What Is Devolution? How Power Is Shared Across the UK

Devolution is the transfer of powers from a central parliament and government to elected bodies at a lower level, such as a nation or region within the same state. In the UK it means that the Scottish Parliament, the Senedd (Welsh Parliament) and the Northern Ireland Assembly make laws on matters such as health and education, while the UK Parliament at Westminster keeps matters such as defence and foreign affairs. The powers are granted by Acts of the UK Parliament, which in law can still change them.

What devolution means

Devolution is a delegation of power made by statute. The central parliament passes a law that hands defined responsibilities to another body, which then has its own elections and its own ministers. In Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland the devolved legislatures can pass primary legislation, and each has an executive that answers to it: the Scottish Government, the Welsh Government and the Northern Ireland Executive.

The UK's arrangements are uneven. Each nation has a different settlement, set out in different Acts, and England has no parliament or government of its own. At first the word "devolution" referred only to the law-making powers given to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. It is now also used for the transfer of executive powers to regional bodies inside England.

Devolution versus federalism

Devolution is often confused with federalism, but the two rest on different foundations.

• In a federal system, such as the United States, the position of the states or provinces is guaranteed by the constitution. The central government cannot take their powers away on its own; that would need a constitutional amendment.
• Under devolution, the powers ultimately belong to the central parliament, which lends them out. The state remains, in law, a unitary one, and the legislation that created the devolved bodies can be amended like any other statute.

The Scotland Act 1998 states this directly: the section giving the Scottish Parliament its law-making power adds that it "does not affect the power of the Parliament of the United Kingdom to make laws for Scotland". In practice there are political limits. The Scotland Act 2016 and the Wales Act 2017 affirmed that the Scottish and Welsh institutions are permanent, so that abolishing them would need a referendum. Our explainer on the UK constitution looks at how this fits with parliamentary sovereignty.

The 1997 referendums and the 1998 Acts

Earlier plans for Scottish and Welsh assemblies failed at referendums in 1979. The present system dates from the late 1990s, when voters were asked again in a referendum before Parliament legislated.

Scotland

On 11 September 1997 Scottish voters were asked two questions. About 74.3 per cent agreed that there should be a Scottish Parliament and about 63.5 per cent agreed that it should have tax-varying powers, on a turnout of roughly 60 per cent. The Scotland Act 1998 received royal assent on 19 November 1998. The first election was held in May 1999, the Parliament first met on 12 May 1999 and it took on its full powers on 1 July 1999.

Wales

The Welsh referendum on 18 September 1997 was far closer: 50.3 per cent voted in favour on a turnout of 50.2 per cent, a majority of 6,721 votes. The Government of Wales Act 1998 became law on 31 July 1998 and created the National Assembly for Wales, which at first could not pass primary legislation. Its powers grew through the Government of Wales Act 2006, a further referendum on 3 March 2011 and the Wales Acts of 2014 and 2017. In May 2020 it was renamed Senedd Cymru, or the Welsh Parliament.

Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland had a devolved parliament from 1921 until it was suspended in 1972. The present Assembly grew out of the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement of 10 April 1998. The Northern Ireland Act 1998, which received royal assent on 19 November 1998, put the agreement into law, and legislative powers were transferred to the Assembly on 2 December 1999. The Assembly was designed to bring unionists and nationalists together in a power-sharing government, and it has been suspended a number of times since, including from October 2002 to May 2007. Members are elected by the single transferable vote.

The three legislatures: devolved and reserved powers

None of the Acts gives a simple list of everything that is devolved. In Scotland and, since the Wales Act 2017, in Wales, the law lists the matters that are reserved to Westminster; anything not on the list is devolved. Northern Ireland has three categories: transferred matters, which belong to the Assembly; reserved matters, which stay with Westminster but could be transferred later; and excepted matters, which are not meant to be transferred.

Legislature	Members	Main Acts	Examples of devolved matters	Examples kept at Westminster
Scottish Parliament	129 MSPs	Scotland Acts 1998, 2012 and 2016	Health, education, justice and policing, housing, environment, agriculture, income tax rates and bands	The constitution, foreign affairs, defence, immigration and nationality, the currency, national security
Senedd (Welsh Parliament)	96 MSs since the May 2026 election (60 before)	Government of Wales Acts 1998 and 2006; Wales Acts 2014 and 2017	Health, education, economic development, transport, environment, agriculture, local government, some taxes	Foreign affairs, defence, immigration, the currency, police and justice, most benefits
Northern Ireland Assembly	90 MLAs	Northern Ireland Act 1998	Health and social services, education, agriculture, housing, and justice and policing (since 12 April 2010)	Excepted: international relations, defence, immigration and nationality, the currency, national security. Reserved: civil aviation, financial services, broadcasting

The boundaries are not always neat. In Scotland, for example, energy is a reserved matter, but planning permission for power stations is devolved.

The Sewel convention

Because Westminster kept the legal power to legislate on any subject, a convention grew up about when it should use that power. It is named after Lord Sewel, the minister who announced the policy in the House of Lords while the Scotland Bill was being passed. The convention is now written into the Scotland Act 1998 itself, in words added by the Scotland Act 2016: "it is recognised that the Parliament of the United Kingdom will not normally legislate with regard to devolved matters without the consent of the Scottish Parliament." The Wales Act 2017 added equivalent wording for Wales.

Consent is given through a legislative consent motion passed by the devolved legislature. The convention is a political rule, not a legally binding one. In 2017 the Supreme Court held unanimously, in the first Miller case, that it did not legally require the devolved legislatures to consent before the UK gave notice of leaving the European Union. If consent is refused, the UK Parliament can still pass the law. By February 2022 consent had been refused, in whole or in part, on 20 occasions.

Devolution within England

England is governed directly by the UK Parliament and government. Devolution inside England has gone to regional bodies with executive powers, not to a law-making assembly.

• London. After a referendum in May 1998, in which 72 per cent voted in favour, the Greater London Authority was set up in 2000 under the Greater London Authority Act 1999. It consists of a directly elected Mayor and a 25-member London Assembly, with powers over transport, policing, economic development, and fire and emergency planning.
• Regional assemblies. Plans for elected assemblies in the other English regions were abandoned after an unsuccessful referendum in the North East in 2004.
• Combined authorities and metro mayors. Groups of councils can form a combined authority; the first was Greater Manchester in 2011. An Act of 2016 allowed these bodies to have directly elected mayors, often called metro mayors. As of June 2026 there were 13 combined authorities and six combined county authorities, 13 of them led by an elected mayor.

The English Devolution and Community Empowerment Act 2026, which became law in April 2026, groups these bodies together with the Greater London Authority as "strategic authorities". Their powers are narrower than those of the devolved nations and centre on the economy, transport and planning.