SECTION 121: Requirements to lay reports etc. before Parliament.
Purpose and Effect
This section modifies any provision in a pre-commencement enactment which provides for any report to be laid before the Westminster Parliament or either House of that Parliament in the case where the report concerns Scottish functions (as defined in section 119). It makes provision to ensure that these reports are laid before the Scottish Parliament instead of or as well as the Houses of Parliament.
General
A number of pre-commencement enactments make provision for reports to be laid before the House of Commons, the House of Lords, or both. This section ensures that such reports, where they concern Scottish functions, are to be laid before the Scottish Parliament.
Parliamentary Consideration
| Stage | Date | Column |
|---|---|---|
| LC | 8-Oct-98 | 645 |
Details of Provisions
Subsection (1) states that this section applies where a “pre-commencement enactment” makes provision for a report which concerns “Scottish functions” to be laid before one or both Houses of Parliament.
“Pre-commencement enactment” is defined in section 53(3) and “Scottish functions” is defined in section 119(1).
Subsection (2) requires the report to be laid instead before the Scottish Parliament if it concerns only Scottish functions.
Subsection (3) requires reports, in other cases, to be laid before the Scottish Parliament and one or both Houses of Parliament.
Subsection (4) provides a definition of the terms “report” and “Scottish functions”.
See also the Scotland Act 1998 (Transitory and Transitional Provisions)(Laying of Reports) Order 1999 (S.I. 1999/1594).