‘The UK has an asymmetric model of devolution, a model which in the words of the Ministry of Justice “catered for specific demands for new democratic institutions in those parts of the UK (Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland), while maintaining the sovereignty of the UK Parliament in Westminster”. The differing settlements not only reflect the differences in the historical and institutional background of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, but have also had a key impact in the way in which devolution and devolved politics had developed in each of those places.’
If asymmetric devolution was necessary at the start of the devolution process, to what extent is there still a clear rationale for the different powers of the UK’s devolved institutions today?
