Editing Legislative consent motion (section)

==Background==
The [[Scotland Act 1998]] devolved many issues relating to legislation for Scotland to the Scottish Parliament.  The [[Parliament of the United Kingdom|UK Parliament]] maintains [[parliamentary sovereignty]] and may legislate on any issue, with or without the permission of the devolved assemblies and parliaments.

The motions were named after [[John Sewel, Baron Sewel|Lord Sewel]], then Parliamentary [[Under-Secretary of State for Scotland]] who announced the policy in the [[House of Lords]] during the passage of the Scotland Act 1998. Noting that the Act recognised the parliamentary sovereignty of the British Parliament, he said that HM Government "would expect a convention to be established that Westminster would not normally legislate with regard to devolved matters in Scotland without the consent of the Scottish Parliament".

The devolved governments have no formal say in how the British Parliament legislates on [[reserved and excepted matters|reserved matters]].