Category Archives: Welsh Assembly Government

Agreeing with Peter

Posted on November 8, 2008 | 5 Comments
I’m finding myself, increasingly often, in the uncomfortable position of agreeing with Peter Hain. It never happened while he was Secretary of State for Wales; in those days I almost invariably disagreed with everything Peter said.

However, since Peter has returned to the back benches, I find that a lot of what he says chimes substantially with my own way of thinking.

It happened first during this year’s St David’s Day debate, when Peter told the House that the private sector in Wales is too small:

“If both Welsh living standards and the economic competitiveness that underpins our prosperity are to grow as we all want, the private sector needs to grow significantly and at a relatively much faster rate. To achieve at least equilibrium with the rest of the UK and the OECD countries, Wales must move towards a private sector of around 55 per cent. of Welsh GDP. To achieve that in the next 15 to 20 years, we will need year-on-year growth that is around 1 per cent. faster than the UK average—no mean feat.”

I agreed with every word of that – save that I would like to see an even bigger private sector – and said as much during my wind-up.

Now Peter has done it again. On Thursday this week, he told a conference in Cardiff that the Welsh Assembly Government was attempting, illegitimately, to use the legislative competence order (LCO) procedure as a device to confer more primary powers on the Assembly “by the back door”:

“There was the attempt to insert a ban on smacking children into an LCO.

“It had to be pointed out that was beyond the Assembly’s scope, and that the issue needed to be addressed in children’s legislation at Westminster.

“This LCO system is not a backdoor method of smuggling primary law-making powers in. It’s a streamlined process of achieving extra powers for the Assembly.”

Save that the LCO procedure is not streamlined – it’s actually very clunky and laborious – I’d agree with that, too. And the LCO in question is not the only example. There was also WAG’s attempt in the housing LCO to obtain competence to abolish the right to buy, which was rightly and unanimously rejected by the all-party Welsh select committee, much to the effervescent outrage of the Rt Hon Lord Elis-Thomas.

The fundamental problem is that the LCO process is not truly democratic devolution. That would be gained only through the legitimacy conferred by a referendum of the people of Wales – a referendum which Peter and most other sensible commentators agree could not be won.

No, the LCO procedure is the bastard offspring of an internal Labour party dispute between Members of Parliament and Assembly members, as Peter himself acknowledged in his Cardiff speech:

“Everybody has to realise that the 2006 Act was born out of a negotiation to reconcile those who wanted full law-making powers and those who insisted there would have to be a referendum before those powers could be granted.

“There is no way the legislation could have got through without including the need for a referendum. That was not deliverable, even if it was desirable, which I would have disputed.

“You could not have changed the 1997 settlement unless there was a referendum built in.

“The question was, what did you do in the meantime? Rhodri and I considered this for months. That’s when I came up with the LCO (Legislative Competence Order) route.”

Full marks to Peter for his frankness, but I’m afraid that this is where we part company. What you could have done in the meantime was to allow the Assembly to develop into a body that was recognised and trusted by the people of Wales as a vehicle for delivering better, more efficient public services closer to the point of consumption. That is a process that would undoubtedly have taken time – probably a very long time indeed – but what was the rush?

Any referendum that was held after that “bedding-in” period would, if won, have conferred real legitimacy on the devolution of primary powers. If lost, then the issue would have been put to bed once and for all. Either way, nobody could have complained.

As it is, Wales has been lumbered with a dodgy constitutional lash-up that pleases neither faction within the Labour party, to say nothing of Lord Elis-Thomas.

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Posted in Peter Hain, Welsh Assembly Government

Bottlenecks

Posted on November 5, 2008 | Leave a comment
Yesterday, the Welsh select committee began the transport section of its inquiry into cross-border public services. We took evidence from the Mersey Dee Alliance, the body established to promote the common economic and community interests of Cheshire and north-east Wales.

Transport is key to maintaining and increasing the prosperity of this dynamic sub-region. However, two crucially important projects remain some years away from completion. Until they are completed, the economic potential of the Deeside hub will not be fully realised.

