In a Tomorrow’s Wales event at the Royal Welsh Show this week Elin Jones AM highlighted the need for further legislative powers to be devolved to the National Assembly for Wales, which can only be achieved through a successful referendum.  The Minister drew attention to the Red Meat LCO and Measure that took three years to pass through two governments and two Committees in both Cardiff and London.    

Elin Jones, the Minister for Rural Affairs said:  

“There is no doubt that rural and agricultural interests have been served well by devolution and government in Wales.  However, a more streamlined and responsive democratic process would see the Senedd better serve the interests of rural Wales.   

“Agricultural and rural legislation is better developed and scrutinised in Wales, because it can be more appropriately tailored to the needs of Wales.  The current legislative process is wasteful of resources and democratic scrutiny.   

“There is no better example of this than the recent Red Meat LCO and Measure.  This has been a wholly uncontroversial piece of legislative transfer.  However, it has still taken three years to achieve legislation - and in the meantime, the legislation was developed by two Governments - in Cardiff and London - and then scrutinised by two sets of Committees and Legislatures, in Cardiff and London.   

“It is now time to give the National Assembly its own legislative powers so that rural Wales can achieve its aspirations within Welsh democratic scrutiny.” 

Moving to part four of the Government of Wales Act 2006 will give the National Assembly law-making powers that will enable elected members in Wales to create laws according to the needs and interests of Wales.   

Gareth Vaughan, the Farmers’ Union Wales president said:  

“Farming is an integral part of the landscape and culture of Wales, and decisions that might suit other parts of the UK have the potential to damage not only Welsh agriculture but also our landscapes, communities and culture. Devolution, which was fully supported by the FUW, has given powers to Welsh policy makers to focus on Welsh issues; it means we can lobby people who are elected in Wales for decisions to be made that suit Wales, and that the majority of important decisions affecting our industry are not taken by people in London who know nothing about our industry and may never have even been to Wales. 

“We may not always agree with the decisions made by Welsh policy makers, but I have no doubt that without devolution our grievances would be far more numerous and acute.”  

In their evidence to the All-Wales Convention, National Farmers’ Union Cymru said:  

“In NFU Cymru’s experience devolution has brought politicians and government much closer to the people of Wales, giving us much easier access to both than had been possible previously. 

“Securing a historic approach to the single farm payment is a positive outcome to devolution which would not have been possible had it not been devolved to Wales. Wales’s simpler system allowed for swifter payments to farmers.  

“It is our view that the advent to devolution has done much to lift the self esteem and national mood of Wales as a nation, and there appears to be a growing awareness from outside Wales that there is scope to do things differently in Wales.”

Following Cheryl Gillan’s announcement yesterday that the referendum on the Assembly’s powers would take place in the first quarter of next year, Cymru Yfory’s David Llywelyn Davies and True Wales’ Rachel Banner appeared on Good Morning Wales today (about 2h 34m in) to discuss issues surrounding the date and more.

The arguments Rachel Banner put forward in favour of a No vote were depressingly familiar, and far-removed from what is actually on the table in the referendum. We heard how the ‘political elites in Cardiff Bay’ are merely grabbing more power for themselves, that this referendum is part of the process of Wales separating from the UK, that a Yes vote would cost more and that the Assembly should instead concentrate on ‘Health, Education and the Economy’. Let’s take these points in turn:

The political elites

If it is the political elites that reside in Cardiff Bay, why is it that according to recent polling carried out by YouGov and the Insitute of Welsh Politics almost two to one of respondents believe that the Assembly should have more influence over governing Wales than Westminster, let alone the fact that the current UK Cabinet does not have a single Member representing a Welsh constituency?

‘The slippery slope to separation’

This referendum is not about independence. A Yes vote would not mean Wales ‘cutting itself off from the rest of the UK’, it would give us simpler, more effective government within a UK framework, and allow us to act swiftly for the benefit of our people and our communities.

Increased costs

As we have pointed out before, evidence published by the All Wales Convention shows that resources that are currently tied up in the inefficient and wasteful LCO process would be better spent on making laws more quickly and more clearly, and in a more joined-up way.

Health, Education and the Economy

Health and Education are fields already devolved to Wales. And yet, under the current flawed system, we have been unable to legislate fully on issues like improving the rights of mental health patients in Wales and providing safer school transport without wasting years in having to ask permission from Whitehall first. As David said this morning, why on earth wouldn’t we want these powers in Wales, especially given that the responsibility is already with the Assembly? In fact, the Assembly can only begin to properly concentrate on doing all it can to improve Health and Education once this mess is sorted out.

Finally, it was clear once again that True Wales has no answer when challenged on what positive benefits would be retained in the event of a No vote. The example of the smoking ban was proof enough of this – for the families of hundreds of people who lost their lives in the two years it took the Assembly to get powers on banning smoking this referendum is not about banal constitutional debate, or mythical political elites.

