The procedure by which the Welsh Assembly passes legislation is developing into a slow-moving farce – and that’s even before the Tories take over in Westminster.
Tory leader Nick Bourne reckons spring 2010 is the date when that’ll happen, so we’ve still got almost two years to endure of a slow and convoluted procedure that is ripe for being highjacked by anti-Assembly political extremists.
Even optimist Carwyn Jones, counsel general, admits problems, although he thinks most are being overcome as both Cardiff and London get used to the necessity for all legislation to be dual-tracked in equal detail in each legislature.
The main problem, he admits, is the sheer number of committees that have to be run in the Bay, with backbenchers enduring far greater work loads than in either Westminster or Holyrood.
It’s clear that Mr Jones believes the Assembly needs to increase its number of AMs from 60 to 80 – but feels to do so “would not be the most popular move as far as the public is concerned”.
Both opposition parties’ main concern is at the slowness of the procedure. The coalition government planned to put forward six legislative competence orders (LCOs) during its first year (now ending). In fact, only two have been achieved; another third of the legislative programme is, according to Mr Bourne, “stuck in a logjam between Cardiff and London, with the final third lost in a Whitehall black hole”.
As most of his current MPs would be delighted with such lack of progress, it was left to Lib Dem leader Mike German to state, “Too many Labour and Conservative MPs are holding Wales back”.
The extent to which MPs are being forced to waste their time through second-guessing in a convoluted manner every word that has been already agreed by AMs in Cardiff is revealed in the report of Commons Welsh Affairs Committee’s report on the social welfare LCO.
The upshot is that this LCO (which is mainly to do with a number of minor issues for vulnerable people aged under-25) will be counted one of the most scrutinised bits of legislation ever to be passed by a British legislature, by the time Cardiff alone has eventually additionally passed the laws themselves (known as Measures).
In truth, much of the procedure this time has been a farce.
This is because an additional stage has to be gone through which was never mentioned in the Government of Wales Act. Any legislative proposal has to be given the OK by the relevant Whitehall departments.
Because “Whitehall clearance” was delayed in this case, the upshot was that the work on the LCO done by a Cardiff committee was to “a very different Order to that which was referred to the Welsh Affairs Committee”. In a very underplayed comment, the London committee says. “This is an unsatisfactory situation”.
London had in fact already thrown yet another spanner at the LCO. Whitehall acted to remove the one power which would have turned this legislation into something worthwhile, rather than a piddling bit of verbiage which will interest only an occasional lawyer and a couple of social workers.
Legal advice to the Assembly Committee had stated: “… it could be argued that this LCO could be the gateway to legislation which makes all smacking of children in Wales unlawful and illegal”.
This would have shown the world that Cardiff was ahead of London in dealing with this issue. But that just couldn’t be allowed. So London decided that this was a criminal justice issue, and therefore not devolved.
The Welsh government and its deputy minister (Gwenda Thomas, Labour) begged to differ. Mrs Thomas said the defence of reasonable chastisement in Section 58 of the Children Act 2004 ought to be removed, “so that children and young people enjoy the same level of protection in law as adults do”. This matter was primarily a children’s rights issue, she believed.
When the issue of delays in passing LCOs was presented to the press today, Mr Bourne had plenty of ammunition with which to demolish the legislative maze erected by anti-devolution Welsh Labour MPs (willingly aided by Tories).
Mr Bourne readily agrees how ridiculous it is for legislation having to be passed similarly through not one, but two, institutions. The obvious answer is Scottish-style powers. His own preference, indeed – although his current MPs disagree.
So Mr Bourne suggests joint committees of AMs and MPs to deal with LCOs (this did, indeed, happen once) ; or perhaps an individual standing committee in London for each LCO, instead of overburdening the Welsh Affairs Committee.
Whichever, anything is better than the present mess, until Wales gets the chance to vote itself extra powers.