First is the electrification of the Wrexham-Bidston railway line, which will bring Wrexham within easy commuting distance of the centre of Liverpool. The estimated cost of the project had been some £60 million; now it has somehow increased to £207 million. The Alliance is arranging for a review of the estimate, but the dramatic leap in the project’s cost inevitably means that it will be several years before electrification comes to the line.

The second project is the upgrade of the A494, about which I have previously blogged. According to the evidence we received, the Welsh Assembly Government has confirmed that money is still earmarked for the work, but no “Plan B” exists, and the upgrade will have to be redesigned from scratch.

Even then, the laborious consent and acquisition process will probably take several years, meaning that this crucial section of the link between North Wales and the motorway network will remain a substandard stretch of road, encumbered by a 50 mph speed limit.

The folly of the Welsh Assembly Government in not signing up to the single consent regime introduced by the Planning Bill is becoming increasingly clear.

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Posted in economy, Welsh Affairs Committee, Welsh Assembly Government

Missing the boat

Posted on October 22, 2008 | 1 Comment
Welsh Questions today, and I tackled the new junior Wales Minister, Wayne David, on the issue of the Welsh Assembly Government’s refusal to sign up to the single consent regime for new highway projects, on which I have previously blogged.

The exchange in the Commons went as follows:

Mr. David Jones (Clwyd, West) (Con): Further to the question from my hon. Friend the Member for Kettering (Mr. Hollobone), the Minister will be aware that the single consent regime to be introduced in the Planning Bill will not apply to highway projects in Wales. Consequently, there will be lengthy planning inquiries and cross-border routes will take much longer to upgrade. Can he say why the Welsh Assembly Government declined the opportunity to participate in the single consent regime? Does he agree that it is an enormous missed opportunity for Wales?

Mr. David: The hon. Gentleman has raised an important point, on which discussions have taken place. Those discussions must continue, so I would not jump to his conclusion that delays will be inherent in this regime—we must ensure that that is not the case. We must ensure the greatest co-ordination possible, and I assure him that I shall make it one of my priorities over the next three weeks to ensure that the situation is facilitated as far as is humanly possible.

Nice to know that “discussions have taken place and must continue”, but I’m blowed if I know what they might be and I doubt, frankly, whether Wayne does, either. In fact it’s a bit late in the day for “discussions”. The Bill is presently in the Lords and will be enacted before the end of November. If WAG want to jump on board at this late stage, they’d better find some pretty swift and ingenious way of doing so.

Truth is, they’ve missed the boat.

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Posted in Welsh Assembly Government

Infamy!

Posted on October 19, 2008 | 1 Comment
Just as Ivan Pavlov was able to predict with complete accuracy that the ringing of a bell would cause his dogs to slaver, so the student of Welsh politics can foretell unerringly that the publication of a report by the Welsh Affairs select committee of the House of Commons will cause the Presiding Officer of the Welsh Assembly, the Rt Hon Lord Elis-Thomas, to erupt in paroxysms of high indignation.

Last week, the committee published its report on the proposed legislative competence order (LCO) on housing. LCOs (or “Elcos” as they are sometimes, inelegantly, known) are the infelicitous invention of the former Secretary of State for Wales, Peter Hain. They are a device by which primary legislative powers are salami-sliced down to the Assembly on a case-by-case basis. Constitutionally speaking, they are the work of the devil.

The Welsh Assembly Government decided last year to seek powers to enable it to suspend temporarily the right for social housing tenants to buy their homes. It needed the power, it said, in order to ease housing pressure in parts of Wales. So it started the process of applying for an LCO.

In accordance with the practice that has developed, Paul Murphy, the current Secretary of State, referred the application to the select committee for scrutiny. The committee duly considered the application and delivered a report recommending the grant of the LCO; however, concerned that the LCO as drafted would theoretically have permitted WAG to abolish the right to buy completely, it also recommended that the power to suspend should not extend to outright abolition.

