The United Kingdom is said to have a unitary state with a devolved system of government. This contrasts with a federal system, in which sub-parliaments or state parliaments and assemblies have a clearly defined constitutional right to exist and a right to exercise certain constitutionally guaranteed and defined functions and cannot be unilaterally abolished by Acts of the central parliament.

The government has no plans to establish an English parliament or assembly although several pressure groups are calling for one. One of their main arguments is that MPs (and thus voters) from different parts of the UK have inconsistent powers. Currently an MP from Scotland can vote on legislation which affects only England but MPs from England (or indeed Scotland) cannot vote on matters devolved to the Scottish parliament. Indeed, current Home Secretary John Reid, who is an MP for a Scottish constituency, runs a department which deals primarily with England and Wales. This anomaly is known as the West Lothian question.

The policy of the UK Government in England was to establish elected regional assemblies with no legislative powers. The London Assembly was the first of these, established in 2000, following a referendum in 1998, but further plans were abandoned following rejection of a proposal for an elected assembly in North East England in a referendum in 2004. Unelected regional assemblies remain in place in eight regions of England.

除了位于伦敦的英国上议院外，现在苏格兰、威尔斯和北爱尔兰都拥有自己的议会，这些议会中的部分议院是按照比例代表制选举产生的。虽然这些二级政府拥有部分立法等方面的权限，他们的权力还是无法足够大到能与英国议会抗衡。三个地方议会之间的权限大小也各不相同。例如，苏格兰议会拥有立法权，而威尔斯议会政府则只能决定具体如何使用由中央政府分配给威尔斯的预算。此外，这些议会的存在不受宪法保障，它们的具体权责范围也可由英国议会决定增大或缩小。

因此，英国被认为是一个权力下放的单一制国家。这与联邦制国家是不同的。在联邦制国家中，地方议会的地位得到宪法承认，其权限范围和职责都有明确保障，中央议会无权随意剥夺这些权力。

英国政府目前的政策是继续下放中央权力。但在英格兰，并没有建立英格兰议会和政府的计划，虽然有一些团体力主如此。他们抗争的理由之一是来自不同地方的议员的权利有所不同，苏格兰的议员可以对英格兰事务的法律投票，但英格兰的议员却无权参与苏格兰议会的事务。比如说，现在的内政大臣John Reid，是代表苏格兰的议员，就可以领导一个主管英格兰和威尔士事务的部门。

英国政府对英格兰的态度是允许英格兰建立民选的政府，但没有立法权。建立于2000年的伦敦政府（London Assembly）就是第一个这样的政府，它也是1998年全民公决的成果。但2004年，东北英格兰的全民公决否定了建立政府的提议，所以在英格兰其他各地，目前仍是非民选的政府在管理当地的事务。



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