Senedd Watch - February 2013

• The Assembly rejected a Legislative Consent Motion from the UK Parliament to close the Agricultural Wages Board – which sets wages for agricultural workers in EnglandandWales. Deputy Minister for Rural Affairs, Alun Davies (Lab, Blaenau Gwent) will ask for Wales to be excluded from the respective legislation.
• The First Minister warned NHS reorganisations were essential to prevent the Welsh NHS from “collapsing”. He repeated that the Welsh Government wanted to create a “safe and sustainable health service”, but said that he doesn't expect Welsh Labour to suffer electorally because of the reforms. A poll for BBC Wales later in the month showed 74% of the public were opposed to the changes.
• Dafydd Elis-Thomas AM (Plaid, Dwyfor Meirionnydd) called for a reduction in the number of local authorities to as few as 7 or 5, a reduction in the number of MPs and an increase in the number of AMs. He said the internal governance of Wales needed to be “slimlined”.
• Opposition parties called a Welsh Government proposal to introduce online health checks for the over-50s a “monumental climbdown” on a Welsh Labour 2011 election pledge to provide a GP-led health check.
• The House of Commons voted to approve the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill on February 5th, which will legalise/recognise same sex marriages in EnglandandWales. However, 140 Conservative MPs voted against the plans, meaning the legislation was reliant on Labour, Liberal Democrat and nationalist support.
• Health Minister Lesley Griffiths (Lab, Wrexham) said the Welsh NHS will “learn lessons” from a report into an English heath trust, which criticised standards and quality of care. She said there were “robust systems in place to ensure quality and safety are at the heart of NHS care.” Partly in response, Welsh Liberal Democrat leader Kirsty Williams warned Welsh NHS staff faced being “overwhelmed” and that a similar scandal could occur in Wales.
• Conservative and Lib Dem leaders accused the Welsh Government of “setting a dangerous precedent” by stepping in to fund a Welsh language festival in Cardiff following Cardiff Council budget cuts. Andrew Davies (Con, South Wales Central) said the Welsh Government were “cherry picking good causes to save.”
• A public consultation into M4 improvements around Newport has been deemed “inadequate” by the Welsh Government's own lawyers according to Friends of the Earth Cymru. It could result in a second consultation being required. Shadow Transport Minister Byron Davies (Con, South Wales West) said that would be a “damning indictment of this Labour government's incompetence.”
• Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood called for the “fast-tracking” of powers to Wales should Scotland vote for independence in 2014, saying Wales would find itself in a “Tory-governed state.” However, both she and Adam Price said independence for Wales isn't a practical possibility until the economy improves, which “could take 10-15 years.”
• Deputy Minister for Housing, Regeneration and Heritage, Huw Lewis (Lab, Merthyr Tydfil & Rhymney) suspended eight Regeneration Investment Fund for Wales (RIFW) projects, pending a double internal investigation into handling of land sales in March 2012, which are currently also being investigated by the Wales Audit Office.
• First Minister Carwyn Jones described cuts to the EU budget as “deeply unfair” to the poorest parts of the EU. It could result in a £400million cut in EU funding for Wales between 2014-2020. Plaid Cymru MP Jonathan Edwards demanded Welsh Labour MPs “apologise” after backing the cuts in December 2012, despite opposition from the Assembly.
• Food critic Simon Wright called for improved cooking lessons in schools to help combat childhood obesity rates. Obesity experts warned Wales faces an “obesity epidemic” unless action was taken. The Assembly debated the Change4Life campaign, and the Welsh Government said it would look at how teaching cooking could be improved in schools.
• The First Minister travelled to San Francisco to discuss trade and meet business leaders in hi-tech industries for four days. He announced the creation of 100 jobs at a water purification company in Carmarthenshire. The Welsh Conservatives called for the trade missions to “deliver real investment for Wales.”
• The Assembly's Public Accounts Committee warned that maternity staff numbers were falling below recommended levels. The Welsh Government said more midwives were being trained. The committee also called for time scales for phasing out Caesarean section births.
• Eluned Parrott AM (Lib Dem, South Wales Central) accused Welsh Labour of hypocrisy, after UK shadow cabinet members criticised cuts to bus services, while the Welsh Government will make deeper cuts – 25% - to Welsh bus services from April 1^st.