Anyone unacquainted with the intricacies of Welsh politics might have thought this no big deal; after all, WAG itself had made it clear that it did not intend to repeal the right to buy. So, the layman might assume, everything is hunky-dory.

However, so far as Lord Elis-Thomas is concerned, it is a matter of the gravest constitutional moment. The select committee has behaved in the most outrageous fashion. And he has written to Paul Murphy telling him as much.

He also appeared on the BBC Politics Show this lunchtime, grave of countenance and heavy of tone. The report, he said, was a “product of anti-devolution sentiment among Welsh MPs”. A Westminster conspiracy, you see, aimed at cheating the Assembly of its legislative entitlement. No matter that the LCO that has been recommended by the committee will enable WAG to do precisely what it says it wants to do; no matter, either, that the committee is composed of members of all four Welsh parties, including Plaid Cymru, or that its report was unanimous. No, it is a conspiracy and we are all in it together.

An image of a betogaed Kenneth Williams in Carry on Cleo springs irresistibly to mind: “Infamy! Infamy! They’ve all got it in for me!”

It is, of course, all nonsense. The committee has scrutinised the draft LCO and come up with its report; the Assembly will consider it and decide whether it wants to amend it; the Secretary of State will then decide whether to lay it before Parliament.

But for Dafydd Elis-Thomas it is a golden opportunity to sound off once more against the evil denizens of Westminster and rail against their attempt to deny the Assembly a power that WAG doesn’t need anyway.

It’s all getting so terribly predictable. Dafydd El now apparently sees himself as the Lord High Protector of the Welsh Constitution, whose role is to speak out on such weighty matters, to say nothing of whether we should have another Prince of Wales (which also now appears to fall within his purview).

It really is so very silly. Can’t he just be happy chairing the twice-weekly plenary sessions of the Welsh Assembly, which is his primary function, after all? Oh, and perhaps also meeting the odd Israeli ambassador? Or refusing to, as the case may be?

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Posted in Dafydd Elis-Thomas, Welsh Assembly Government

Bitter pill

Posted on October 5, 2008 | 3 Comments
The News of the World reports today that the Welsh Assembly Government is about to scrap its “free prescriptions” policy on the ground that it is too expensive.

If this is true, I, for one, will not be shedding any tears. Handing out free prescriptions to people who can well afford to pay for them (they are free anyway for children, pensioners and benefit recipients) always was a barmy idea, particularly at a time when Welsh patients are having to wait significantly longer for important hospital treatment than their English counterparts.

If the scheme is indeed to be scrapped, WAG would be well advised to bite the bullet and make an early announcement. Perhaps, at the same time, the Welsh health minister will announce her resignation (which really ought to have come at the time of her U-turn over the neurosurgery affair).

WAG’s health policy is in tatters and a new minister with new ideas is urgently required.

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Posted in Edwina Hart, health, Welsh Assembly Government

Missed opportunity

Posted on October 4, 2008 | 5 Comments
Participated yesterday in a CBI panel discussion at the St David’s Park hotel, Ewloe. Other panellists were David Hanson, Richard Brunstrom, Hywel Williams and Dafydd Wigley.

The event was well-attended by North Wales businesspeople and, given the ungodly start time (8.00 a.m.), the discussion was pretty lively.

One of the principal and understandable concerns of the audience was the issue of east-west road links. They pointed out the importance to Welsh business of the long-overdue upgrading of the A494 and the M4 at Newport. What, they asked, should be done about it?

Both Richard Brunstrom and Dafydd Wigley agreed that the improvement of both roads was a matter of priority and bemoaned the actions of so-called “nimbies”, who had effectively scotched the A494 improvement through a well-orchestrated campaign at the public inquiry last year.

For my own part, I think that everyone – even a nimby – has the right to have his views considered on a planning application. However, it is certainly the case that a modern economy, urgently needing to upgrade its transport infrastructure, must streamline its consents process. There will undoubtedly be a further proposal for upgrading the A494, and the M4 relief road will cause even bigger problems. There will also certainly be objections and, almost certainly, public inquiries. While this process continues, Welsh motorists and hauliers will continue to curse and the Welsh economy will suffer.

