DEVOLUTION has failed and the Scottish Parliament is no more than an ultimately pointless bureaucracy, according to leading economists, who claim that the Parliament has failed to improve the nation’s quality of life.

Carlo Morelli and Paul Seaman, of Dundee University’s economics department, conducted a study using government statistics to gauge how the Parliament had performed.

Their research found that inequality, both in income and the ability of individuals to make a tangible improvement in their lives, had not improved. It also claimed that Scotland had failed to progress economically since 1999.

Dr Morelli said: “The results show that, despite a rise in social involvement around the time devolution came into effect, there has been no change in the levels of inequality in Scotland.

“The reasons for this are that the devolved Parliament has not used its ability to make significant policy divergences with regard to inequality. Inequality is not just the imbalance in income but also the inequality of what is called social exclusion — that is, the ability of an individual to participate in and impact upon, his or her social environment.”

He said that the findings also posed significant questions about the role of the Scottish Parliament and how it justified itself, given that there was no difference in policy between central and devolved governments on these central issues.

“One of the key selling points of having a devolved Parliament was that it is better placed to deal with problems such as economic inequality and social exclusion,” he said. “Having showed that there has been no progress in this area since devolution, it seems the Parliament is a failure.”

Shona Robison, the SNP Shadow Health Minister, welcomed the study and agreed that the Parliament needed more power. Ms Robison, the Dundee East MSP, said: “This study makes a very useful contribution to the debate about the powers of the Scottish Parliament, which needs more powers, such as the ability to change policies on welfare and pensions.”

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