Welsh civil society & the new constitutional settlement

The National Assembly for Wales will face a very serious challenge once the Government of Wales Act comes into force. The Assembly has already been granted extensive powers in a number of Acts and Executive Transformative Legislative Orders. Once the Assembly is reconstituted after the May elections, they will also be able to pass Orders in Council requesting the power to make primary legislation on certain matters. ‘Civil society’ will also be able to request the Assembly to make law on certain issues through petitions.
The Assembly will thus have powers to make law and scrutinise it. Through the pre-legislative committee's recommendation to the Assembly, they could also turn down government’s draft measures if they deem them to be inappropriate. But who will advise the Assembly Members that the draft measure in front of them is not the best way to implement a policy? Who will advise them that the powers granted to the Executive in the draft measures are too wide? With no independent office of Parliamentary Council, it is difficult to see the current three lawyers able to cope with the workload. This is against the 83 lawyers working for the Executive, plus the Draftsman (legal counsel). They could do with moving some to the Bay.
Civil society (third sector organisations, lobbyists, academics, private sector …) will need to make sure they understand the draft measures and advise the politicians. This is a good opportunity for policy development to grow in Wales.
London-based Think Tanks and policy organisations should pay more attention to the possibilities in Wales by investing and part-relocating. The present state of affairs is simply not sustainable. Representatives of civil society will need to be able to monitor any piece of legislation going through the Assembly, analyse it and advise AMs on whether that is the best form of law to implement a given policy. Here are some things I believe should happen:

- Can we have a constitution, please? The Scots started with a Constitutional Convention which was to become the blueprint for the current Parliament. In Wales, a convention would be an opportunity to engage the public and civil society regarding the constitutional changes taking place and also to establish guiding principles to ensure transparency, a limitation of Executive powers and principles of equality and human rights.

- Cross-party groups. The current All-Party Groups will need to be very focussed on advising AMs on the draft measures they will be considering.

- Green/White Paper procedure. This will help AMs voicing their views and ideas on policy before the policy is in the obscure form of a draft measure.

- A Festival of politics, as done very successfully in Scotland, where it includes talks, performances, interviews that are not restricted to ‘Scottish matters’ but go beyond to include national and international issues. This will help create an environment where people could engage in politics at all levels and policy.

- Open seminars & debates. The Assembly has been hosting a series of seminars that only AMs and researchers seem to know about. The seminars & debates should be open to the public and be an opportunity for civil society to interact and discuss policy. They could also develop into policy fora.

- A Welsh Statute Book. The Law Commission in Wales, provided they can get funding, could establish a section dedicated to record any law passed by the Assembly (or those that might be repealed by Westminster but not by the Assembly).

- A stronger voice for local government. The Welsh Executive should take a leadership role whilst being less prescriptive and more realistic in terms of funding for local government. More powers will mean more delegation to local government. This should be achieved by working in partnership.

The sheer number of draft measures that the very few 60 AMs (minus Cabinet etc.) will have to examine will mean that civil society will also have to concentrate on legislation. I fear that in the effort of making sure that the measure is legal, that does not breach EU law and that it’s the best way to implement a policy, any ‘blue sky thinking’ from civil society actors will be inhibited, unless they suddenly find a huge pot of money lying somewhere.

In the meantime, what will you do?

a) send a ‘wish you luck’ card to your AMs
b) place a bet at a bookie on how many judicial review cases there’ll be in a year
c) train to be a lawyer