If, as Len Gibbs of ‘True Wales’ suggests (29 May), the population as a whole has a poor understanding of devolution, then his letter to the Western Mail on the referendum question will not have done much to enlighten it.

There is no hidden agenda here. The referendum cannot, and will not, offer independence or autonomy. It cannot, and will not, provide law-making powers in any area of policy other than those already under the Assembly’s responsibility. Those areas of policy are already fixed and are not up for debate.

The choice before the people of Wales is this: either we stick with a system where the Assembly has to keep asking Westminster’s permission to pass legislation in policy areas already devolved to it OR we change to a system where the Assembly can simply legislate in those same specific fields without wasting tremendous amounts of time, money, patience and good will.

The reason for people’s alleged confusion about devolution is precisely the same reason that the referendum question is so difficult to frame – we need a simpler system, and a yes vote in a referendum will provide it.

During a statement in the Assembly this week, the Minister for Health and Social Services Edwina Hart outlined the dangers of alcohol abuse and the measures that the Welsh Assembly Government would like to take to tackle it, including imposing stricter rules on the promotion of alcohol, consideration of reducing demand by introducing minimum pricing and increased taxation, linking levels of tax more closely to alcohol strength.

The powers needed to implement these measures are not currently devolved, and although some progress has been made in lobbying the UK Government, the Minister was very clear that if WAG does ‘not see the action we want at UK level very soon, then the time will come when we seek more powers to act ourselves’.

Three years… what can happen in three years? Quite a bit! You could meet a partner, get married, have two children and look for a comfortable house in your home village. But what if you can’t afford any of the houses there? What if you have to stay with your parents, or live in a caravan, or have to move away somewhere else and rent a flat that’s too small for your growing family? This problem is all too common in Wales, especially in our rural communities which have seen whole generations of young people being forced to leave to look for a home because they can’t afford to buy a house in their own area. 

Politicians have been greatly criticised over the past few months but for once Assembly Members and the Welsh Assembly Government were trying to do something to tackle this problem. Back in the summer of 2007 they published the first version of a request for powers to make laws in the field of affordable housing. The idea was to give councils the right to temporarily suspend the right to buy council houses in areas where there was a shortage of affordable housing.

The majority of assembly members supported this idea and as per the constitutional arrangements we have now members of parliament and Lords needed to approve the request. And that’s where things started to go wrong. Long delays while the LCO was discussed in Westminster; amendments to the LCO deemed to be unlawful; re-writing the LCO and presenting it the second time and in the end the LCO falls by the wayside in the rush to complete parliamentary business before the general election.

The fate of the Affordable Housing LCO clearly crystallizes the reason why the Assembly needs to have the power to make laws in those areas that have been devolved. Had the Assembly had the power back in 2007 to legislate in this area then the affordable housing measure would have become law two or more years ago. Hundreds of families would have been able to have an opportunity to buy an affordable home in those parts of Wales where there is a shortage.

But the most important lesson about the shambles of the Affordable Housing LCO is that it gives us a foretaste of what could happen if there were governments of different colours in Westminster and Cardiff Bay. So far the Labour party has had a majority on the Welsh Affairs Select Committee – the committee that has responsibility for passing the LCOs. There had already been quite a bit of delay with this LCO but the final nail in the coffin was the Conservatives’ objection to suspending the right to buy council houses. Imagine a situation on May 7th with a Conservative government. They will have a majority on the Welsh Affairs Select Committee and if they disagree with the contents of any LCO in any field it will be possible for them to delay and block that LCO. The potential for conflict and disagreement between Westminster and the Bay is very real.

But what about those families in rural Wales that are still looking for an affordable home? What choice is there now? The Welsh Assembly Government could introduce the LCO for the third time and start the whole cumbersome, complex process again without any guarantee that the LCO would be passed in Westminster if there was a Conservative government.

Or there’s the sensible choice – a Yes vote in the referendum so that the power to make laws on housing in Wales is transferred straight away to the National Assembly. If we have a positive vote in the referendum this autumn or next spring those families in rural Wales might have some hope of getting an affordable home in their own village quite soon.

Tomorrow’s Wales has welcomed the Welsh Affairs Select Committee’s ‘Wales and Whitehall’ report, published today.

The report concludes that ‘Ministers and senior civil servants at both ends of the M4 need to be more coordinated, strategic and transparent in their development and delivery of devolution with a much higher priority given to awareness raising of Welsh devolution in Whitehall’ and raises concerns about the time taken for some LCOs to receive Whitehall clearance.

A spokesperson for Tomorrow’s Wales said:

“This report is clear evidence of why we need to move as quickly as possible to a clearer and less complicated devolution settlement.

“We believe that giving the National Assembly primary lawmaking powers would give us simpler, more effective government, and would avoid unneccessary conflict with Westminster.

“Keeping the present system would waste time, and bog the Assembly down in process and disagreement.”

