General
There are two main circumstances in which it is envisaged that an Order is likely to be made under this provision, namely where it is desired:
to re-transfer functions back to a Minister of the Crown which have been executively devolved to the Scottish Ministers by an order under section 63; and
to transfer functions of the Scottish Ministers to a Minister of the Crown as a consequence of an Order under section 30(2) adding a new reserved matter into Schedule 5.
The provision could also be used to enable UK Ministers to exercise certain functions on a UK-wide basis, for example, in relation to the collection of certain statistics.
Section 56 provided an alternative mechanism for UK Ministers to retain concurrent powers in devolved areas, but that mechanism cannot be used after the function in question has transferred to the Scottish Ministers. Most of the functions under section 53 transferred on 1 July 1999.