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The Scotland Act 1978 was an . BACKGROUND Following Winnie Ewing 's groundbreaking win for the Scottish National Party in the Hamilton By-election, 1967 , the United Kingdom government responded to the growing support for Scottish Independence by setting up the ''Royal Commission on the Constitution'', better known as the Kilbrandon Commission (1969-1973). In response to the Royal Commission's report, the Labour government brought forward proposals to establish a Scottish Assembly. In November 1977 a ''Scotland Bill'' providing for the establishment of a Scottish Assembly was introduced; it received its Royal Assent on 31 July 1978 . THE CONTROVERSIAL "40%" RULE In , held on 1 March 1979. An unique Amendment carried during its parliamentary passage required that, rather than a standard Simple Majority , if less than 40% of the registered Scottish electorate voted in favour of its provisions, an Order Of Parliament Repeal ing the Act would be introduced. In the end 1,230,937 (51.6%) voted in favour of an Assembly, a Majority in excess of 77,000, but this represented only 32.9% of the total registered electorate. The British government rejected the referendum because the condition that 40% of the total electorate should vote Yes was not met, and the Act was repealed by Order on 26 July 1979. COLLAPSE OF THE LABOUR GOVERNMENT The Scotland Act 1978 was repealed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom in March 1979 , by a vote of 301-206 in the House of Commons, initiating the collapse of the Labour government in the subsequent Vote Of No-confidence . THE SUCCESSFUL ''SCOTLAND ACT'' TWENTY YEARS LATER In 1998 the Scotland Act 1998 was passed establishing the Scottish Parliament . SEE ALSO EXTERNAL LINKS |
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