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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
| This Memorandum sets out two possible schemes
of legislative devolution for Wales. The ‘Mark I’
model allows for a phased or rolling programme of empowerment,
one which delivers a targeted approach in the initial
stages on matters to do with front line services. It would
also give the devolved administration a flexibility to
legislate on specific issues in, and point the way forward
to general primary competence for, other fields of devolved
functions. As well as the familiar designations of ‘reserved’
and ‘devolved’ matters, the scheme thus incorporates
a flexible category of ‘retained’ matters, into
which the Assembly as a legislature can expand in the
medium term with the support and approval of Parliament. |
| The ‘Mark II’ model is more conventional
in character, being premised on a single (flexible) boundary
between ‘reserved’ and ‘devolved’
matters. Offering a cleaner and more generous cut from
the outset, this option has much to commend it from the
viewpoint of constitutional design. It also shares with
the Mark I model the attribute of being designed specifically
with local conditions in mind and in the light of comparative
experience (in Scotland and Northern Ireland). Allied
with a creative use of constitutional convention, whereby
Parliament would legislate on devolved matters in Wales
with the consent of the Assembly, the Mark II model can
also be used as a framework inside which the exercise
of primary powers is gradually extended at the territorial
level. |
| All too easily overlooked in the discussion
of legislative devolution for Wales is the fact that executive
devolution or strictly ministerial powers would continue
to exist. This feature is liable to be accentuated by
reason of a history and geography of close integration
with England; in the guise both of a more limited ambit
of primary powers for the Assembly and a pressing need
for co-operation and collaboration on an ‘England
and Wales’ basis. So as the title suggests, this
Memorandum also prioritises the question of integrating
the different kinds of legal power in a reworked form
of devolution settlement. |
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