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An Assembly for Wales

The main points of the Welsh White Paper are as follows.

i. Responsibilities

The Assembly will assume powers to make secondary legislation. The basic framework of the law is set down in primary legislation in Acts of Parliament, within which the Secretary of State currently makes rules and regulations in secondary legislation. It is these powers that the Assembly will assume. The responsibilities relate to the following areas:
  • economic development
  • agriculture, forestry, fisheries and food
  • industry and training
  • education
  • local government
  • health and personal social services
  • housing
  • environment
  • planning
  • transport and roads
  • arts, culture, the Welsh language
  • the built heritage
  • sport and recreation

The Bill will contain the power to transfer the Secretary of State's responsibilities to the Assembly. The Secretary of State for Wales will continue to sit in the Cabinet to represent Welsh interests and will be able to attend meetings of the Assembly to participate in its debates, but not to vote.

The Assembly will have the power to restructure quangos as it sees fit, even where this means overturning primary legislation enacted at Westminster. This provision has been referred to as the Henry VIII clause.

The Assembly will have no powers over taxation, macro-economic policy, defence and foreign policy, social security, or police and legal affairs.

ii. Relations with other bodies

a) local government

The Assembly will take on the Welsh Office's responsibilities for funding local government. It will not take any functions away from local government.

b) Westminster/Whitehall

The Secretary of State for Wales will represent Wales in the Cabinet and will attend meetings of the Assembly. The House of Commons will decide whether the Welsh Grand Committee and the Welsh Affairs Select Committee should continue to have a role.

The Assembly's officials and their Whitehall counterparts will work closely together.

Any disputes about the Assembly's use of its powers will be referred to the Attorney General or Solicitor General. If they considered that the Assembly was using its powers unlawfully, the matter could be put to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council.

There will be no reduction in the number of MPs representing Wales in Parliament.

c) Europe

The Assembly will be obliged to implement relevant EU obligations.

The Secretary of State for Wales may participate in relevant meetings of the Council of Ministers and represent the UK on relevant items.

Members of the Assembly will represent Wales on the Committee of the Regions.

iii. Composition of the Assembly

The Assembly would have 60 members, 40 elected on a constituency basis and 20 elected on proportional representation from lists provided by the political parties. (For details on the Additional Member System see below). Members of a Welsh Assembly can also sit as MPs, MEPs or as councillors at the same time as they sit in the Assembly.

iv. Functioning of the Assembly

The Bill will provide for the Secretary of State to appoint an all-party Commission to draw up the initial standing orders for the functioning of the Assembly before the Assembly is established. The standing orders will be finalised by the Assembly as one of its first tasks.

The Assembly's overall political leadership will be provided by an Executive Committee, made up of the leaders of each of its subject committees. It would operate in a similar way to the UK Cabinet and would normally be formed by members of the majority party within the Assembly.

The Assembly will establish regional committees, at least one of which must be for North Wales. Regional committees will be advisory bodies, and will have no functions delegated to them.

The Assembly will sit for a fixed term of four years and will not be able to dissolve itself early.

v. Finance

The Assembly will have at its disposal the budget - currently £7 billion - which now falls within the responsibility of the Secretary of State for Wales. This money is to be allocated under the Barnett formula, the block grant system currently in use.

Running costs of the Parliament are estimated to be £15-£20 million per year; around £6 for every person in Wales. This would be in addition to the running costs of the Welsh Office which are around £72 million a year.

The salaries for members will initially be set by an independent salaries review board. Subsequent rises in pay will be linked to changes in the salaries of MPs.

vi. Location

The Assembly will meet in Cardiff, although a building has not been chosen yet.
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