There was a time, as you can still read on the SNP website, here , when their MPs did not vote on England only matters. As they said in 2006, "Scottish National Party MP's vote for Scotland's interests and priorities at Westminster and the SNP wants all powers currently exercised by the House of Commons to be returned to an independent Scotland. "In the meantime, SNP Parliamentarians vote on matters which have a direct or significant indirect impact on Scotland, including UK constitutional affairs. We refrain from voting on exclusively English, Welsh and Northern Irish matters." And as recently as February 2015, as lecturer James McEnaney points out here , Nicola Sturgeon said that this policy would continue, writing in the Guardian that where "any issue is genuinely 'English-only', with no impact on Scotland, the case for EVEL can be made." She also provided one specific example of an issue which would legitimately be seen as a matt