Scotland Votes for Its Own Parliament
Nearly three centuries after the Act of Union, Scots vote to bring their Parliament back
Quick facts
- Referendum date
- 11 September 1997
- Backed Scottish Parliament
- 74.3% of voters
- Backed tax-varying powers
- 63.5% of voters
- Scotland Act becomes law
- November 1998
What happened
On 11 September 1997 Scotland held a referendum asking two questions: whether there should be a Scottish Parliament with devolved powers, and whether that Parliament should be able to vary tax rates. The Scottish Parliament's own account records that 74.3 percent of those who voted on the first question backed a Scottish parliament, and 63.5 percent backed giving it tax-varying powers, with turnout around 60 percent on both questions. The Scotland Bill was introduced in the UK Parliament that December and became law as the Scotland Act in November 1998, and the new Scottish Parliament first convened in 1999, the first sitting of a devolved Scottish legislature since the pre-Union Parliament of Scotland adjourned in 1707.
Why it matters
The 1997 referendum reversed, in part, the centralization of political power in London that the 1707 Act of Union had created, restoring a directly elected Scottish legislature with control over domestic policy areas such as health, education, and justice. It set a template that Wales and Northern Ireland followed with their own devolved institutions and reopened, decades later, the question of Scottish independence that culminated in the 2014 independence referendum.
How we know
The referendum results are recorded in official Scottish Parliament records, and the subsequent Scotland Act 1998 survives as original UK legislation establishing the devolved Parliament's powers.
Sources
- Scottish Parliament. The path to devolution · Primary source (author-declared)parliament.scot · Cited as a "primary" source (no stronger domain match). · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
- Scottish Parliament. History of the Scottish Parliament · General sourceparliament.scot · Cited as a "reference" source (no stronger domain match). · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
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