Editing West Lothian question (section)

===Legal status===
The Scottish Parliament was formed by statute, the [[Scotland Act 1998]], and is thus a creation of [[Parliament of the United Kingdom|Westminster]]. No sovereign status on the Scottish Parliament is conferred, and the act has not changed the status of the Westminster Parliament as the supreme legislature of Scotland, with Westminster retaining the ability to override, or veto, any decisions taken by the Scottish Parliament. The Westminster Parliament remains the sovereign body; powers are ''devolved'' rather than transferred to the Scottish Parliament. The ability of all Westminster MPs to vote on Scottish legislation has not been legally diminished by devolution, as made clear by Section 28(7) of the Scotland Act 1998, which states that the legislative powers of the Scottish Parliament do "not affect the power of the Parliament of the United Kingdom to make laws for Scotland".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.opsi.gov.uk/ACTS/acts1998/80046--c.htm#28 |title=Scotland Act, section 28(7) |publisher=Opsi.gov.uk |date=18 February 2011 |access-date=26 February 2011 |archive-date=18 May 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070518003613/http://www.opsi.gov.uk/ACTS/acts1998/80046--c.htm#28 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Legislation relating to ''[[reserved issues]]'' such as [[defense (military)|defence]], [[national security]], [[foreign policy]] and [[monetary]] and economic issues are voted on by all the MPs at Westminster to ensure consistency across the whole of the United Kingdom. The Scottish Parliament is not able to pass laws on these issues itself, as they were not devolved. The West Lothian question is not involved in this situation, as all parts of the Union have a say roughly proportional to their population and all are equally affected.

During [[devolution]], a convention was created to manage the power of Westminster to legislate on matters within the legislative competence of the Scottish Parliament. This is known as the Sewel Convention, and the related Scottish parliamentary motions are now known as [[legislative consent motion]]s (previously Sewel motions).<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Government/Sewel/Introduction |title=Sewel Motions |website=[[Scottish Government]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131014032452/http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Government/Sewel/Introduction |archive-date=14 October 2013}}</ref> These motions (of which there are around a dozen per year) allow MPs to vote on issues which, among other things, are within the Scottish Parliament's legislative competence. The Sewel Convention states that the Westminster Parliament will not normally legislate on devolved matters in Scotland without first obtaining the consent of the Scottish Parliament.