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The devolution framework put in place in Scotland and in Wales in the first year of the New Labour government has undoubtedly been one of the most significant legacies of the wide-ranging program of constitutional reform of the Blair years, bringing Vernon Bogdanor to speak of a new constitutional settlement among the different parts of the United Kingdom (UK). In this regard, electoral reform is an interesting case to study because, while electoral law regulating British Parliament elections for most of the period since 1998 has remained mostly unchanged, over twenty-five years of devolution, the Scottish Parliament first, and later both the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh Parliament, passed several statutes that have set Scotland and Wales apart from the rest of the UK when it comes to electoral law for parliamentary and local government elections. This article argues that, while the Scottish devolved institutions can be said to have led the way on electoral reform in the UK from the early years of devolution to the referendum on Scotland’s independence, the latest reforms enacted by the devolved legislatures show the Welsh Parliament to be more innovative and bolder in the field of electoral reform than its Scottish counterpart.
