THE Scotland Bill setting out the proposed new tax powers will be published next Thursday, ahead of Burns Night as promised, senior UK Government sources have confirmed.
The draft clauses will be announced by Alistair Carmichael, the Scottish Secretary, not at Westminster but in Edinburgh, prompting speculation that Prime Minister David Cameron could make his first visit of 2015 to Scotland next week.
The new Bill will contain the recommendations of the Smith Commission such as giving the Scottish Parliament full power to set income tax rates and bands, increased borrowing powers, to be agreed with the UK Government, to support capital investment, and control over some benefits.
The draft legislation will be enacted after the General Election by whichever party or parties form the next UK Government.
Claims that the Government was "foot-dragging" over calls to fast-track certain elements such as fracking and the work programme, which Labour believes could be handed over to Holyrood before the May 7 poll, were strongly denied by Mr Carmichael.
On shale gas, he pointed out that the Coalition had taken any provision that would relate to Scotland out of the Infrastructure Bill because it would eventually be devolved. But the Secretary of State stressed that, like any legislation, there had to be proper scrutiny on fracking.
"If we were dragging our feet, we wouldn't be taking forward the Section 30 Order on giving votes to 16 and 17-year-olds, for example. We have to bring forward this whole package and you have to be realistic about what you can actually achieve," he said.
On the work programme, which is designed to provide work experience and training to help people find work, the Scottish Secretary said talks were underway between the UK and Scottish Governments to ensure the transition of responsibility was as smooth as possible.
Labour has called for this power to be fast-tracked because it insists it has failed in Scotland with only one in five people finding work under it.
But Mr Carmichael said the Labour calls were not feasible as the legal powers suggested would only transfer administrative competence and not legislative competence as the Smith Commission proposed. "There's not time to do it now really. We stick to the timetable but with one eye to the practicalities with a working group," he added.
Meantime, Labour city council leaders have called for devolution of the UK's work programme scheme to bypass Holyrood completely and go straight to local authorities amid concerns about the SNP Government's "centralisation agenda".
Council leaders in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen - which are home to a quarter of Scotland's population - said the work programme should be tailored to meet local circumstances.
In a joint statement, they said: "Instead of waiting until after the election, these job-creating powers should be devolved to the Scottish Government now and then passed to local authorities across Scotland.
"Our councils already have extensive, and successful, experience of getting people back to work. We should be able to take control of these powers and ensure these programmes are best suited to our own local circumstances," they added.
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