Written evidence submitted by UK’s Changing Union: Our Future (SLK 02)

Executive Summary

1. The UK’s Changing Union: Our Future (henceforth referred to as Our Future) warmly welcomes the publication of the Silk Commission’s second report on the future of Welsh devolution. We believe it is a robust and comprehensive report that offers a sensible blueprint for the establishment of a sustainable and stable settlement for Wales.
2. Our Future strongly supports Silk’s recommendation for the adoption of a Scottish style ‘Reserved powers’ model of devolution for Wales.
3. We also agree with the Commission’s call for an increase in the size of the Assembly. There is now a clear and compelling body of evidence that the Assembly has too few Assembly Members to adequately conduct its responsibilities and we draw the Committee’s attention to the Size Matters report written by the Electoral Reform Society and the UK’s Changing Union.
4. Our Future notes Silk’s recommendation for a further period of consultation and consideration of the devolution of the justice system, including the issue of a Welsh legal jurisdiction. The question of a Welsh legal jurisdiction, as Silk acknowledges, will only grow in significance as the Assembly’s legislative record grows and both the UK and Welsh Governments need to co-operate to accommodate this legal divergence.
5. While Our Future welcomes the Silk Commission’s call for enhanced civil service capacity, we would also wish to see the accountability of the existing civil service enhanced. Using the precedent of the UK Chancellor offering the House of Commons Treasury Select Committee a veto over future Chairs of the Office of Budget Responsibility, the Assembly should be given a similar role over the appointment of the Welsh Government’s Permanent Secretary
6. Our Future supports Silk’s proposals to bring the media into the devolution era and reiterates our warning that safeguards would be essential in the event that full devolution of broadcasting were to occur.
7. Finally we support the Commission’s call for stronger IGR mechanisms and repeat our recommendation of a constitutional convention for the UK.

The UK Changing Union Partnership

The UK’s Changing Union project is a joint initiative between the Wales Governance Centre at Cardiff University, the Institute of Welsh Affairs, and Cymru Yfory/Tomorrow’s Wales. The project seeks to explore and debate the future of the Union and the Welsh devolution settlement through research and engagement with relevant public and civil society stakeholders. We are funded by the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust and the Nuffield Foundation.

A core part of the Changing Union project is Our Future, which is aimed to provide opportunities for young people to develop their ideas, participate in the debate and influence decisions. This part of the project is being designed and led by young people.

The Nuffield Foundation is an endowed charitable trust that aims to improve social well-being in the widest sense. It funds research and innovation in education and social policy and also works to build capacity in education, science and social science research. The Nuffield Foundation has funded this project, but the views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the Foundation. More information is available at www.nuffieldfoundation.org

THE SILK ROAD: OUR FUTURE’S RESPONSE TO SILK AND OUR RECOMMENDATIONS FOR DEVOLUTION[1]

Devolution’s Architecture

We support Silk’s recommendation for the adoption of a reserved powers model of devolution for Wales. The current ‘conferred’ powers model is complicated and leaves considerable doubt about the true delineation of competencies devolved to Wales and retained at Westminster, a legislative murkiness that, as we have seen, creates a potential minefield of legal challenges. As the Richard Commission argued, a transition to a clearer system where powers are specifically retained at Westminster, with the Assembly free to legislate in all other fields, would increase efficiency, provide greater accountability and confidence.[i]

Consultation and cooperation is needed regarding a Welsh Legal Jurisdiction. Following our session on a Welsh jurisdiction, we urged the Commission to forensically examine the case for a Welsh jurisdiction. Whilst there are split opinions on the desirability at present for a Welsh jurisdiction, most noticeably being the Assembly’s Constitutional and Legislative Affairs Committee Report which ultimately opted not to clearly support or oppose such a development, the Jurisdiction question will only advance in importance as the Assembly increases its legislative output and it should thus be treated as a priority by the Commission. We maintain this position and strongly urge the Committee to promote intergovernmental cooperation between Wales and Whitehall to accommodate this legal divergence.

Capacity

We also agree with the Commission’s call for an increase in the size of the Assembly. Better Governance does not just entail constitutional re-ordering, but that time honoured political cliché: having the tools to do the job. In the case of the National Assembly for Wales, capacity has again been an ever-present element of the devolution debate, featuring in the Richard Commission’s findings, the All Wales Convention’s deliberations and now in the Silk Commission’s second report.

As evidence to our session on capacity and the work on Richard previously warned, 60 AMs is simply insufficient for the Assembly to scrutinise the Government’s legislative and departmental work.[ii] AMs are expected to serve on a wide number of committees, meaning that policy specialisation and effective scrutiny is significantly undermined. We therefore strongly recommend that your inquiry breaks from its remit and accepts the overwhelming case for an increase in the number of AMs.

While Our Future welcomes the Silk Commission’s call for enhanced civil service capacity, we would also wish to see the accountability of the existing civil service enhanced.  Secondly, another issue that arose from our discussions on Assembly scrutiny was the effectiveness and accountability of the civil service in Wales. This has also previously created headlines, with the former Welsh Government Minister Andrew Davies a strident critic of the way Welsh civil servants have stifled reform. In the wake of the session’s evidence, Our Future believes that Silk could have gone further in the recommendations of reform to the civil service in the UK and Wales and we strongly support t democratization of the civil service in Wales. Using the precedent of the UK Chancellor offering the House of Commons Treasury Select Committee a veto over future Chairs of the Office of Budget Responsibility, the Assembly should be given a similar role over the appointment of the Welsh Government’s Permanent Secretary.[iii]

Welsh Media

Our Future supports Silk’s proposals to bring the media into the devolution era and reiterates our warning that safeguards would be essential in the event that full devolution of broadcasting were to occur.  The weak state of the Welsh media has sparked a significant degree of comment and concern, not least because of the damaging impact a failing media has on the broader health of a democracy.[iv] Solving this problem, however, is not without difficulties and as such we recommended the following to the Commission:

1. That the Commission devotes significant time to analysis of the Welsh media, including exploring potential models offering a sustainable future.
2. A number of concerns were raised about media independence if devolution of S4C were to take place following the Welsh Government’s recent disagreement with the channel over a Pobl y Cwm plotline. In the light of such fears, we would recommend that the Commission explores the practicality of a devolved S4C having a separate royal charter (along the BBC’s lines).

The UK scene

We support the Commission’s call for stronger IGR mechanisms and repeat our recommendation of a constitutional convention for the UK.  Aside from rationalising the Assembly’s powers, a more holistic approach to the United Kingdom is needed, not least because of the fluid situation in Scotland and developing localism in England. Our Future therefore supports Silk’s recommendations for stronger IGR mechanisms and reiterates our initial recommendation for a UK Constitutional Convention, as the First Minister of Wales has repeatedly argued for.[v] Such a convention is essential to ensuring not only better governance for Wales, but for the United Kingdom as a whole.

28 March 2014