WITH MSPs set to give Westminster consent to pass the Scotland Bill later this week, bringing in new tax and welfare powers for Holyrood, Devolution Committee Convener and former minister Bruce Crawford looks ahead to a significant new chapter in the devolution story.

THE final days of this five year parliamentary term have seen moments of genuine political drama with high-stake negotiations worth billions of pounds between the Scottish and UK governments.

And when a deal seemed unlikely, Her Majesty’s Treasury blinked, and finally agreement was reached on a fiscal framework to underpin Scotland’s finances and the new powers of the Parliament. A deal that would have seen Scotland’s budget eroded by anything up to £7billion over the next decade was reduced to one without a single penny’s detriment. New devolved powers for Scotland that will include income tax, welfare benefits and increased capital borrowing.

With the Scottish Parliament poised to give Westminster its consent to pass the Scotland Bill many will feel the hard work, the complex work, is done: the Smith Commission, the inter-government negotiations, the parliamentary scrutiny and passage of the Bill, and soon Royal Assent.

In practice, when the new batch of MSPs are elected to Holyrood in May, they will emerge into a new political landscape and a whole new political dynamic. Devolution will no longer be about separate powers.

Throughout all of the evidence heard by my committee at Holyrood, it was apparent that the new devolution settlement embodied in the Scotland Bill will bring more complexity, with more ‘shared space’ between the Scottish and UK parliaments. More interdependence between reserved matters and devolved matters, and more potential for decisions made by governments and parliaments at one level to have consequences for the other.

Whether it is welfare policy or tax decisions, the interplay between the Scottish and UK political institutions is about to become infinitely more challenging. Two different political cultures and political values that might instinctively be in conflict, but there will have to be co-operation and collaboration for the new powers to work.

We have though already seen glimpses of how this new structure of devolution might function in practice, during our scrutiny of the Scotland Bill. We have seen compromise and co-operation. Two governments were locked in negotiation right to the end, but ultimately were able to reach agreement on a fiscal framework.

We have seen the UK Government and UK Parliament accept important amendments to the Bill argued for by my committee - on the permanency of the Scottish Parliament where we now need a referendum of the people for Holyrood ever to be abolished, on new and top-up benefits and on widening the definition of Carers in the Bill, to name a few. We have seen UK Government Ministers being held to account in the Scottish Parliament, and vice versa, Scottish Ministers at Westminster.

While my committee has welcomed these developments there are still areas where we consider that the Bill does not fully implement the Smith Commission recommendations. Take for example employment where only support for those unemployed for more than one year is to be devolved, along with its associated budget that has been reduced by 87% in its first year by the UK Government

In a political landscape where powers are shared, and governments’ actions are interconnected, the role of the Scottish Parliament and its scrutiny becomes less than straightforward.

New ways will be needed for this legislature to hold the executive to account, but who exactly does it hold to account when both Scottish and UK Ministers have their hands on the levers of power? We have seen this already with issues like offsetting the impact of the bedroom tax and the abolition of post-study work visas for overseas students who made an important contribution to the Scottish economy.

Let us not forget however, these new powers are not the private domain of the politicians. Power is also shared with the people. And the voice of the people and the wisdom of civic Scotland has been a vital part of our scrutiny of the Scotland Bill.

Whether it was the 16 and 17 year olds we met in Lerwick, Aberdeen, Fort William and Hamilton, or the economic experts from our universities and think tanks that we called upon time and again, we have glimpsed how this Parliament might work in the next chapter of the devolution story.

For all that, the next session of the Scottish Parliament will, by its nature, be a transitional period. In five years’ time both governments and both parliaments will take stock of how the fiscal framework and new powers have worked. The Smith Commission principle of ‘no detriment’ will be assessed to ensure the deal remains fair to both Scotland and the rest of the United Kingdom.

There needs to be more clarity on what happens in five years’ time if both governments can’t agree on what happens next, but that is further down the line.

There is much to be done. New powers to govern. New laws to improve people’s lives in Scotland. New relationships between governments and parliaments north and south of the border. New ways for us to work for the betterment of the people we serve.

Bruce Crawford MSP is Convener of the Scottish Parliament’s Devolution (Further Powers) Committee