The Smith Commission on devolution has not given the Scottish Government all of the powers it wants and it will continue to argue for more, Deputy First Minister John Swinney has confirmed.
The SNP MSP provoked uproar on Holyrood's opposition benches when he said the Smith Agreement had been greeted with "widespread disappointment" last week, and insisted the UK parties' pre-referendum vow of substantial devolution "has simply not been delivered".
In a statement to Parliament, he said: "On behalf of the Scottish Government I welcome the contents of the report but regret that a wider range of powers has not been delivered.
"The report contains a number of recommendations that will enable this Parliament to better serve the people of Scotland."
He particularly welcomed the devolution of air passenger duty, more extensive power over income tax, a range of benefits and the power to extend the Scottish voting franchise to 16 and 17-year-olds.
He also called on the UK Government to avoid any actions which would significantly affect or constrain the Scottish Parliament after devolution, in particular the move from disability living allowance to personal independence payments which he asked to be halted in Scotland.
He expressed regret that employment law, health and safety, trade union law, the minimum wage, immigration, variable capital allowances, child support and equality law remain reserved.
He added: "It should therefore be of little surprise that given none of these responsibilities were devolved, there was such widespread disappointment on the publication of the report last week.
"The proposals mean control over 71% of taxes in Scotland remains at Westminster along with 85% of welfare decisions - including the conditions and sanctions that are causing so much distress in our country.
"These proposals cannot be characterised as home rule or as near federalism as is possible in the UK. The vow has simply not been fulfilled.
"Whilst the Commission may not have given us all the tools we want and for which we will continue to argue, we in the Scottish Government stand ready to play our part, and we now look forward to the next steps in Scotland's journey."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article