Can devolved governments reject legislation made from the central government?

In the UK can Scotland reject any legislation made from Westminster?


PLEASE HELP! It's for my essay and I've googled and googled and nothing has helped!|||No, devolved governments have specific areas of responsibility, or more correctly, competence, e.g. the health service in Scotland. In those areas they have the final say, which is not to say that they might not introduce the same, or similar, legislation as enacted by central government.





Any legislation passed by the central government is automatically void in a devolved area if it concerns a devolved responsibility, and any legislation passed in a devolved area has no bearing on that passed by central government.





In the rare instances where legislation from central government may negatively impinge on a devolved power a special clause is normally included to specifically address that contradiction, or the devolved government agrees to change its own legislation.





Part of he reason Scotland and Wales still have secretaries of state in the UK parliament is to allow them to both lobby the central government against introducing locally contentious national legislation and to make sure that new national legislation does not inadvertently impinge on devolved powers.|||It depends on whether it relates to a "devolved matter". If the legislation relates to a matter which is specifically devolved to the Scottish Parliament, it cannot be enforced in Scotland. And that's the important point - if the legislation is outside Westminster's competence in Scotland, it doesn't matter whether they pass it or not, it won't be enforced by Scottish courts.





If the Westminster Parliament wants to legislate for the whole of the UK on something that is a devolved matter, then the Scottish Parliament will be asked to pass a Sewel motion - one that agrees to let Westminster legislate on this particular matter. One case of this I remember is in connection with the Civil Partnership Act 2004 (I'm gay so this is a subject close to my heart!) a Sewel motion was passed in the Scottish Parliament on 30 June 2004 and that allows civil partnerships to be legal in Scotland on the same basis as in England and Wales.





Other matters are "reserved matters" and the Scottish Parliament cannot reject them. Defence is a good example, and foreign affairs. The UK is still one country to the outside world, has one navy, army, and air force, so allowing the Scottish Parliament to reject a Westminster decision on these matters would make no practical sense.|||No they can't. They have to obey legislation from Westminster.