It needn’t be that way. The Planning Bill, which is presently passing through Parliament, sets up a single consent regime for major infrastructure applications. The consent process, including the public inquiry, should take no longer than nine months. Contrast that with the eight years it took for Heathrow Terminal 5 to obtain consent, or the six years for Sizewell B.

The Conservative party generally supports the single consent process, although it does oppose several details of the Bill. We recognise, however, as does the Government, that the present Byzantine planning regime should not be allowed to continue to impede the modernisation of Britain’s creaking infrastructure.

All this ought to have been good news to the audience at Ewloe, but unfortunately it isn’t. The provisions of the Planning Bill relating to highways will not apply in Wales. The current planning process will, consequently, continue to hold back the upgrading of Welsh roads, while routes across the border continue to improve.

I expressed the view that this was a huge opportunity that Wales had missed. David Hanson tried, rather half-heartedly, to defend the exclusion of Wales from the new regime by saying that “that was devolution” and that the Welsh Assembly Government had had the opportunity to sign up to the single consent process, but had declined.

What David didn’t attempt to explain was why WAG took the decision to opt out. I don’t think he knew himself. My own suspicion is that it was simply a case, as so often, of WAG wanting to do things its own way. That would be a reasonable attitude if it had its own alternative arrangements for Welsh roads in mind, but, so far as I am aware, it doesn’t. In any case, it wouldn’t address the issue of the important cross-border routes, which is what concerned the Ewloe audience.

The consequence will be that Welsh road users will continue to fume in ever-lengthening traffic jams, while Welsh planning inquiries grind laboriously on.

Saying “that’s devolution” just isn’t good enough.

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Posted in Planning Bill, Welsh Assembly Government

The price of a white elephant

Posted on October 2, 2008 | 4 Comments
I have never visited the Wales Millennium Centre (WMC) in Cardiff Bay. It is generally described, by those who know about these things, as an “iconic” building, whatever that means. It certainly is unorthodox, but, since I don’t know about architecture, I wouldn’t venture to express an opinion.

What is unarguable is that it is an enormously expensive edifice. It cost £109 million to build. It has also operated at a stonking great loss ever since it opened. It is bleeding the Welsh exchequer. Last year the Welsh Assembly Government wrote off the WMC’s £13.5 million accrued debt to HSBC and then proceeded to increase its revenue funding from £1.2 million to £3.7 million per annum.

Now the Auditor General has excoriated WAG for what appears to be astonishing negligence in its oversight of the affairs of the WMC. He reports that, in 2005 and 2006, WAG extended its guarantee of the WMC’s bank indebtedness “without fully assessing whether the WMC could pay back the loan, despite the fact that the WMC was incurring much larger than anticipated losses.”

What is worse, he says that, after clearing the debt and increasing the annual subsidy, WAG failed to examine the WMC’s audited accounts or record of ticket sales for 2006.

Such profligacy is shocking, but really shouldn’t be. WAG has, over the years, consistently shown itself to be addicted to reckless spending on vainglorious public sector projects. These are ostensibly designed to “showcase” Wales, but in reality showcase nothing more than WAG’s own appalling financial irresponsibility and ineptitude.

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Posted in Welsh Assembly Government

Not-so-free Parking

Posted on March 3, 2008 | 2 Comments
Today, we hear that the Welsh Assembly Government has decided to outlaw car park charges in hospitals. I heartily approve; I have always thought that to charge patients, their families, and medical staff for parking was, on the one hand, a tax on illness and, on the other, an additional layer of tax on earnings.

However, WAG is not, I understand, compensating the hospital trusts for the income they will lose. This will, I fear, result in yet a further decline in hospital services in Wales.

WAG could, of course, scrap the bizarre free prescription programme, under which people who can afford to pay for their medicines get them for nothing. To do so would not affect the young, the elderly or those in receipt of benefit, because they get their prescriptions free of charge anyway. It would, however, free up some £30 million for patient care.

