As already mentioned, according to the Scotland Act, any powers that are not specified on the Reserved List are automatically devolved to Scotland. The Act was agreed by both Governments.

This avoided the need to itemise all of the remaining powers and seemed to make perfect sense to the Westminster Government of the day. Of course, this was way back in the late 1990s - and nobody imagined for a second that the powers which were assigned to Brussels would come into play. However, with the vote to Leave the EU in the referendum of 2016, 111 powers scheduled to be transferred from the EU will impact on the devolution agreement.

The Scottish Government has been working with the Welsh Government to prepare a set of amendments to the proposed European Union (Withdrawal) Bill which would, if made, turn the Bill into one that properly respects devolution and ensures that the Scottish Parliament and the National Assembly for Wales do not have their competence restricted by EU withdrawal.

This would ensure that powers returning from the EU are devolved to Scotland and Wales by default.

The Westminster Government maintains all EU returning powers should go straight to Westminster and then they will decide what should be passed on to the appropriate devolved Administrations. Understandably, the Scottish Government and the Welsh Assembly see this as a blatant power-grab which goes against the spirit (and constitutional arrangement) of the agreed devolution settlements.

Brexit Talks 14.11.2017

Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon met with UK Prime Minister Theresa May at 10 Downing Street to discuss the EU Withdrawal Bill. (14.11.2017).

This was the first meeting since their last encounter in March 2017.

After the meeting, Nicola Sturgeon advised that the Scottish Parliament won’t accept the bill in its current form.

"I made very clear, as the Scottish government has done consistently, that the withdrawal bill as it stands would not be acceptable and we would not be able to recommend approval of that. That remains the position, but hopefully having had the opportunity to air the concerns that we have in more detail, we will be able to see progress in the weeks to come."

"But I also made clear what our bottom lines are on that Bill. Discussions will continue and hopefully we can reach some points of agreement in the weeks to come."

The main sticking point is that post-Brexit, the bill moves powers to Westminster that should default to Holyrood. The UK government is seeking the consent of Holyrood for the bill - but the consent of the Scottish parliament isn’t actually necessary. If consent is not given then the UK government could proceed regardless as the UK parliament holds ultimate sovereignty.

However, proceeding without consent would ignite a constitutional crisis that the UK government will want to avoid.

In the next week or so, amendments could be made to the bill which could placate the Scottish government. The UK government is extremely weak so there is a good chance that the Scottish Government might get the concessions they are demanding.

As the negotiations intensify, here is the alphabetical list of all 111 powers...

Powers returning from the EU that intersect with the devolution settlement in Scotland

1. Agricultural Support

2. Agriculture - Fertiliser Regulations

3. Agriculture - GMO Marketing & Cultivation

4. Agriculture - Organic Farming

5. Agriculture - Zootech

6. Animal Health and Traceability

7. Animal Welfare

8. Aviation Noise Management at Airports

9. Blood Safety and Quality

10. Carbon Capture & Storage

11. Chemicals regulation (including pesticides)

12. Civil judicial co-operation - jurisdiction and recognition & enforcement of judgments in civil & commercial matters (including B1 rules and related EU conventions)

13. Civil judicial co-operation - jurisdiction and recognition & enforcement of judgments instruments in family law (including BIIa, Maintenance and civil protection orders)

