Brexit - What Scotland thinks: summary of evidence and emerging issues

This second Report from the Committee – Brexit: What Scotland Thinks – brings together the views of over 150 different organisations and individuals from across Scotland and beyond. The Report identifies a number of critical questions and emerging issues about the scale of change ahead.
The evidence we heard pre-dates the Scottish Government’s publication of its priorities in Scotland’s Place in Europe. It was also submitted before the Prime Minister made her speech in Lancaster House on 17 January 2017. Both governments have now made their positions known although the ultimate outcome of the negotiations is still unclear.
The enthusiasm with which organisations and individuals responded to the Committee’s call for evidence showed the seriousness with which Scotland views the consequences of the Referendum vote in which the UK voted to leave the EU but Scotland voted to remain. It’s clear from the views expressed to the Committee that virtually all aspects of our lives in Scotland will be fundamentally affected by the decision to end the UK’s membership of the EU. Whether that is the economy in Scotland, key industry sectors, our health and other public services, the Scottish legal system, our environment, citizens’ rights or our schools and further and higher education system, all will be fundamentally changed.
The evidence received speaks for itself. It highlights the substantial questions that people have about the impact of leaving the Single European Market and the Customs Union and what will follow, with a strong desire to maximise the ability to trade, to avoid unnecessary tariff and non-tariff barriers, and not to impede the flow of goods through the introduction of new customs restrictions. There are also concerns about how we grow Scotland’s population to offset the economic challenges of a disproportionally ageing population and fill skills gaps in our economy, without both retaining existing, and attracting new, people to Scotland from the EU27 and beyond. And people are worried that the rights, standards and norms that currently exist within EU laws relating to, for example, the environment, employment and social rights will be somehow weakened and the enforcement or compliance regimes made less rigorous.
The purpose of this Report was to summarise the views we’ve heard and set out what Scotland thinks. We will be publishing more reports shortly on issues such as the rights of citizens of other EU member states living and working in Scotland, and of UK nationals living abroad, as well as our priorities for the UK’s and Scotland’s new trading relationship with the EU after Brexit. Our conclusions on these matters will be published then, having taken the time to reflect properly on what both governments have now said.
For now, we call on all across Scotland to continue to engage with us and have their say, and for both governments to work with us to respond to the views expressed and answer the questions raised. The time for greater clarity is now.