Devolved Powers

• Scotland has responsibility for educational matters
• Scotland is in charge of its own police force
• Scotland is able to design the curriculum and how to assess young people
• Scotland is able to make laws to improve the health of people out with the decisions of the rest of the UK
• Laws to improve health in Scotland


  • Free school meals (P1-P3 since 2015, plans to extend to P4-P5 in 2021)
  • Tobacco Display ban (2013)
  • Opt-out organ donation (2021)
  • Minimum unit pricing for alcohol (50p per unit, 2018)
  • Restricted alcohol purchasing hours (10am-10pm, 2010)
• During the 2020 pandemic, exams were cancelled and pupils' grades were determined by teacher estimates
• Scotland implements its own laws to do with protection and how to punish offenders
• During the 2020 lockdown, people were not allowed to leave their homes unless it was essential, and had to work and school from home
• Devolved matters


  Matters that Scotland is responsible for
• Devolved matters in Scotland

  • Education
  • Health
  • Crime
• Education as a devolved matter


  • Exams cancelled and grades determined by teacher estimates in 2020 during pandemic
• Health as a devolved matter


  • Nicola Sturgeon continued to implement face masks in public spaces as mandatory in 2021 while England scrapped this
• Crime as a devolved matter


  • Hate crime act updated in 2021 to include new offences related to transgender identity
  • Scotland has guilty, not guilty and not proven verdicts