Intergovernmental relations in the United Kingdom

The Prime Minister and Devolved heads of Government Council (“the council”) consist of the Prime minister and the Devolved heads of Governments, the council is responsible for:

• Discussing UK level policies that require cooperation
• Overseeing the other government organisations and mechanisms within the other tiers.
• Acting as final arbiter for the UK dispute resolution mechanism.[7]

The Interministerial Standing Committee is led by Michael Gove and is responsible for discussing areas of cooperation that cannot be discussed at the Portfolio Committee, the committee will have representatives from all four nations and aim to meet monthly.[8]

There are currently two active intergovernmental committees.[9]

There are currently 7 active intergovernmental groups[9]

There are 6 levels within the mechanism used settling disputes within the UK intergovernmental relations:

• UK and devolved governments
• IGR secretariat
• Interministerial Standing Committee
• IGR Council

The IGR Council is the final arbiter in any disputes.[10]

The JMC was created in 1999 by Tony Blair's Labour government,[2] and sought to act as a focus for the coordination of the relationships between these administrations. The terms of reference for the JMC were:[15]

• To consider non-devolved matters which impinge on devolved responsibilities, and devolved matters which impinge on non-devolved responsibilities.
• Where the UK government and the devolved administrations so agree, to consider devolved matters if it is beneficial to discuss their respective treatment in different parts of the UK.
• To keep the arrangements for liaison between the UK government and the devolved administrations under review.
• To consider disputes between the administrations.

Before it was replaced, the membership of the JMC Plenary (JMC(P)) was:

• Prime Minister and Minister for the Union, who acts as chair of the JMC.
• Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, Minister for Intergovernmental Relations
• First Minister of Scotland
• First Minister of Wales
• First Minister and deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland[16]

The following may also attend sessions of the JMC:

• Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom or First Secretary of State (if in office)
• The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs
• The secretaries of state for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
• Other Secretaries of State when issues relating to their remit are discussed.

Since its creation in 1999, there had been several different JMC meeting formats.[2] Since 2010, there have been four types: plenary, Europe, domestic and European negotiations (created following the 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum[17][18]).

The JMC Plenary meetings were intended to occur at least once every year. However, no plenary meetings were held between 2002 and 2008.[2] This was primarily because the UK, Scotland, and Wales governments were all controlled by the Labour Party, and as such ministers from the central and devolved governments could quickly and easily use informal links to coordinate policy.[19] However, following the Scottish National Party's victory at the 2007 Scottish Parliament election this was no longer the case. So JMC Plenary meetings were re-established, though on an ad hoc basis.[2]

Under proposals outlined by Theresa May in October 2016, the JMC Plenary was to meet on a definite annual basis and would have rotated between London, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast. It would have also published an annual report on its work and hoped to foster greater formal and informal links between ministers from each (devolved) government.[20][21] However, these proposals were vetoed by Sinn Féin's Martin McGuinness.[20]

The last JMC Plenary was convened by Theresa May on 19 December 2018, even though soon after he became Prime Minister in July 2019, Boris Johnson announced his intention to hold a JMC Plenary meeting as soon as possible.[22]