The Affordable Housing (now Sustainable Housing) LCO saga continued at the Senedd yesterday, as Conservative AMs voted against approving the Draft Sustainable Homes LCO, despite two weeks ago having voted in favour of a referendum on the devolution of these powers and more to the National Assembly.

Once again we saw evidence of how the LCO process creates conflict, and blurs the boundaries between the principles of which powers should be devolved and the policy intentions of the Measures that would then be drawn up using those powers (in this case, the inclusion of the power to suspend the right to buy in areas of housing shortage was at the root of the opposition to the LCO). 

The LCO however was approved, and now needs to be passed at Westminster.  With a General Election looming the timescale for this is short. For a perspective on whether the LCO will survive the pre-election ‘wash-up’, see this post on the Syniadau blog.

The urgent need for the National Assembly to get proper, primary, law-making powers has been dramatically illustrated by the potential collapse of the Housing Legislative Competence Order (LCO) in the face of Conservative opposition at Westminster. After four years’ work by civil servants and legal experts in both Cardiff and London, at goodness knows what cost, the net result could be – nothing. The LCO could give the Assembly power, in areas of acute shortage of social housing, to limit the right to buy, and is supported by housing organisations such as Shelter and Community Housing Cymru.

It is the opposition of Conservative MPs that might sink the attempt in this case. However just blaming the Tories misses the point. It is the system that needs to be changed. Trying to draw down law-making powers bit by bit, with MPs having the means to say No or impose conditions, is bound to lead to outcomes like this. Inevitably MPs will confuse the question of whether we in Wales should have law-making powers in certain matters with the issue of what the Assembly Government intends to do with those powers. Conflict is in-built in the system. And of course with the imminent possibility of governments of different colours in Westminster and Cardiff Bay the situation is sure to get worse.

Fortunately the forthcoming referendum will give us the chance to sort out the mess. The saga of the Affordable Housing LCO shows how important it is that we get it right.        

On his Devolution Matters blog, Cymru Yfory constitutional adviser Alan Trench has argued that a ‘yes’ vote in a referendum on primary law making powers for the National Assembly would benefit those concerned with the UK level of government as well as those concerned with the current situation in Wales.

Alan Trench argues that while the present system, deeply flawed as it is, can be made to work by a Labour-led Governments in Cardiff Bay and Westminster, the logic of the situation is quite different if the Conservatives are in office in London. Devolution means that politically it would be difficult for the Conservatives to impose their will on Wales in the way that John Redwood for example sought to do, and any attempt to try would forfeit democratic legitimacy in a way that would be especially damaging now that Wales is a happy hunting ground for Tory seats for both Westminster and Cardiff Bay. Equally, political preferences of Welsh voters are different on the whole to those in England, where there is less of a desire for social-democratic policies and solutions than in Wales. On an institutional level, discussions around LCOs (where the Welsh Government, an Assembly Committee or a backbench AM asks Parliament for legislative powers in a specific field and which have been contentious enough as it is) would become even more problematic, and publicly so, if problems encountered were to be magnified by party-political differences. It’s hard to see how anyone would gain, and the only certainty is that these issues would further damage the standing of politicians and politics in general.

Giving Wales primary law-making powers in 20 distinct fields by implementing Part 4 of the Government of Wales Act fields would mitigate against this by decoupling policy in England and Wales and creating a degree of political insulation for a Conservative UK Government. It lets Wales be social-democratic, and protects central government from embarassment as Welsh choices are both clearly Welsh  and democratic. In such circumstances, a Conservative UK Government can show how tolerant of pluralism and diversity it is. Labour would benefit as well, as the chance to shape a distinctly Welsh policy agenda offers a way to protect a particular sort of social democracy that its Welsh voters clearly prize – and think they have already.

Part 4 does not offer ‘Scottish-type’ powers, Trench concludes, but it’s closer to them.  It reduces the need for constant liaison with Whitehall, and so the danger of Whitehall misunderstanding how Wales and Welsh devolution work.  It means that the UK moves closer to having a single template for devolved government, which is adjusted to reflect particular circumstances in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland.  That will make devolved government easier not just for the general public to understand, but also politicians and civil servants.

The Welsh Assembly Government has just laid a new LCO to deal with exceptions to two fields in which matters are already devolved to the National Assembly – Transport and Social Welfare.  The new LCO doesn’t appear to make any substantive changes, as these exceptions were included when these matters were devolved and this just is a new way of presenting them, and reorganising the form of Schedule 5 to the Government of Wales Act 2006. 

What this shows is just what a state Schedule 5 has deteriorated to, barely two years after it came into force.  We already have huge variation in what matters are devolved to the National Assembly, and the ways this is done.  So great is the disorder that it is now necessary to fix the mess that has arisen, and the only way to do this is for the Assembly itself to assent to exceptions being made to its legislative powers.  Do those who want to stick to Part 3 of the Act really think this is an appropriate way for Wales’s governance to be organised?