Assembly Bwletin Cynulliad September 2012 Assembly Bwletin Cynulliad is a joint initiative between Grayling and the Institute of Welsh Affairs. Every month we aim to bring you the ABC of Welsh politics. For information on ABC, please con- On the agenda this tact: [email protected] or [email protected] month: £10,000 well spent? That is the question New Permanent Secretary for Wales Former Whitehall official Derek Deputy Presiding Officer of the Na- tional Assembly for Wales David Jones has been named as the new Articles Melding AM, has defended a Permanent Secretary of the Welsh £10,000 training course on offer to Government. £10,000 well spent? That Assembly Members on how to Professor Jones, previously Cardiff is the question question Ministers in Committees as University’s Director of Business & “good value”. Strategic Partnerships, takes up his position at the head of the Welsh New Permanent Across ten sessions, AMs were Secretary for Wales trained in how to ask effective civil service on 8 October. He succeeds Gillian Morgan, who questions when scrutinising announced in June that she was to Battle lines drawn over government business and legislation. Some Assembly Members were also retire after four years in the post. Draft Budget given advice on how to dress, how to sit, and where to position themselves Commenting on the announcement, Power restored and new at the table, the BBC has reported. Prof Jones said that his “watchwords boundaries drawn Isle of for the civil service will be excellence Anglesey Council Criticising the Assembly Commis- and delivery. People in Wales de- sion’s decision, Welsh Conservative serve no less.” With over 30 years’ experience in government, including 38,340 Welsh women AM for Monmouth, Nick Ramsay, suggested that the spending could in the Department of Trade and In- face losing eligibility for not be justified, adding: "I think we dustry, the Welsh Office and later at benefits have to look very carefully at how the National Assembly for Wales, the much money is being spent and the Welsh Government has described him as "a central figure in the opera- type of decisions about public tion of devolved government in money." Wales". Events However, the Assembly’s Presiding Officer, Rosemary Butler AM, has The Future of Work - dismissed criticism, explaining that IWA Coffee Shop Debate the training is important to the work with Norma Jarboe OBE of Wales’ devolved legislature. "When anyone is elected or recruited into a job that requires a range of skills, it's important to have training and development." Battle lines drawn over Draft Budget Finance Minister and Leader of the House Jane Hutt AM set out her Draft Budget to the National Assembly for Wales on this week, positioning capital spending as central to the Welsh Government’s drive to support growth and jobs in Wales. Presenting her pro- posals to Assembly Members, Ms Hutt described capital spending as a “major lever for delivering modern public services and provid- ing investment in the economy.” The package includes £25 million for improvements to the A55 Conwy Tunnell and £15 million to accelerate a number of schemes under the 21st Century Schools programme. Indeed, with capital spending one of the few tools at the Minister’s disposal, the Welsh Government will seek to maximise the impacts of its spending through improvements to the public procurement system, providing increased opportunities for apprenticeships and training the social clauses. The budget was immediately attacked by the Welsh Conservatives as “groundhog day” for the NHS. The party criticised a lack of investment in the health service, in the aftermath of the Welsh Government providing additional funding to local health boards at the end of the financial year. Responding to the Minister’s statement, Welsh Conservative Finance spokesperson Paul Davies AM went on to claim that the Welsh NHS has received the “worst funding settlement in Britain”. Furthermore, Plaid Cymru have criticised the budget for its failure to dedicate more money to combatting unemployment amongst young people. Speaking in response to the Min- ister’s statement, Plaid Cymru’s Finance spokesperson, Ieuan Wyn Jones AM, reminded the Chamber that many of the infrastructure projects referred to in the budget originated in plans laid down by the previous One Wales coalition government, and criticised the delay in its implementation as well as the lack of measures to combat youth unemployment. The former Plaid Cymru leader cited his party’s Build4Wales programme as a further opportunity to stimulate growth, and to invest in skills and training for young people, add- ing: “We do not want to see a repeat of the lost generation of the 1980s. The sum announced last year, in Jobs Growth Wales, can only be regarded as a start”. Seeking to build upon the inclusion of a key party policy in the 2012-13 Budget, the Pupil Deprivation Grant, the Welsh