The Bill

Today was the day for lodging the Referendums Scotland Bill which meant that I had to sign it as the Minister responsible , before it was formally handed to the Parliament.

This normally only happens after the Presiding Officer has given the Bill a Certificate of Legislative Competence , which he did this morning. That process takes several weeks so the Bill has actually been with him and the Parliamentary authorities since early May.

Of course we did introduce the Continuity Bill without such a certificate, but that was the only time it has ever been done.

Convention means that a bill is only published the day after lodging so it will be tomorrow before it is available on the Parliament website .

Then the First Minister and I will formally launch it at an event early in the morning and in the afternoon I will make a statement to the Parliament about the current Brexit situation and taking forward the initiatives announced by the FM on the 24th of April.