section_path: Politics/Devolution
section_name: Devolution
paragraph_text: Devolution
  
  In the United Kingdom a process of devolution has transferred various powers from the UK Government to three of the four UK countries—Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales—as well as to the regions of England, which since 1999 have their own governments and parliaments which control various devolved matters. These powers vary and have been moved to the Scottish Government, the Welsh Government, the Northern Ireland Executive and in England, the Greater London Authority, Combined Authorities and Combined County Authorities. Amongst the devolved parliaments across the United Kingdom, the Scottish Parliament has the most extensive responsibilities for devolved powers, and has been described as "one of the most powerful devolved parliaments in the world".
  
  The UK has an uncodified constitution and constitutional matters are not amongst the powers that have been devolved. Under the doctrine of parliamentary sovereignty, the UK Parliament could, in theory, therefore, abolish the Scottish Parliament, Senedd or Northern Ireland Assembly. Though in the Scotland Act 2016 and the Wales Act 2017 it states that the Scottish Government and the Welsh Government "are a permanent part of the United Kingdom's constitutional arrangements".
  
  In practice it would be politically difficult for the UK Parliament to abolish devolution to the Scottish Parliament and the Senedd, because these institutions were created by referenda. The political constraints placed upon the UK Parliament's power to interfere with devolution in Northern Ireland are greater still, because devolution in Northern Ireland rests upon an international agreement with the Government of Ireland. The UK Parliament restricts the three devolved parliaments' legislative powers in economic policy matters through an act passed in 2020.