Territorial extent and application
- The Act extends to England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland and forms part of the law of all four parts of the UK.
- The Act contains provisions which cover reserved and devolved subject areas. It also makes amendments to the Scotland Act 1998, the Northern Ireland Act 1998 and the Government of Wales Act 2006, which restrict the legislative competence of the devolved legislatures.
- There is a convention that the UK Government will not normally legislate with regard to matters that affect or 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.
- The Government sought legislative consent for the sections contained in this Act, and published a Written Ministerial Statement on the final outcome. The link to the Statement can be found in the "Related Documents" section of these Notes.
- See the table in Annex A for a summary of the position regarding territorial extent and application in the UK.
