. However, the Government engaged with the Northern Ireland Department of Health during the preparation of the Act and the Department signified its support for the provisions in the Act in so far as they related to devolved matters.
- See the table in Annex A for a summary of the position regarding territorial extent and application in the United Kingdom.
