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The Richard Commission
Rt Hon Denzil Davies MP for Llanelli
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A note prepared by Denzil Davies
for the Commission pursuant to his oral submission to
the Commission at 3pm on Friday 11th July 2003 in Caradog
House, St Andrew's Place, Cardiff.
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| 1. The Commission has been considering whether or not
it is desirable that further substantial powers - and
in particular powers of primary legislation - should be
transferred from the Westminster Parliament to the National
Assembly for Wales. |
| 2. The transfer of further substantial powers would
almost certainly have financial and funding consequences.
For example, a transfer to the Assembly of the functions,
now exercised in Wales by the Home Office would mean that
the cost of exercising those functions which now fall
on the Home Office budget would then have to be met out
of the resources of the National Assembly. If present
arrangements were applied the amount of the `block grant'
would have to be correspondingly increased. |
| 3. We are reaching a point, I believe, where it is democratically
unacceptable that the United Kingdom Parliament should
be asked to transfer functions to the National Assembly
in circumstances where the cost of exercising those functions
effectively falls on United Kingdom taxpayers, but where
the democratic representatives of those taxpayers have
no say in how those functions are exercised by the National
Assembly. |
| 4. It has been estimated that the total revenue raised
wholly in Wales falls well short of total Government expenditure
in Wales. In January 1997 the then Welsh Office published
a paper on Government Expenditure and Revenue in Wales
for the year 1994-95. That paper showed a fiscal deficit
equivalent to around 20% of Welsh GDP. |
| 5. A few years ago I attempted to extrapolate form the
Welsh Office paper what was the fiscal deficit as a percentage
of Welsh GDP for the year 1999-2000. I calculated that
the figure was 15%:- five times the Maastricht 3%. I doubt
whether the fiscal deficit for this financial year will
be significantly different. |
| 6. Since Wales comes nowhere near being able to fund
from its own resources total government expenditure in
Wales, it would not, I believe, be right for the central
government to be asked to fund the cost of further devolved
functions while being denied any say in how those functions
are exercised. |
| 7. My conclusion, therefore, is that if further powers
and functions are transferred from the UK government in
London to the devolved administration in Cardiff, then
the cost of exercising those powers and carrying out those
functions should be met out of Wales' own resources and
not by an addition to the `block grant'. |
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