The Calman Commission published its much anticipated first report last week noting that it was ‘not so much an end point [but] a stepping stone’. Indeed, the report not only outlines the progress made thus far but is also designed to stimulate dialogue and debate on ‘Scotland’s future constitutional development’.

The report’s main points are as follows:

1. With its ‘starting point’ being that Scotland should remain part of the UK, it outlined that devolution would be ‘undesirable’ in the areas of the monarchy, the UK constitution, defence, national security, foreign affairs and currency and coinage.  
2. There is a ‘plausible case’ for consideration on devolving responsibility to Scotland in the areas of broadcasting, energy policy, animal health and movement, firearms, misuse of drugs, regulation of health care professionals and marine planning.
3. There may be a case for ‘further consideration’ in the areas of the civil service, insolvency, employment law, immigration and health and safety.
4. While stating that it had come to ‘no conclusions’ on the issue of financial accountability, its preference to maintain an economic union and combat ‘less shared social citizenship’ lent it to rule out fiscal autonomy. It considered three other mechanisms to fund the Scottish Parliament which included: the assignment of tax revenues, the devolution of taxes and maintaining the current bock grant from the UK Government.
5. Although reaching no ‘formal conclusions’, it declared that revitalising the ‘existing machinery for intergovernmental relations’ was necessary due to the different political climate that has existed since May 2007.

The interim report has been criticised by many journalists and predictably by the SNP who compared the report to a mouse that offered up nothing more than a ‘constitutional squeak’. SNP MSP Keith Brown said:

The Calman Commission has been a political white elephant… From the decision to exclude independence which effectively barred the views of a large part of the Scottish public, to Professor Hughes Hallett’s claim that the financial report has been fiddled there has been a clear preference for the status quo. In contrast to this exclusive Commission, the Scottish Government’s National Conversation is open to all members of the public and to all views on Scotland’s constitutional future.