Building a New Scotland - Creating a modern constitution for an independent Scotland: summary - easy read

Building a new Scotland Summary - Easy Read version

This paper is about a constitution if Scotland became an independent country.

A constitution is a set of rules that guide how a country works.

This paper will tell you:

• Why an independent Scotland needs a constitution
• How we would write a temporary constitution that would include human rights and equality
• How the Scottish Parliament and people in Scotland could use this to write a permanent constitution

The United Kingdom does not have a single constitutional document.

It has a range of laws and ways of doing things.

The Westminster Parliament holds sovereignty in the United Kingdom. Sovereignty means holding the highest power.

United Kingdom parliamentary sovereignty means:

• the UK Parliament can change the powers of the Scottish Government or Parliament
• the UK Parliament can overrule laws made by the Scottish Parliament
• the UK Parliament could overrule devolution

The Westminster Parliament could even get rid of the Scotland Act and a Scottish Parliament.

Independence is a chance for Scotland to have a modern written constitution.

A written constitution would give Scotland the chance to be a modern independent democratic state.

Democratic means where people have the chance to vote for who or what they want.

A constitution would also help to protect people's rights.

The Scottish Government wants to protect human rights and equality protections of the people in Scotland.

The rules of devolution stop this from happening the way we want it to.

Independence would allow Scotland to have its own constitution. This would help us to do this.

It would mean the end of Westminster ruling what happens in Scotland.

The Scottish Government believes that the constitution should:

• be based on the sovereignty of the people who live in Scotland
• match their values as a democratic European nation

To help make this happen, the Scottish Government suggests:

• a temporary constitution, which would start on the day of independence
• then a permanent constitution created by the people through a Constitutional Convention
• a vote by the public to enable people in Scotland to decide the permanent constitution

A constitutional convention is a group of people who are representative of the whole country.

The temporary constitution would mean that Scotland had a shared set of rules on day one of independence.

We would talk to the people in Scotland about what they think the temporary constitution should have in it

The temporary constitution would remain in place until the people of Scotland voted for an agreed set of rules for the permanent constitution.

The temporary constitution would say what kind of state Scotland would be.

At the point of independence, we would be:

• a country with a monarch (a king or a queen)
• a country with a democratic parliament

It would say that the people that live in Scotland have the highest power in the country.

It would say how things are going to work in Scotland and what would be in place to make sure they are working.

It would protect free NHS services in Scotland.

After independence, the temporary constitution would mean the Government had to seek to get rid of all nuclear weapons from Scotland.

The temporary constitution would use the same human rights as the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

It would also use other international agreements on:

 

• social, economic and cultural rights
• childrens rights
• womens rights
• disability rights
• minority ethnic communities
• refugees
• the right to a healthy environment

Social economic and cultural rights means things that go further than the Equality & Human Rights law already says.

The temporary constitution would make sure people had free health care.

It would recognise workers rights.

This would include the right to strike and the right to equality and chances for everyone.

Independence would cover things that are already devolved and things that are not.

Devolved means things that the Scottish Government have full power over to make laws.

The things they do not have power over are called reserved matters.

Reserved matters means Westminster has all the power over those things.

With independence any laws which do not match the new constitution will be gotten rid of. This is called being struck down.

The temporary constitution would make sure that the Scottish parliament would hold a constitutional convention.

People from all over Scotland would be involved as members of the constitutional convention.

The constitutional convention will present the constitution to the Scottish Parliament.

They will be responsible for making sure it is modern, democratic and legally correct.

It will be looked at carefully by the Scottish parliament.

Then people in Scotland would have to agree to it in a referendum.

A referendum is a general vote on 1 political question.

If it was approved, it would become the permanent written constitution for Scotland.

The Scottish government think it should be a living document.

This means one that can change to keep it up to date and modern.

It would be the basis for everything our government and parliament do.

The Scottish government believe in a strong human rights culture for Scotland.

They want to make sure strong human rights laws are in place.

They want them to be checked and things in place to make change where needed.

The Scottish Government consider itself to be bound to the same international treaties, as it is now.

A treaty is an agreement between countries.

They will also use the same human rights laws as the United Kingdom as a starting point.

Independence would give Scotland a chance to think about using other international agreements

Independence would allow the people in Scotland to create a constitution that sets out how our country would work.

A new constitution would allow us to put rights and equality at the heart Scotland's democracy.