THE PROPOSED NATIONAL ASSEMBLY FOR WALES

Committee Structure

As originally set out in the White Paper the Welsh Assembly was set to resmble the local government model, with a strong committee structure. This is unlike the Westminster or Scottish Parliaments, which have a cabinet system.
However following representation from most political parties, and on the advice of the National Assembly Advisory Group (a body set up to advise the Secretary of State on the Assembly's standing orders) the Government of Wales Bill was ammended to permit the formation of a Welsh Cabinet, in the form of an Executive Committee. The standing orders will deliniate the powers of the Executive and the Committees, and permit the Assembly to revert to a committee rathere than cabinet system if it wishes.

The following committees and types of committees proposed for the Assembly are listed below.

Executive Committee

This will act as a Welsh Cabinet, it will be made up of the Assembly First Secretary, and a number of Assembly Secretaries.

The First Secretary will be elected by the full Assembly who, in turn, will appoint the Assembly Secretaries. A number of these will have portfolios mirroring those of the Subject Committees of the Assembly, one Secretary to each Subject Committee.

The Bill allows the First Secretary to appoint Assembly Secretaries without subject area responsibilities. The Assembly Advisory Group recommends that the First Secretary appoints a Finance Secretary and an Assembly Secretary whose role would be to advise on managing the Assembly's timetable. They suggest the Welsh term "Trefnydd" could be used in preference to the title of "Business Manager".

The standing orders will have provision for votes of no confidence in either the First Secretary or individual Assembly Secretaries.

Its prime function is to provide political leadership for the Assembly and will be (normally) chaired by the First Secretary.

Unlike the subject committees the Executive Committee will generally meet in private. The standing orders may give individual Secretaries, the First Secretary or collectively the Executive Committee power to act quickly when requred, without first refering back to the Assembly for permission. The exact extent of this power being deliniated by the standing orders.

Subject Committees

These will be established for each major subject area under the control of the Assembly. It will be up to the Assembly to decide which these will be. The National Assembly Advisory Group recommends that there should be six in all, covering broad subject areas based around three theams: social issues, economic issues and environmental issues.

The membership of each committee will be as closely proportional to party strengths in the Assembly as possible. The chairs of the committees will be chosen so that each party will be offered committee chairs in proportion to their members in the Assembly. Subject Committee chairs will only be permitted to chair one Subject Committee (though they may be allowed to chair sub-committees. Each committee will have a lead member - the Assembly Secretary whose portfolio mirrors that of the committee.

Subject Committees powers and functions will be described in the Standing Orders. Their exact role will not become clear until the draft standing orders are issued. In many respects they will function in a simular way to the House of Commons Select Committees. They will have powers of oversight over the affairs of each department of the Welsh Administration and have key roles in developing policies, examining draft subordinate legislation, and monitoring the performance of public bodies.

Regional Committees

Regional Committee BoundariesThe Government of Wales Bill provides for the setting up of a Regional Committee for North Wales. This area is not defined. The standing orders will deliniate the boundaries of the Regional Committees (and whether all of Wales should have them). It is expected that there will be at least 4 and possibly 7 committees. The National Assembly Advisory Committee has recommended that there should be four regional committees, the boundaries of which will be co-terminus with the new Training and Enterprise Councils and the regional structure of the revamped Welsh Development Agency.Their recommended boundaries are as left:
The remit of the regional committees will be to advise the Assembly on matters affecing their area. Membership of these committees will probably be open to all representatives from that region. The Regional Committees will elect their own chairs from within their membership. It is quite likely that they will meet from time to time in their region rather than just at the Assembly building.

Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee

This committee will fulfil the role carried out in the Westminster parliament by the joint House of Lords/House of Commons committee on secondary legislation - that is it will provide technical advice to the Assembly on the drafting of Assembly Orders (as secondary legislation passed by the Assembly will be known) and whether the Assembly has the power to pass the order. Assembly orders will be laid before it before its merits are debated on the floor of the Assembly. It will be chaired by a member of an opposition party and Assembly Secretaries will be barred from membership.

Assembly Audit Committee

The Audit Committee will have a similar role in relation to the Assembly as the Public Accounts Committee has in relation to Parliament and central government. The Chair of the Audit Committee must not be a member of the majority party. Like the subject committees its membership must reflect the party ballance in the Assembly.

The Audit Committee has the following powers and responsibilities:

It will give its views on the Auditor General for Wales' plans for examining the economy, efficiency and effectiveness with which the Assembly and other public bodies have used their resources;

It will consider and comment on any accounts, statement of accounts or report by the Auditor General for Wales; summoning witnesses to give evidence to the committee; and taking evidence on behalf of the Public Accounts Committee, if requested to do so by the PAC.

Assembly Procedure Committee

Its purpose would be to ensure that the Assembly handles its business smoothly and efficiently, with appropriate scrutiny and without undue delays. The Assembly Procedure Committee would be made up of a nominee from each political party and either the Presiding Officer or the Deputy Presiding Officer. It would need to communicate with the chairs of subject committees. Its role would include:

In the oppinion of the Advisory committee it would be helpful for the Presiding Officer to be able to maintain a distance from the political debates and decisions of the Assembly Procedure Committee. It suggest that the committee should be chaired by the Deputy Presiding Officer.

Horizontal Committees

The Advisory committee recognises that much work cuts across the lines of subject committees and suggest that the Assembly takes a "programme" approach to such issues. Special "horizontal" programme committees (advisory committees in terms of the Government of Wales Bill) could be set up to develop action programmes to tackle priority issues. These programme committees would be made up of a representative from each of the relevant subject committees. The Assembly Procedure Committee could decide whether or not the membership of these committees needed to reflect political party balance.

Some programme committees might be set up on a "task and finish" basis to develop a particular policy, such as a strategy for children's services, a public health strategy or an integrated transport strategy. Others might need to be ongoing, dealing with issues like equal opportunities, sustainable development or Europe. They could seek outside advice, and might choose to make sure that the views of people who may not feel directly represented in the Assembly, such as people with disabilities or people from black and ethnic minority communities, are heard. Some might need to meet often over a short period, some only twice a year, depending on the stage they were at in developing a new programme or monitoring an ongoing one.

The National Assembly Advisory Group thinks that a programme approach would be a very effective way of making sure that subject committees do not get too cut off from each other or lose sight of the broader issues. It would be up to decision-makers in the Assembly to decide how many of these programmes they wanted to run at any one time, taking into account the workload of the Assembly and the resources available. The Assembly may wish to set up standing horizontal advisory committees for:

© Lyn David Thomas 1998

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