This Order modifies Schedule 5 to the Scotland Act 1998 (c.46). Schedule 5 defines reserved matters (matters which are outside the legislative competence of the Scottish Parliament) for the purposes of that Act. The Order provides an exception to the reservation of the Constitution under paragraph 1 of Part 1 of Schedule 5 so that a referendum on the independence of Scotland from the rest of the United Kingdom is not a reserved matter if certain requirements are met.