Liberal Demo- crats issued a statement which calls for further investment in addressing the relationship between deprivation and poor educational attainment. Welsh Liberal Democrat Finance Spokesperson Peter Black AM commented in the statement that in his party’s view the final budget “should go further to ensure that children’s achievement at school should reflect their ability not their background”. With the opposition parties setting out their price for support, the Welsh Government will now enter into talks to find a way forward. However, Finance Minister Jane Hutt AM has cautioned opposition parties hoping to win substantial policy concessions that she has very little room for manoeuvre, describing the Welsh Government's financial reserves as being at "rock bottom”. Ms Hutt added: “As far as we are concerned we [the Welsh Government] are putting on the table what the budget is." Despite this, with opposition votes needed for the budget to pass into legislation, bargaining and horse-trading on the floor of the Siambr will be necessary if the Govern- ment is to take its financial programme forward. Power restored and new boundaries drawn for Isle of Anglesey Council Control of troubled Isle of Anglesey Council is starting to be handed back to its elected members, Minister for Local Government and Communities Carl Sargeant AM has announced. Commissioners were put in place to turn around the authority in March 2011 after years of what the BBC described as “political infighting”. The decision to start withdrawing the Commissioners follows reports from the Commissioners themselves and the Auditor General who recommended that the Welsh Government cut the level of intervention as the Council had “turned a corner”. Local Assembly Member and former Plaid Cymru leader, Ieuan Wyn Jones AM, welcomed the move and said it was a “serious attempt to restore Anglesey’s reputation”. Two Commissioners, Gareth Jones and Margaret Foster, will leave their posts later this year, whilst three others will remain in post on a part-time basis with the power to override decisions if necessary. Welsh Government Minister, Carl Sargeant AM, commented on the decision “If councillors prove able to exercise control during that period, and if next year’s elections yield a stable administration within the council, I can and will bring my intervention to a complete end.” Withdrawal of the Commissioners follows the agreement of 11 new wards for the Council, with the number of County Councillors dropping from 40 to 30. Current Council Leader, Cllr Bryan Owen, described the move as a “significant geographical and cultural change“ for local electors, whilst Carl Sargeant AM said the electoral arrangement will see an “improvement in electoral parity across the region”. The announcements comes weeks after an Estyn report criticised Anglesey’s education service, recommending that the Welsh Government should directly intervene. Estyn pointed to “unacceptably low” attendance rates in secondary schools, and said that “over a quarter of pupils starting in Year 7 in the secondary schools of Anglesey had a reading age below the level of functional literacy in English or Welsh”. In response, the authority’s Chief Executive, Richard Parry Jones, said there was a need to “increase the pace at which improvements are made” and that a “robust action plan has been drafted” to tackle the seven Estyn recommenda- tions. 38,340 Welsh women face losing eligibility for benefits The planned changes to the British welfare system, some of the deepest and most far-reaching in decades, have been the subject of much debate. However, one aspect which has received less attention than it deserves is their impact on women in Wales. While the absence of detailed statistics makes predicting the gender impact of the reforms difficult, it is highly probable that Welsh women and their families will be severely affected in large numbers. The headline change of the Act is the consolidation of six means- tested benefits into one monthly lump sum, the Universal Credit, which will be phased in from next October. What can already be assessed are the changes preceding this, many of which are already underway. These raise serious concerns about the impact of areas of the reforms on Welsh benefit claimants, and female claimants in particular. Around 8,600 sick and disabled Welsh women who receive Contribution Based Employment and Support Allowance could face losing their entitlement as a result of the changes. As they are not categorised as severely disabled and placed in the Support Group, and receive the non means-tested Contribution Based element, they stand to lose all eligibility after one year. Meanwhile the requirements for the means-tested component are so strict as to prevent many from qualifying. For instance, partners of claimants are not allowed to work for more than 24 hours a week, regardless of household income or savings.