Evaluate The View That Devolution Reforms Haven’t Gone Far Enough

Question 1

P1. Should there be an English parliament?

Answer 1

Creation of an eng parl to represent and decide on important issues that just affect England, in the same way the Scottish parl does so for important issues that just affect Scotland.
Solve the issue of asymmetric devolution. Scottish population is more left wing than the rest of the uk and they have been able to represent this in policies such as scrapping tuition fees and higher income tax.
An eng parl would create a more coherent system of devolution, with a federal UK parl responsible for uk wide issues such as macroeconomics and each country having a devolved parl that controls issues such as transport.
Solve West Lothian question. E.g. tuition fees and in 2024, when 29 Scottish MPs voted in favour of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) bill and 17 voted against, despite the bill only affecting eng and wales.

Question 2

P.1 eng parl CA

Answer 2

Power struggle, Create tensions between the eng govt and the uk wide govt, with the former challenging the latter. Around 85% of the UK’s population is in eng, leading to the eng parl being very powerful. Federalism arguably works best when there is no dominant state or region, such as in the US.
Uk parl and govt already represents English issues such as Brexit which was opposed by both Scotland and NI

Tensions already exist between devolved leaders and Westminster. In
January 2026, Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, criticised the
government’s immigration reforms, specifically targeting plans that would
make it harder for migrants to achieve settled status in the UK.
●
Under these changes, refugee status will become temporary and
subject to review every 2.5 years, and the pathway to permanent
settlement will be extended from 5 to 20 years.
He argued the changes also could damage integration efforts and would
leave people’s lives “overshadowed with uncertainty”
, and risks “profound
damage” to London’s economy.
This shows that even without full legislative devolution, powerful regional
leaders can become significant opponents of Westminster. If England had a
full English Parliament, this conflict would be far greater as it would be
extremely powerful and its legitimacy would challenge that of Westminster.

Question 3

P.2 Should there be more regional devolution in England?

Answer 3

This would bring decision making closer to the people and address the differing interests of each English nation, therefore improving democracy and representation. E.g the metro mayor Andy burnham’s manchester health plan. Led to higher life expectancy because the region put an emphasis on prioritising mental health care. Starmers’ 8 new devo agreements.

Different regional seemblies and regions can experiment with new policies and learn from each other, in the same way that that a number of polices first introduced in Scotland have been adopted in the whole of the uk, such as the ban on smoking in public places.

Question 4

P.2 regional devolution CA

Answer 4

There is little public support for a regional layer of govt in England.
A 2012 referendum on whether Birmingham should have an elected mayor received a 58% no vote on just a 27.67% TO.

The lack of support for city regions can be seen in the consistently
low turnouts in existing regions and the rejection of devolution in
referendums.
●
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In 2022, Bristol voted to scrap its directly elected mayor and return
to the committee system, with 60% supporting its abolition.
In the May 2024 Mayoral Elections, turnout was low across England.
For example, in Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham was re-elected
on a turnout of just 32%.
These examples support the view that there should not be further English
devolution, as it does not improve local democracy. Voters consistently
reject devolution or fail to participate in devolved elections, suggesting the
institutions lack legitimacy and that extending devolution would create a
democratic deficit by empowering mayors who do not have public support.

Question 5

P.3 should further powers be granted to Scotland, wales and NI?

Answer 5

Existing devolved bodies have shown they run public services and decide policies effectively, including during the covid 19 crisis.
Brexit allows a lot of policy areas that used to be governed the EU to be given to devolved bodies

Question 6

P.3 CA

Answer 6

Further devolution, in terms of tax raising powers, risks leading to greater disparities in the public services offered to the people and the laws that govern people in the uk, further undermining equal citizenship.
Devo have failed to prove its effectiveness. In august 2023, the Guardian reported that devolved bodies had fallen behind England in some aspects of NHS performance. You r twice as likely to be on a year-plus waiting list in Scotland and NI than in England, whilst it is even worse in wales, with 1 in 20 people on nhs waiting lists for more than a year.