14. Civil judicial cooperation on service of documents and taking of evidence

15. Criminal offences minimum standards measures - Combating Child Sexual Exploitation Directive

16. Control of major accident hazards

17. Cross border mediation

18. Data sharing - (EU fingerprint database (EuroDac)

19. Data sharing - European Criminal Records Information System (ECRIS)

20. Data sharing - False and Authentic Documents Online (FADO)

21. Data sharing - passenger name records

22. Data sharing - Prüm framework

23. Data sharing - Schengen Information System (SIS II)

24. Efficiency in energy use

25. Elements of Reciprocal Healthcare

26. Elements of the Network and Information Security (NIS) Directive

27. Elements of Tobacco Regulation

28. Energy Performance of Buildings Directive

29. Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Directive

30. Environmental law concerning energy planning consents

31. Environmental law concerning offshore oil & gas installations within territorial waters

32. Environmental quality - Air Quality

33. Environmental quality - Chemicals

34. Environmental quality - Flood Risk Management

35. Environmental quality - International timber trade (EUTR and FLEGT)

36. Environmental quality - Marine environment

37. Environmental quality - Natural Environment and Biodiversity

38. Environmental quality - Ozone depleting substances and F-gases

39. Environmental quality - Pesticides

40. Environmental quality - Spatial Data Infrastructure Standards

41. Environmental quality - Waste Packaging & Product Regulations

42. Environmental quality - Waste Producer Responsibility Regulations

43. Environmental quality - Water Quality

44. Environmental quality - Water Resources

45. Environmental quality - Biodiversity - access and benefit sharing of genetic resources

46. Equal Treatment Legislation

47. EU agencies - EU-LISA

48. EU agencies - Eurojust

49. EU agencies - Europol

50. EU Social Security Coordination

51. Fisheries Management & Support

52. Food and Feed Law

53. Food Compositional Standards

54. Food Geographical Indications (Protected Food Names)

55. Food Labelling

56. Forestry (domestic)

57. Free movement of healthcare (the right for EEA citizens to have their elective procedure in another member state)

58. Genetically modified micro-organisms contained use

59. Good laboratory practice

60. Harbours

61. Hazardous Substances Planning

62. Heat metering and billing information

63. High Efficiency Cogeneration

64. Implementation of EU Emissions Trading System

65. Ionising radiation

66. Land use

67. Late payment (commercial transactions)

68. Legal aid in cross-border cases

69. Migrant Access to benefits

70. Minimum standards -housing & care: regulation of the use of animals

71. Minimum standards legislation - child sexual exploitation

72. Minimum standards legislation - cybercrime

73. Minimum standards legislation - football disorder

74. Minimum standards legislation - human trafficking

75. Mutual recognition of professional qualifications

76. Mutual recognition of criminal court judgments measures & cross border cooperation - European Protection Order, Prisoner Transfer Framework Directive, European Supervision Directive, Compensation to Crime Victims Directive

77. Nutrition health claims, composition and labelling

78. Onshore hydrocarbons licensing

79. Organs

80. Plant Health, Seeds and Propagating Material

81. Practical cooperation in law enforcement - Asset Recovery Offices

82. Practical cooperation in law enforcement - European Investigation Order

83. Practical cooperation in law enforcement - Joint Action on Organised Crime

84. Practical cooperation in law enforcement - Joint investigation teams

85. Practical cooperation in law enforcement - mutual legal assistance

86. Practical cooperation in law enforcement - mutual recognition of asset freezing orders

87. Practical cooperation in law enforcement - mutual recognition of confiscation orders

88. Practical cooperation in law enforcement - Schengen Article 40

89. Practical cooperation in law enforcement - Swedish initiative

90. Practical cooperation in law enforcement - European judicial network

91. Practical cooperation in law enforcement - implementation of European Arrest Warrant

92. Procedural rights (criminal cases) - minimum standards measures

93. Provision of legal services

94. Provision in the 1995 Data Protection Directive (soon to be replaced by the General Data Protection Regulation) that allows for more than one supervisory authority in each member state

95. Public sector procurement

96. Public health (serious cross-border threats to health)

97. Radioactive Source Notifications – Trans-frontier shipments

98. Radioactive waste treatment and disposal

99. Rail franchising rules

100. Rail markets and operator licensing

101. Recognition of insolvency proceedings in EU Member States

102. Renewable Energy Directive

103. Rules on applicable law in civil & commercial cross border claims

104. Sentencing - taking convictions into account

105. State Aid

106. Statistics

107. Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) Directive

108. Tissues and cells

109. Uniform fast-track procedures for certain civil and commercial claims (uncontested debts, small claims)

110. Victims rights measures (criminal cases)

111. Voting rights and candidacy rules for EU citizens in local government elections