But, since WAG is run by an unholy socialist alliance of Labour and Plaid, it won’t happen. And waiting lists in Wales will continue to grow and grow.

And if you are interested in the current state of those waiting lists, I can tell you that in England (pop. 50,762,900) the number of patients waiting for their first outpatient appointment for over 13 weeks is 82.

In Wales (pop. 2,965,900) the number is 47,698.

At least you’ll be able to park free while you wait.

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Posted in health, Welsh Assembly Government

Lack of Planning

Posted on January 15, 2008 | 3 Comments
Spent this morning in the Planning Bill Committee, debating amendments to Clause 1. There will be a lot more argument before the Committee’s work is finished.

The Bill is an important measure, aimed at streamlining the consent procedure for major infrastructure developments. We support the thrust of the legislation, but not its detail; it would establish an Infrastructure Planning Commission, which would have draconian powers with little or no democratic accountability.

The government has announced that it intends to introduce new clauses into the Bill, to enable the Welsh Assembly to make primary measures dealing with local development plans and the Wales spatial plan. Apparently the request for the clauses was submitted to Whitehall by the Welsh Assembly Government as long ago as last summer, but they have still not been drafted.

Parliament therefore did not have the opportunity of debating the proposals at the Bill’s second reading and the Committee has still not had sight of the draft clauses.

This demonstrates an astonishingly contemptuous attitude to Parliamentary procedure and is an example of the sort of arrogance that will ultimately prove this government’s undoing.

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Posted in Welsh Assembly Government

Essential Difference

Posted on November 7, 2007 | 6 Comments
Yesterday, the Welsh Affairs Select Committee announced that it is to undertake an inquiry into “cross-border” public services. The inquiry will investigate such matters as health provision, broadcasting, higher education and civil service salaries. Some of these issues are devolved, others not.

One of the catalysts of the inquiry is the recent controversy over neurosurgery in North Wales (see this blog passim).

This morning, I went on Good Morning Wales to explain the background to the inquiry. I was joined by Nerys Evans, a Plaid Cymru Welsh Assembly member. Asked by the interviewer, Rhun ap Iorwerth, if she recognised concerns over the Assembly’s proposals to provide neurosurgery services in Swansea, rather than at Walton, Miss Evans avoided answering directly, by saying that Wales, as a nation, should be self-sufficient in medical services.

Her answer ignored the hard fact, put to her by Rhun, that it would be financially impossible to provide fully-functioning neurosurgery services in North Wales, given the relatively small population of the region. It also illustrated the essential difference between Welsh Conservatism, which is localist and Unionist, and Welsh nationalism, which is driven above all by dogma.

There is no border between Wales and England, nor should there ever be. We in North Wales have for many years been well served by Walton, Broad Green, Alder Hey and the many other world class centres of medical excellence in north-west England. If devolution means anything, in the sense of bringing services closer to the people, it should ensure that North Wales patients continue to enjoy those services; anything else would not in truth be devolution, but merely narrow nationalism.

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Posted in neurosurgery, Plaid Cymru, Welsh Assembly Government

What a nerve

Posted on July 27, 2007 | 2 Comments
Further to my post about Edwina Hart’s proposed retention of the neurosurgery unit at Morriston hospital, which will result in North Wales brain surgery patients having to travel to Cardiff or Swansea for treatment, I was intrigued by the following extract from a report in yesterday’s South Wales Evening Post:

Val Taylor, aged 72, of Garden City, Fforestfach, who was one of a team of volunteers who helped to collect the petition, said Swansea was best-placed to serve patients needing a brain operation. She said:
“Edwina Hart said in her own words that we should not let anything like neurosurgery services go outside Wales.
“We are keeping the life-saving service in Swansea – there are no two ways about it.

“I am hoping the fight is over now.

“Edwina Hart would have too much to lose if she took the neurosurgery unit out of Swansea. By keeping it there it is convenient for all.”


“She is trying to keep all the specialist departments in Wales.

Too much to lose? What could she possibly mean?

And how convenient does she think Swansea is for someone from Cerrigydrudion?

