Powers and Electoral Arrangements
of the National Assembly for Wales
Wales Green Party submission to the Commission
on the Powers and Electoral Arrangements of the National
Assembly for Wales
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| Summary |
| Wales Green Party wants: |
- the National Assembly to become a Parliament for
Wales with, initially, powers analogous to those the
Scottish Parliament has in relation to Scotland.
- the members who make up this body should be selected
using the system known as Alternative Vote Plus (AV+)
- the introduction of increased powers to be accompanied
by an increase to 75 in the total number of Assembly
Members with a corresponding similar reduction in
the number of Welsh Westminster MPs
- the additional 15 Assembly Members should be regional
Assembly Members as this will make the result of the
election more representative
- the threshold for retaining a deposit in the election
of Assembly Members to be reduced to 1%
- the reduction of the age at which people may vote
and stand as candidates to 16.
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| Powers of the National Assembly for Wales |
| One of the Green Party’s core principles states
that:
"We emphasise democratic participation and accountability
by ensuring that decisions are taken at the closest
practical level to those affected by them."
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| The work of the Scottish Parliament has demonstrated
the successful devolution of many powers of primary legislation
from Westminster. Similar powers should be exercised by
the National Assembly in respect of Wales in the absence
of compelling reasons to do otherwise. Significantly this
would, overtime, entail the development a new Welsh legal
and criminal justice system as a distinct body of Welsh
law is created. |
| The Scotland Act 1998 is written in terms of reserved
powers. It prescribes everything over which the Westminster
Parliament retains control. All remaining areas were transferred
to the Scottish Parliament i.e. they were devolved. This
helped maximise the areas over which the Scottish Parliament
has control. The Scottish Parliament is able to examine
and debate both reserved and devolved powers. The legislation
devolving powers to a Welsh Parliament should be similarly
framed. This would include the following policy areas
amongst those under the control of the Welsh Parliament: |
- Health
- Education and training
- Local government
- Social work
- Voluntary sector
- Housing
- Area regeneration and planning
- Economic development
- Trade and exports
- Tourism
- Passenger and road, air and sea transport
- Welsh criminal, civil and electoral law
- Judicial appointments
- Criminal justice and prosecution
- Civil and criminal courts, tribunals and legal aid
- Prisons
- Police and fire services
- Civil defence and emergency planning
- The environment
- Agriculture and food standards
- Forestry and fisheries
- Sport and the arts
- Statistics, public registers and records
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| Additionally, and like the Scottish Parliament, the
Welsh Parliament should have the power to vary the basic
rate of income tax by up to 3p in the pound and determine
public holidays. |
| There remain other powers reserved to the Westminster
Parliament under the Scotland Act 1998 which it may also
be appropriate to devolve. For example a strong case can
be made that there would be of considerable benefit to
the Welsh economy for Wales to be able to issue currency
independently of the Bank of England. |
| However Wales needs the National Assembly to be an effective
legislature as soon as possible, and with this in mind
it is best in the short term to follow the Scottish model
where ever possible as this will lend itself to the most
rapid devolution of powers to Wales assuming this is agreed
by the population of Wales in a referendum. |
| Again, as is the case in Scotland, there should be a
clear distinction between the executive and legislative
arms of government in Wales with the executive being served
by a Welsh civil service. |
| The increase in the powers of the National Assembly
set out above would give rise to a greater workload with
a corresponding need for more Assembly Members. It is
difficult to quantify how many additional Assembly Members
would be appropriate however useful comparisons can be
made with the Scottish Parliament. Currently Wales has
one Assembly Member for approximately each 50,000 members
of the population. In Scotland the ratio is one Scottish
Member of Parliament for approximately each 40,000 members
of the population. The latter gives rise to a Scottish
Parliament with 129 members. |
| To bring these two ratios into line would involve the
creation of an additional 15 Assembly Members giving a
total of 75 Assembly Members. This would be an appropriate
initial size for the Welsh Parliament. This level could
then be reviewed once the Parliament was operational.
Additional Assembly Members could be created at no increase
cost for the taxpayer if the number of Welsh MPs in Westminster
was reduced accordingly. This reduction could most readily
be accomplished by halving the current number of Welsh
MPs by having one MP represent what are currently two
neighbouring Westminster constituencies. This would have
the added benefit of retaining a link between the constituencies
of Assembly Members and their Westminster counterparts. |
| Electoral Arrangements of the National Assembly for
Wales |
| Currently the electoral arrangements for the selection
of Assembly Members do not provide a truly representative
National Assembly. The current system unduly benefits
the Labour Party at the expense of the other parties,
especially the smaller parties. |
| This situation could be remedied by making the 15 additional
Assembly Members, noted above, regional Assembly Members.
This would produce a situation like Scotland where there
are 7 members elected from each region and political parties
gaining over 5% of the second vote in one of the five
National Assembly regions would have a reasonable expectation
of being represented. |
| Further improvement would be gained by moving from the
current additional member system to one of AV+. Currently
a significant majority of the constituency votes do not
count towards the election of the constituency Assembly
Member. Adopting the majoritarian Alternative Vote system
for the election of constituency Assembly Members would
mean that more voters’ opinions are reflected by
the result and voters would also be more likely to vote
for smaller parties in the knowledge that there votes
would still count if their first choice of constituency
Assembly Member was not elected. |
| A considerable bar to the progress of many smaller parties
is the £500 deposit charged for standing each constituency
candidate and each regional list of candidates. Currently
this deposit is lost where the candidate or party list
fails to gain 5% of the vote. The cost to smaller parties
of standing a full slate of candidates in the National
Assembly elections is thus currently £22,500. For smaller
parties this may easily represent a majority of their
election costs. This situation is doubly unfair for the
smaller parties as it is a cost which the larger parties,
which poll over 5% of the vote, do not have to bear. |
| The £500 deposit undoubted deters the proliferation
of candidates at elections. A similar deterrent effect
however could be achieved by reducing the lost deposit
threshold to 1% of the vote whilst allowing all serious
candidates a very real prospect of retaining their deposit
thus increasing their ability to participate fully in
the electoral process. |
| Lastly, there is no good reason why the age at which
people may vote and stand as a candidate in the National
Assembly (or for that matter at any level of government)
should not be reduced to 16. |
| Each of the changes to the current voting system outlined
above would produce a more representative National Assembly.
They also build upon, rather than replace, the current
voting system whilst reflecting the significant role political
parties play in the formation of the National Assembly.
The most significant of these changes would be the adoption
of AV to select the constituency Assembly Members. This
is, however, straightforward to implement and is also
a relatively simple change for voters to understand. Furthermore
there would be no additional need to review National Assembly
constituency boundaries which is of necessity a time consuming
process and would be a distraction from the process of
implementing devolution. |
| Conclusion |
| The National Assembly needs powers of primary legislation
to give it real significance. Without these powers it
will remain little more than an expensive talking shop
in the minds of many voters. |
| No system of government is perfect and the opportunity
for much needed reform should not be lost or delayed in
search of an ideal solution. By modelling reform of the
National Assembly along the lines of the Scottish Parliament
we would be implementing a tried and tested solution which
would have immediate appeal to any voter in favour of
devolution. By adopting this pragmatic approach, including
relatively minor adjustments to the number of Assembly
Members and the electoral process, it is possible rapidly
to bring about the necessary changes. |
| In 2007 Welsh voters could and should be electing a
representative Parliament for Wales. |
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