Lord Wallace presses case for island control of Crown Estate assets

During debates on the Scotland Bill in the House of Lords this week, the former MP for Orkney and Shetland, Jim Wallace, proposed the “double devolution” of management of the Crown Estate assets to Scotland’s three island councils.

The Smith Commission on further powers for the Scottish Parliament had recommended that “responsibility for the management of those assets will be further devolved to local authority areas such as Orkney, Shetland, Na h-Eilean Siar.”

Lord Wallace’s amendment to the Bill proposed that the scheme for devolution to Scottish Ministers should contain provision for onward transfer of powers to the islands, no later than a year after the initial devolution to the Scottish Government.

In speaking to his amendment, he said that there were concerns about the commitment of current Scottish Ministers to decentralising power, given how much centralisation had taken place in recent years. But more positively, he believed that “the communities of the islands would be far better at managing these local marine resources themselves.

“This is an opportunity genuinely to give substance to localism and promote the sustainable use of the marine resource, not least with regard to aquaculture and renewable energy.”

Commenting after the debate, Lord Wallace said: “I do think this is a real opportunity to give these worthwhile powers to the islands areas. I guess it was predictable that the Scotland Office minister, Lord Dunlop, should retreat behind the actual text of the Smith Commission proposals, but he did agree to reflect on my argument that the amendment did, indeed, give a role to Scottish ministers and he also agreed to meet representatives from the islands councils to discuss this proposal.

“I expect that meeting to take place before the Bill returns for the next stage of its passage through the House of Lords; and I shall also seek to arrange for the islands’ representatives to brief peers, a number of whom expressed support for this move. I firmly intend to pursue this idea further.”