First Minister Alex Salmond yesterday hosted a bilateral meeting with Secretary of State for Wales Paul Murphy to discuss the arrangements for reinvigorating the Joint Ministerial Committee (JMC) process.
At St Andrews House in Edinburgh Mr Salmond said he was very encouraged that the Westminster Government and the UK's devolved administrations were now making final arrangements to kick-off a reinstated JMC process by the summer.
Mr Salmond said that all the administrations involved had agreed with the Scottish Government's desire to 'breathe new life' into the JMC process which establishes a formal framework for structured relations between Westminster and the devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Mr Murphy, who has been given responsibility by the Prime Minister to oversee the JMC process, held a bilateral with the Welsh Assembly Government on Monday and will shortly meet with the Northern Ireland First Minister and Deputy First Minister.
Speaking after today's meeting, Mr Salmond said:
"I have long advocated the reinvigoration of the JMC, and I was delighted to welcome Paul Murphy to Edinburgh today to discuss the detailed arrangements around getting the vital JMC process up-and-running again by this summer.
"I made clear that I want to do all I can to ensure the success of the JMC meetings in supporting structured relationships between the UK Government and the devolved administrations.
"At the same time, I am also clear that the JMC has to fulfil all of its terms of reference, including the need to consider disputes between the administrations - something that was lost when the JMC process fell into abeyance in 2002.
"I look forward to detailed announcements around the JMC meeting programme being made in the near future."
The JMC is an over-arching body that deals with relations between the administrations at Westminster and the devolved bodies.
It includes Ministers of the UK Government, and Ministers from the Scottish Government, Welsh Assembly Government and Northern Ireland Assembly.
Earlier this year, the Prime Minister gave Paul Murphy the task of overseeing a new series of JMC meetings.
The JMC's terms of reference are:
* to consider non-devolved matters which impinge on devolved responsibilities, and devolved matters which impinge on non-devolved responsibilities
* where the UK Government and the devolved administrations so agree, to consider devolved matters if it is beneficial to discuss their respective treatment in the different parts of the United Kingdom
* to keep the arrangements for liaison between the UK Government and the devolved administrations under review
* To consider disputes between the administrations
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