Martyn Jones

Labour Party | Clwyd South

Connecting Cardiff with Westminster

Connecting Cardiff with Westminster

Martyn Jones discusses how the Welsh Affairs committee is coming to terms with devolution

Developing and defining the Welsh Affairs Committee's role in the light of devolution was one of the major challenges facing us during the last session of parliament. Although our scrutiny of the work of the Wales Office included its limited executive functions, most of our work has focused on its wider role, giving us a broad remit to examine the impact of UK government policy in Wales, as well as more technical issues such as the mechanics of the devolution settlement and the calculation of the national assembly's budget. We have also provided extra scrutiny of legislation relating to Wales which is of particular importance to the assembly and others, but which might not otherwise have been examined by any select committee.

Our major inquiry during the 1999-2000 session, which in fact began early in 1999, was into social exclusion in Wales. Our report was published on January 15 this year. This was one of the most extensive inquiries this committee has ever conducted. We received written evidence from some 80 organisations and individuals and held nine sessions of oral evidence, four of them in Wales, as well as informal briefing meetings with representatives of the government and the national assembly. We held a number of visits and seminars in all parts of Wales, and we visited the Republic of Ireland and the USA.

It was during this inquiry that we encountered most acutely the difficulty of separating devolved and non-devolved matters. Responsibility for tackling social exclusion crosses the devolution divide, and is a key area in which co-operation between the UK government and the assembly is crucial. The assembly has responsibility for housing, health, transport, education and training and local government. But responsibility for social security benefits, for taxation, for the Employment Service, for the regulation of financial services, for the management of the Post Office and for the fight against crime rests with the UK government.

We did not set out to scrutinise what was being done by the assembly (we considered that it was not our role to do so), but focused primarily on those areas which remained the responsibility of UK government, and on financial exclusion and poverty in particular. We concluded that local solutions, within a national framework, were one of the most effective means of tackling social exclusion, but also that raising the level of benefits would be central to lifting people out of poverty.

We hold regular meetings with the National Assembly's Panel of Committee Chairmen to discuss matters of mutual interest, ranging from the content of inquiries to committee procedure. We have not yet been able to engage in any informal joint working with assembly committees - our different weekly timetables have proved to be a difficult obstacle to overcome - but this is something we may well do in the future, should the opportunity arise.

Following the 1999 Queen's Speech, we wrote to all Assembly Members inviting comments on the government's proposed legislative programme. In response to their suggestions, we conducted an inquiry into the Transport Bill as it affected Wales. The inquiry was very short, since the bill was already in standing committee when we began. In response to our recommendations, the government brought forward amendments to give the assembly more power over road-charging, workplace parking levies and service grants to bus operators; and to place a formal duty on the Strategic Rail Authority to consult the national assembly about matters affecting Wales.

It has been argued that the logic of the devolution settlement means that the Welsh Affairs Committee, like its counterparts for Scotland and Northern Ireland, should cease to exist; perhaps to be replaced by a select committee for regional affairs or a “Committee of the Isles”. But I believe that the Welsh Affairs Committee still has a role to play, though a different one from its pre-devolution role. Responsibility for primary legislation - much of which impinges on the powers and work of the national assembly, not to mention the lives of the people of Wales - remains at Westminster, as does responsibility for areas such as foreign affairs and the budget, both of which proved to be so important to Wales during the recent negotiations over Objective 1. The Welsh Affairs Committee is still a powerful voice for Wales within the UK parliament and, together with the office of the secretary of state, the Welsh Grand Committee and individual MPs and AMs, a vital part of the bridge between Westminster and Cardiff Bay.

Martyn Jones is Labour MP for Clwyd South and chairman of the Welsh Affairs Select Committee.