• Chair of the Assembly's cross-party group on eating disorders, Bethan Jenkins AM (Plaid, South Wales West), called for a specialist residential centre for eating disorders to be established in Wales. The Welsh Government said they spent up to £1million on specialist services since 2010, and that those with highly-specific requirements were provided with services elsewhere in the UK.
• A row broke out over the Human Transplantation Bill, with an organ donation expert claiming the Welsh Government's evidence that legislation – based on a Spanish example – would increase organ donation was “misleading.” However, Kidney Wales Foundation say that an opt-out system would help save minority ethnicity lives as they need more transplants.
• An EU-backed job creation scheme – Genesis Cymru Wales 2 – may be wound up a year early, after it was revealed fewer than 800 people were found jobs, despite aims of creating 20,000 jobs or qualified individuals.
• The Welsh Government's submission to the second part of the Silk Commission called for the devolution of policing, with the devolution of the criminal justice system “in the long term”. The submission also called for the devolution of large energy projects – except nuclear energy. The First Minister said policing was “the only emergency service not devolved.”
• Local Government & Communities Minister Carl Sargeant (Lab, Alyn & Deeside) introduced the Active Travel Bill. The Bill will place an obligation on local authorities to link together “key sites” with cycling and pedestrian facilities and map integrated networks.
• Two local authorities – Merthyr Tydfil and Monmouthshire – should have their education services placed in “special measures” by the Welsh Government based on recommendations from schools inspectorate, Estyn. On February 25^th, Merthyr's education services were placed in special measures by the Education Minister, drawing condemnation from NASWUT for “heavy handedness”.
• Unemployment in Wales rose by 6,000 in the three months to December 2012 to stand at 8.6%. Unemployment across the UK as a whole fell by 14,000 to 7.8%. Business Minister Edwina Hart (Lab, Gower) said economic conditions “remained difficult.”
• A Wales Audit Office report warned the public sector may not be getting value for money with its £133million bill for external consultants fees. They suggested £40million could be saved by following “best practice”. Local government spent the most on consultants, while the Welsh Government saw a reduction in consultants fees.
• Education Minister Leighton Andrews (Lab, Rhondda) announced Wales will set its own grading system for English Language GCSEs to avoid a repeat of the grade inflation row in summer 2012. The Welsh Conservatives warned this threatened to “devalue” GCSEs in Wales, while Simon Thomas AM (Plaid, Mid & West Wales) said the minister was doing it “without an independent regulator deciding the merits of the case.”
• Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood called for non-specific legislative measures to create a gender balance in the National Assembly. It follows concerns raised by Llywydd Rosemary Butler (Lab, Newport West) about a fall in the number of women AMs in 2011.
• The Welsh Conservatives proposed cutting taxes for high earners if tax-varying powers - outlined by the first part of the Silk Commission - were implemented. They hope it would generate a “spirit of greater enterprise.”
• Plaid Cymru called for the immediate devolution of several areas including broadcasting, food safety, coastguard services and criminal justice “without delay” in their submission to the second part of the Silk Commission.
• The Welsh Government rejected new Welsh language service standards drawn up by Welsh Language Commissioner Meri Huws for being “too complicated” and “unreasonable.” Welsh language campaigners questioned the Welsh Government's rejection of the commissioner's advice.
• NHS reorganisations in north Wales could be referred to the Welsh Government after widespread protests, and a cross-party campaign, against moving specialist neo-natal services to Arrowe Park Hospital in the Wirral.
• The First Minister announced that a “St Davids Awards” will be launched in 2014 to honour “ordinary people who do extraordinary things” in Wales, during a Welsh Conservative Senedd debate on a Welsh Honours system.
• The Wales Audit Office reported that “a vast majority” of hospital consultants in Wales were working more than 48 hours a week, with one in six working at least 46 hours a week. An improved contract was supposed to have set a 38 hour working week for consultants.

Projects announced in February include : a £16.3million investment in specialist rehabilitation services for elderly neurological/spinal condition sufferers, the second phase of a £30million Economic Growth Fund and the launch of a “NewBuy” scheme to help first-time buyers onto the property ladder.