Invitation to The Rt Hon Peter Hain MP, Secretary of State for Wales,
to submit further evidence to the Commission

When you gave evidence to the Commission in March you kindly offered to respond to any further questions the Commission might have and I am now writing to seek your views on points raised in subsequent evidence.

Powers in relation to the Police

The Commission has received evidence suggesting that there could be advantages if certain Home Office powers in relation to the police service were transferred to the Assembly. These potential advantages relate to delivery (collaboration with devolved services on priorities and targets for crime prevention and community safety) and accountability (in relation to issues such as tackling substance misuse there is confusion about why the Assembly is responsible for some aspects and not others). The Commission has received the attached paper from the Police Authorities in Wales which provides a useful summary of the issues.

We have also received evidence about the overlap between the responsibilities of the Assembly and the Home Office in relation to police funding and other issues. As background I attach relevant sections from the then Finance Minister’s oral evidence in December last year and a copy of a paper we received from her in February.

The Commission is anxious to understand the Government’s perspective on these matters and would be most grateful if you could deal with the following points:

if a case were put for the transfer to the Assembly of executive powers in relation to local police operations, targets and priorities etc – what are the issues that would need to be considered from the perspective of the UK Government?

what has been the impact of devolution on departments such as the Home Office where powers are in the main not devolved but there are considerable overlapping responsibilities?

The creation of new UK or England and Wales bodies

The Commission would appreciate a general statement of the Government’s approach to consultation with the Assembly Government about the membership and organisational structures of new government sponsored bodies created in non devolved areas. Is this monitored by your officials and how effectively do the arrangements work in practice?

The administration of justice and the structure of courts and tribunals

A further question which has been raised in evidence is whether there would be advantages for Wales in moving further towards a court structure organised on a Welsh basis. I attach a paper by Mr Justice Roderick Evans and Professor Iwan Davies which summarises the issues. The Commission would be grateful for the views of the Government on this and in particular how it sees the administration of justice in Wales developing in a devolved context.

The constraints for Whitehall of the present devolution settlement

In your memorandum to the Commission on behalf of the UK Government you said that the devolution settlement did not pose inappropriate constraints on Whitehall. Could I ask you to comment further on this – the evidence we have received suggests that, seen from Cardiff, there can be confusion in Whitehall departments who sometimes assume that the settlement in Wales mirrors that for Scotland. We also understand that the need for Orders relating to Wales, where powers have not been transferred, to be made at Westminster by the responsible Whitehall department can be an additional burden for them which leads to delay. Finally there is the example of powers under the Pollution Prevention and Control Act where powers which were intended by Parliament to be transferred to the Assembly have been held up in Whitehall, although they were transferred to the Scottish Executive at an early stage.

It would be most helpful to have a response to these points by 15 September so that the Commission can consider it when it meets on 19 September.

25 July 2003