john buttifant sewel, baron sewel cbe, ba, mscecon, phd, ll.d (born 15 january 1946) is the chairman of committees of the house of lords, its deputy speaker. he is also a former senior vice principal of the university of aberdeen and former parliamentary under-secretary of state. he was made a parliamentary under-secretary of state for scotland in 1997, where he assisted in steering through the legislation that led to the recreation of the scottish parliament. his name is given to the sewel motion, parliamentary device passed by the scottish parliament, in which it agrees that the united kingdom parliament may pass legislation on a devolved issue extending to scotland, over which the scottish parliament has regular legislative authority. he left ministerial office in 1999 upon the new parliament taking over the majority of the scottish office's functions. sewel was educated at durham university before taking his msc at university college of wales, swansea and studying for his phd at aberdeen university.http://www.royalsoced.org.uk/events/reports/2003-2004/scotland%27s_land.pdfhttp://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/4229855.stm he had joined the university of aberdeen as a research fellow in the department of politics in 1969. during the next three decades he worked in the departments of education and political economy and also the regional centre for the study of economic and social policy, where he was appointed to his chair. in 1988 he became the dean of the then faculty of economic & social sciences. subsequently, in 1995, he was appointed vice-principal and dean of the faculty of social sciences & law. he was first elected to political office as an aberdeen district councillor in 1974, serving as council leader from 1977 to 1980, and also as president of the convention of scottish local authorities from 1982 to 1984. he was appointed a commander of the order of the british empire (cbe) in the 1984 new year honours. he was an influential member of the scottish constitutional convention from 1994 to 1995. on 10 january 1996 he was created baron sewel, of gilcomstoun in the district of the city of aberdeen, and became parliamentary under-secretary of state at the scottish office from 1997 to 1999, serving as the minister for agriculture, environment and fisheries. as such he piloted the scotland act 1998 through parliament and helped draft the plans for the new scottish parliament. at the first election to the parliament, sewel was a candidate as third on the labour
1946_births Academics_of_the_University_of_Aberdeen Alumni_of_Durham_University Alumni_of_Swansea_University Alumni_of_the_University_of_Aberdeen Labour_Party_(UK)_life_peers Living_people People_associated_with_the_campaign_for_Scottish_devolution