Scotland Act 2016
Scotland Act 2016
Independent editorial summary — not the official statute text. Read the official version on legislation.gov.uk.
Overview of the Act
Reproduced verbatim from the Explanatory Notes published with the Act on legislation.gov.uk (Crown Copyright, Open Government Licence v3.0). Explanatory Notes are prepared by the responsible government department and are not part of the Act.
The Scotland Act 2016 delivers the Smith Commission Agreement, which was published in November 2014 having been agreed by all the political parties in Scotland.
This Act is intended to be an enabling Act and the majority of the provisions in the Act set out the powers that are being transferred to the Scottish Parliament and or the Scottish Ministers. In particular the Scotland Act 2016 amends the Scotland Act 1998 and rebalances the devolved and reserved responsibilities between the administrations. This Act also includes provisions which set out the constitutional relationship of the Scottish Parliament and Scottish Government within the United Kingdom’s constitutional arrangements. It does not amend this relationship.
Type: UK Public General Act
Year and chapter: 2016 c. 11
Royal Assent: 2016-03-23
Last ingested: 2026-06-12 from legislation.gov.uk. Acts commence section by section — check the official text for commencement orders.