I move Amendment 1.
Whilst Welsh Conservatives are always happy to note a report, we cannot endorse this report.
Although UK Conservative Governments have delivered law making powers, tax raising powers and a reserved powers model, turning this place into a fully-fledged Parliament, we recognise that further devolution of powers now or in the foreseeable future is both unnecessary and unsafe.
Whilst the evolving constitutional settlement within our UK should not be determined by the transient personalities and policies of different Governments at any point in time, it must be built on the solid foundations provided by representative democracies with functioning checks and balances.
However, the democratic deficit in Wales is still alive and kicking, with many still not understanding where the decisions are taken, who is responsible and how much power the Welsh Government actually has over their lives.
As a constituent put it “the activities of the Welsh Government are ignored by a large section of the population. It concerns me because the Welsh Government could in this way ‘get away with anything’ - The electorate are not acting as checks and balances”.
This perpetuates the one-sided nature of Welsh politics, allowing ‘we know best’ Labour Welsh Government to dodge accountability.
To be effective, the first requirement of any Government is to know that it can be kicked out, but, after 25 years in power, this buck-passing Welsh Government no longer believes that this applies to them.
Hopefully the mass petitions and protests of recent times will change this, but unless and until it does, we cannot risk further concentration of power in their hands.
The Commission’s report confirms that in the event of independence, Wales would face a fiscal deficit, meaning big cuts for many years and possibly longer, the extent of which would be dependent upon the terms negotiated, which would include decisions surrounding state pensions, proportion of UK debt allocation, what currency Wales would use, defence and overseas representation.
Weaknesses in the Commission’s Report are exposed by its statement that its Justice and Policing subgroup took “the report of the Thomas Commission as its starting point”.
However, when I visited the North West Regional Organised Crime Unit, a collaboration between North Wales Police and five police forces in North West England, we heard that:
- evidence given to the Thomas Commission by the Chief Constables and Police and Crime Commissioners in Wales was largely ignored in the Commission’s Report
- And that 95% or more of crime in North Wales is local or operates on a cross-border East/West basis.
In fact, The Thomas Commission only includes one reference to any cross-border criminality, in the context of County Lines, and the solution it proposes is joint working across the four Welsh forces, but no reference to Forces across the border.
In the real world, North Wales Police joined forces with Cheshire and British Transport Police to target Cross-border criminals as part of Operation Crossbow last March.
Only this month, Project Medusa, funded by the Home Office, saw joint operations between Merseyside, North Wales and Cheshire Police Forces to tackle County Lines drug dealing and the criminal exploitation of young people.
As yesterday’s Welsh Government commissioned report “Preparing for the devolution of policing in Wales” quotes “the Thomas report talked about the jagged edge between devolved and non-devolved bodies, and I think if you look at some of the work we've done, we've got none”.
It also reports “concern that … proximity of Welsh Ministers could lead to situations which may threaten the principle of operational independence”.
Further, given that Labour’s Shadow Welsh Secretary has rejected calls for the Welsh Government to be given control of policing and adult criminal justice, and that the Chair of Labour’s Commission on the UK’s Future, Gordon Brown, fell short of backing calls for Wales’ Justice System to be run from Cardiff last weekend, we must ask why the Welsh Government is devoting so much time and resource to devolution of these matters, when it is cutting key budgets elsewhere.
Perhaps intentionally, the obsessive like pursuit of further powers is a distraction from the issues which matter to the people of Wales.
While there are some interesting aspects of this report which will require further consideration, the work of the Commission will not make ambulances arrive any faster, properly staff our schools or support Welsh businesses.
Welsh Labour Ministers and their Plaid Cymru partners should instead be focusing on getting to grips with unacceptable waiting lists, on improving educational outcomes and on better pay for people in Wales, the lowest paid in the UK.
