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Evidence to the Richard Commission on the
Powers and Electoral Arrangements of the National Assembly
for Wales by Professor
Richard Rawlings
7. Testament of experience
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| 7.1. Turning to the potential statutory outputs,
the practical experience of devolution serves once again
to strengthen the case for a broad allocation of legislative
competence. Attention naturally focuses on the Westminster
bottleneck and the mixed fortunes of Assembly bids for
new primary legislation.56 At the same time, from education to passenger
transport and land-use planning, and on through audit
and the ombudsman to specific (Welsh) items like Sunday
licensing, there already is enough in these bids to illustrate
the growing capacity to initiate and develop proposals
for primary legislation. Again, looking forward, the sense
in which the legislative freedom to innovate works to
generate new ideas is a standard lesson of comparative
constitutional development. One does not have to be dewy-eyed
about Welsh ‘inventiveness’ to reckon that much
the same will happen at home. |
| 7.2. An obvious reference point is the Acts
of the Scottish Parliament, as listed in Annex
V to this Memorandum. Naturally some of them, for
example on the abolition of feudal tenure, have a strictly
Scottish connotation; or otherwise involve matters which
would clearly be reserved matters in the case of Wales,
such as marriage law and sexual offences, or the jurisdiction
of the International Criminal Court. Other titles serve
however to highlight the greater sense of political purpose
and democratic involvement that legislative devolution
could reasonably be expected to bring to Wales. As well
as the Budget (Scotland) Acts, the hallmark of a more
mature polity, general reforming legislation in the guise
of a Housing Act and a Transport Act can be singled out.
To which may be added such diverse measures as an Education
(Disability Strategies and Pupils’ Educational Records)
Act, a Regulation of Care Act, and a Local Authorities
(Tendering) Act. |
| 7.3. Another notable feature is the cluster
of Scottish statutes concerned with improving and developing
the governmental infrastructure; ranging from public finance
and accountability to public appointments, and on through
the financing of the police and fire services to the ombudsman
and the Scottish Qualifications Authority. Typically,
with a view to ensuring fitness for purpose in the conditions
of devolved administration, there is a parallel but necessarily
more limited drive in the case of the Assembly.57 Again, the statute book in Scotland contains
much that is low-key in character, involving the type
of pragmatic and limited measure closely attuned to local
conditions that can so easily get lost in the corridors
of the Metropolis. Illustrations include a National Parks
Act, a subject not unimportant in Wales, and legislation
on the national galleries, bridge tolls and fish conservation.
No doubt Welsh statutes would often be in similar vein,
as befits the fact of small country governance. The very
practical dimension to legislative devolution, which tends
to be obscured in the high level constitutional debate,
is communicated strongly here. |
56
See most recently, Assembly Record 12 March 2003.
57See especially the draft Audit (Wales) Bill announced
in March 2003. |
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