The Impact of the Scottish Parliament in Amending Executive Legislation

This paper provides the first systematic attempt to investigate the legislative impact of the Scottish Parliament on Executive legislation by analysing the fate of all amendments to Executive bills from the Parliament’s first session (1999-2003). Initial findings on the success of bill amendments show that the balance of power inclines strongly in favour of ministers. However, when we account for type of amendment and initial authorship we find evidence that the Parliament (both coalition and opposition MSPs) actually makes more of an impact, particularly in terms of the level of success of substantive amendments to Executive bills. Findings have implications for much of the current literature that is sceptical of the existence of power sharing between the Executive and the Parliament and within the Parliament.