By Steve Bargeton, political editor

SCOTTISH MINISTERS have agreed to waive their right to bring in new legislation at Holyrood as a result of yesterday’s Queen’s Speech.

Instead a series of Legislative Consent Motions (LCMs)— formerly called Sewel motions—will be put before MSPs to allow MPs at Westminster to legislate for Scotland.

As many as seven bills announced by the Queen yesterday relate to matters devolved to Holyrood. But, with six months to go to the Scottish Parliament elections, there is no time for a raft of new legislation to be introduced at Holyrood.

The four bills which will be subject to LCMs are Consumers, Estate Agents and Redress; Education and Training; Statistics and Registration Services; and Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement. The Executive will monitor the progress of three other bills—Child Support Agency, Climate Change, and Serious Organised Crime—with a view to further LCMs.

Minister for Parliamentary business Margaret Curran said, “The Parliament is still considering a number of substantial and important pieces of legislation, for example to protect children and vulnerable people and to control knife crime.

“There is therefore little scope for any fresh legislation to be considered by Parliament until after the election next year.

“The Queen’s Speech announced today presents a number of legislative proposals which would benefit the people of Scotland.

“Given that there would not be time for these proposals to be legislated for in this session, the Executive is proposing that a number of provisions are extended to Scotland under the Sewel Convention.

“This approach gives Scotland the best of both legislative worlds—our own ambitious programme and appropriate legislation on our behalf.”

Scottish Secretary Douglas Alexander said the new legislative programme outlined in the Queen’s Speech would continue to benefit people in Scotland as it does across the UK.

“The majority of the bills in the programme include provisions that will apply in Scotland, and our proposals for public sector reform, pensioner support, the environment, security and institutional reform will all have a direct impact.

“The Queen’s Speech is a tangible demonstration of the union at work—a continuing partnership between the Scottish and UK Parliaments and the Scottish Executive and UK Government.”

SNP leader Alex Salmond said his party would press ahead with their plan for an amendment.

“This speech offered no fresh thinking or a change of course with regard to the war in Iraq,” he said.

“The SNP and Plaid Cymru will proceed to table an amendment demanding that the Government present to the House of Commons an exit strategy for the British involvement in Iraq.”

Shadow Scottish Secretary David Mundell said, “Many of the measures are simply rehashes of previous promises.

“The Government has announced on 33 separate occasions that it was going to reform the House of Lords, yet we still have no detail. Like so many of the Government’s previously announced headline measures I suspect most of what was in today’s speech will be tomorrow’s chip papers.

“The reform of the Child Support Agency is a measure which will be welcomed in Scotland but again the Government has had nine years to do something but has just allowed the situation to get worse.

“The other significant measures for Scotland which I welcome are the Climate Change Bill, which David Cameron has forced to the top of the political agenda, and pension reform.”

Liberal Democrat MP for Gordon Malcolm Bruce said, “The Government needs less legislation and more competent delivery.

“ID cards will divert billions of pounds which could be invested in greater security without gratuitous invasion of civil liberties.

“The Climate Change Bill presents a great opportunity for Scotland—if it has teeth and is not a Trojan horse to impose nuclear power.”

The bills likely to go before MSPs to be passed to Westminster are:

* Consumers, Estate Agents and Redress. This bill will set up a new statutory UK-wide National Consumers Council. Extending this bill to Scotland for all matters will ensure that Scottish consumers benefit from the resources of a UK wide institution and enjoy the same level of representation as consumers in other parts of the UK.

* Education and Training. This bill will allow Scottish students to benefit from technological developments for exchanging learner and learning data across the education sector within the UK, and will provide efficient administration of career development loans. Modernisation of industrial training levy legislation will ensure the legislation is more reflective of employers’ wishes.

* Statistics and Registration Services. This bill will ensure that Scottish Executive statistics are shown to meet the highest UK standards.

* Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement. This bill will establish a UK-wide reserved Tribunal Service modernising the structure and process of decisions made by tribunals in areas such as social security and tax. The bill will also benefit Scottish museums and art galleries by extending to Scotland legislation protecting cultural artefacts loaned for exhibition from seizure.

The bills which might contain provisions that would require the consent of the Scottish Parliament and could be passed to Westminster are:

* Child Support Agency. Mainly reserved but may include provisions in devolved areas relating to the jurisdiction of courts and the joint registration of births by both parents.

* Climate Change. The environment is a devolved matter in Scotland and legislation relating to climate change is likely to include provisions in devolved areas.

* Serious Organised Crime. Likely to include provisions in reserved and devolved areas including recognition of prevention orders and proceeds of crime which are devolved matters.