| Synopsis: |
House of Lords paper Scottish Independence: Constitutional Implications Of The Referendum (HL 188) concludes that, in the event of a 'yes' vote in the Scottish independence referendum, MPs for Scottish constituencies, including ministers, should retain their seats in the House of Commons until the day of independence itself. However, they should not negotiate for the rest of the UK on the terms of independence, scrutinize the UK's negotiating team nor ratify a resulting agreement, as their first duty would be to their Scottish constituents rather than the interests of the rest of the UK. The Committee concludes that in the event of Scottish independence the remainder of the UK would be the 'continuator' state and so retain its current international status and treaty obligations, as well as UK institutions such as the BBC and the Bank of England. Scotland would become a new 'successor' state and would not have any automatic claim on those institutions. |