Evidence to the Commission on Devolution in Wales Research Papers A Stable, Sustainable Settlement for Wales Edited by John Osmond and Stevie Upton UK Changing Union partnership —Wales Governance Centre, Cardiff University —Institute of Welsh Affairs —Cymru Yfory/Tomorrow’s Wales March 2013 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. It also seeks to involve young people and wider civil society in constitutional debate, disseminating the project’s research findings in an accessible format and holding events in which organisations and individuals can understand what constitutional change might mean for them. The project began work in January 2012 and will run for three years. It is funded by the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust and the Nuffield Foundation. Additional resources to the project are provided by the partner organisations. The project has responded to the remit of the Silk Commission by forming three working groups on: • Legal jurisdiction • Finance and funding • Scrutiny, capacity, accountability and powers In parallel with this work the project has also convened a Forum on the Changing Union. This meets biannually to bring together experts in their fields drawn from the four countries of the UK. It is central to the project as a whole and contributes to the new thinking required to imagine the future shape of constitutional relationships within the British Isles. Each Forum has a different focus. Participants include academics, politicians, civil servants and other practitioners. The Forum produces discussion papers and reports on proceedings. Contents Introduction Cynog Dafis 1. The Capacity of the National Assembly Michael Cole, Laura Mcallister, And Diana Stirbu 2. Policy-Making Capacity of Political Parties in Wales Anwen Elias 3. The Capacity of the Civil Service in Wales Anna Nicholl 4. Energy Policy and Powers Stevie Upton 5. The Powers Wales Needs To Develop An Integrated Transport Policy Stuart Cole 6. Policing Powers Colin Rogers and James Gravelle 7. Wales and the Welfare Agenda Victoria Winckler 8. The European Influence in Wales Francesca Dickson 9. Devolution and the Media IWA Media Policy Group 10. The Scrutiny Capacity of Civil Society in Wales Rebecca Rumbul Notes on the contributors Introduction Cynog Dafis The research papers in this collection were commissioned by Working Group 3 of the UK Changing Union Project, charged with considering the powers, capacity and accountability of the National Assembly. We are very grateful to the authors for their work, which has made a key contribution to the task of preparing evidence to the Commission on Devolution in Wales (the Silk Commission). Part of their brief was to consult with experts and interested parties in considering the issues and making recommendations. The specific issues considered here need to be seen in the context of the decision by the UK Changing Union Steering Group to recommend the adoption of the ‘reserved powers model’ for defining the National Assembly’s powers. This, too, is the recommendation that underpins the evidence of the Welsh Government to the Commission. We decided to commission papers within the broad themes of powers and capacity on the following subjects: Powers: Energy, Transport, Policing, Broadcasting, Welfare, and Europe. Capacity: National Assembly, the Civil Service, the Political Parties, and Civil Society. One way and another the papers under the first heading make the case for devolving significant new responsibilities, either fields or matters within fields, to the Welsh level. The advantages of having powers sufficiently broad so as to enable the integration and coordination of policy and thus achieve the greatest practical effect are self-evident. The list of examples considered here is far from exhaustive but, with the exception of Social Security, they have all been subject to active debate on further devolution. However, powers are evidently only part of the story. One theme that has clearly emerged in our discussions is that the powers and capacities of the National Assembly and Welsh Government must be considered simultaneously. They are crucial for scrutiny, accountability and the legislative process, and thus for effective governance. In our view this is not just a matter of powers and capacity being mutually interdependent. It is also about setting in train a dynamic process in which the two aspects reinforce and stimulate each other. Introduction 03 It is reasonable to argue, for example, that the granting of broader, more clearly-defined, powers to the Assembly is likely to encourage greater public participation. It will also engage and stimulate the growth of the civil society organisations that can play a vital role in devising, implementing and scrutinising policy. Being in possession of such powers makes it more likely that the brightest and best will be attracted into the Welsh civil service. In turn, such development of capacity will generate confidence in the ability to make good use of powers and indeed to acquire more. In such a context a more vibrant Welsh media is also more likely to spring up. This was the reasoning behind the decision to commission the papers under the second heading. Following receipt of the papers there were two further stages: 1. Each one was scrutinised in round-table discussions attended by experts. 2. We considered the outcome of this process and came to an agreed position, bearing in mind the decision of the UK Changing Union steering group to recommend the adoption of the reserved powers model, of which our group approved wholeheartedly. The outcome of this process is to be found in the section on Powers and Capacity in the evidence of the UK Changing Union Project to the Silk Commission. The Project has now decided to commission three further research papers on capacity issues: 1. A paper on the size of the National Assembly, in collaboration with the Electoral Reform Society. 2. A paper on the implications for the Welsh civil service of additional functions of the kind considered above, as well as the adoption of the reserved powers model and the establishment of a separate Welsh legal jurisdiction. 3. A paper on improving intergovernmental relations. We intend to present further evidence based on this work to the Silk Commission in due course. Introduction 04 Chapter 1 The Capacity of the National Assembly Michael Cole, Laura McAllister, and Diana Stirbu 1 The Capacity of the National Assembly Michael Cole, Laura McAllister, and Diana Stirbu Introduction This paper collates findings from our on-going research around the capacity of the National Assembly (see, for example, McAllister and Stirbu, 2007; McAllister and Stirbu, 2008). In particular, we deploy findings from a series of interviews with politicians, Assembly officials and representatives from civil society. We contextualise our findings through a range of relevant academic literature and also use lessons from existing good practice in other institutions. The paper focuses on several long-standing issues in relation to the Assembly’s operating and strategic capacity. It also considers changes during the fourth Assembly. There are four key strands to our analysis: • Support for scrutiny • Institutional scrutiny mechanisms • Assembly size • Wider engagement with the electorate In relation to the first two strands, primary attention is paid to the operation of the Assembly’s committees since they are normally where most effective scrutiny in democratic legislatures occurs, although scrutiny undertaken through Assembly plenary sessions is also addressed. In the final section, we make some specific recommendations to improve the capacity of the Assembly. It is also worth noting that some inherent capacity issues are more easily addressed than others. We attempt to create some hierarchy of changes that might be implemented in the short and medium term that do not depend on increasing the number of elected politicians. Our choice of themes draws on a range of scholarly literature. The emphasis on support for scrutiny reflects the significance of this theme in relation to the effectiveness of the committees (Newton, 2001; McKay and Johnson, 2010). This section also encompasses distinctive issues about ministerial scrutiny through the committees, again a reflection of issues raised through wider scholarship (Rogers and Walters, 2004; Norton, 2005). In addition, this aspect reflects findings about wider support for scrutiny through scholarship on the training of elected politicians (Steinack, 2012). Similarly, our analysis of institutional scrutiny mechanisms also uses themes identified as relevant to overall effectiveness. In particular, we draw on scholarship about the impact of the scale and comprehensive coverage of committee systems in the UK (Newton, 2001); and also beyond, for example in relation to India (Bal Shekar, 2003), Japan (Kesavan, 2003), and the Netherlands (Hazan, 2001). In addition, our analysis reflects extensive scholarship about appointments to such committees, Chapter 1 06 for example concerning Italy (Hazan, 2001), and Japan (Fukui, 2003). Our structure also relates to scholarship about workloads of politicians (Searing, 1994) and