Scotland Act 1998
Act establishing the Scottish Parliament; Schedule 5 lists matters reserved to Westminster.
Holyrood backed Scotland's right to decide its own future by 84 votes to 18 on 22 September 2026, all 17 Labour MSPs included, but the vote has no legal effect while the Scotland Act 1998 keeps the Union a Westminster matter.
Last refreshed: 7 October 2026
Timeline for Scotland Act 1998
Mentioned in: Marra's MSPs vote for right to decide
UK Local Elections 2026Background
Royal Assent on 19 November 1998 brought the Scottish Parliament into being. The statute also fixes the limits of Holyrood's law-making: whatever falls outside them stays with the UK Parliament.
Schedule 5 sets out those reserved matters. Its opening paragraph keeps three things for Westminster: the Crown, the Union between the Scottish and English kingdoms, and the UK Parliament itself. Section 30 supplies the single mechanism for redrawing the line, an Order in Council, which in practice needs the consent of both governments.
That clause decides whether Scotland can lawfully vote on independence. The 2012 Edinburgh Agreement relied on a Section 30 order to clear the 2014 referendum, and the UK Supreme Court ruled in November 2022 that Holyrood cannot pass a referendum bill on its own authority. A Holyrood motion on the right to decide therefore carries political weight but no legal force.
The Act leaves the motion symbolic
John Swinney's motion on Scotland's right to decide won Holyrood's backing on 22 September 2026 by 84 votes to 18, and Michael Marra, three days into the Scottish Labour leadership, brought all 17 of his members behind it. Under this Act the vote binds nobody. the Union sits on the reserved list in Schedule 5, so no Holyrood resolution can authorise a ballot on it.
The lawful route runs through Section 30, which lets the Crown amend that list by Order in Council. A 2012 order, agreed in the Edinburgh Agreement, cleared the 2014 referendum. In November 2022 the UK Supreme Court held that Holyrood lacks the power to legislate for another without a fresh order, and by September 2026 Prime Minister Andy Burnham had already said he would refuse one.