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Posted in Edwina Hart, health, neurosurgery, Welsh Assembly Government

No-brainer

Posted on July 15, 2007 | 4 Comments
Little could do more to underscore the perception in North Wales that the Welsh Assembly Government is an institution with a heavy South Wales bias that the news that the new WAG health minister, Edwina Hart, has decided to overrule the recommendations of a report by Health Commission Wales (HCW) on neurosurgery services.

HCW recommended that Wales should have one neurosurgery unit in Cardiff and that the unit presently based at Swansea’s Morriston Hospital should be closed down. A vocal campaign in Swansea, orchestrated by the local newspaper, would appear to have succeeded in persuading Mrs Hart to reject HCW’s conclusions.

Mrs Hart, whose Gower constituency is immediately adjacent to Swansea, says that both the South Wales units can be retained if neurosurgery patients from North Wales, who currently travel to Liverpool’s excellent Walton hospital, are treated at either Swansea or Cardiff. She apparently regards this as an “all Wales solution”.

I don’t know how often Mrs Hart has been to North Wales, but if she had any experience at all of the nightmare that is the A470, she would not regard her proposals as in any sense a “solution” for North Walian neurosurgery patients. At best, the road journey from Colwyn Bay to Cardiff takes four hours – probably much longer in an ambulance. Walton, by contrast, is no more than a ninety minute drive down a dual carriageway.

It looks very much as though North Wales patients and their families are to be put to wholly unacceptable inconvenience simply to ensure that Mrs Hart’s local hospital retains a neurosurgery unit. Mrs Hart had better brace herself for a tidal wave of protest from the uncharted territory that lies to the north of Merthyr Tydfil.

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Posted in Edwina Hart, health, neurosurgery, Welsh Assembly Government

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Stroke of Ill Luck

Posted on July 11, 2007 | Leave a comment
Also spoke briefly today in an Opposition day debate on stroke care.

Strokes are, increasingly, survivable, but only if patients receive proper care without delay. Unfortunately the Welsh Assembly Government appears to have failed Welsh stroke patients pretty badly. The 2006 National Sentinel Audit for Stroke reveals the extent to which Wales has fallen behind England and Northern Ireland. Only 45% of eligible hospitals in Wales (nine hospitals) have a stroke unit, compared with 97% of eligible hospitals in England. Only three sites (15%) have acute stroke unit provision.

Chillingly, the report’s authors conclude that patients in Wales are more likely die from stroke, or, if they survive, will have higher levels of disability than in England or Northern Ireland.

I am constantly dismayed at the extent to which the WAG has failed on health care in Wales. More money is being spent on health per capita than in England and we have excellent medical professionals, yet the outcomes, in so many areas, lag far behind those in the rest of the country.

In many places, it is virtually impossible to find an NHS dentist. Orthopaedic waiting times are much longer than those experienced in England. Now we learn that we are much more likely to die of a stroke than we would if we lived on the other side of a non-existent border. It can only be the fault of WAG.

In Wales, we pay our taxes and National Insurance contributions at exactly the same rate as anyone else; why, therefore, should we put up with an inferior service?

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Posted in health, Welsh Assembly Government

Thankless task

Posted on June 8, 2007 | 3 Comments
Challenged Wales Office Minister, Nick Ainger, on Wednesday on the issue of hospital waiting times for Welsh patients. The combined target waiting time for elective orthopaedic surgery at Gobowen (i.e. for outpatient and inpatient appointments) is 16 months. For patients from England it is 31 weeks.

I asked Nick why Welsh patients, who pay their taxes at precisely the same rates as their English counterparts, should be expected to wait in pain for an extra 37 weeks. Was it a policy decision on the part of the Welsh Assembly Government, or just incompetence?

Didn’t get much of a response from Nick, but I rather felt he wanted to agree that it WAS just incompetence. I feel very sorry for him. It must be a dreadful task to stand at the despatch box, month after month, and try to come up with excuses for the dog’s breakfast that Rhodri Morgan and Co have made of health care in Wales.

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Posted in Welsh Assembly Government

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