Senedd Watch - September 2013

• Vice-chair of the Conservative Party, Michael Fabricant MP, called for a new Act of Union that grants the four constituent nations of the United Kingdom equal powers, with Westminster retaining control over areas like defence and foreign affairs.
• A Times Education Supplement survey found between 60-75% of Welsh teachers and headteachers believe school banding hasn't improved standards, and 73-75% believe education reforms have had a negative impact on morale. The Welsh Government said any education reforms “take time to bed in”.
• BMA Cymru believed proposals for reorganising specialist hospital services in south Wales (South Wales Programme) “lacked detail”; a shift towards community service provision lacked proper consultation with GPs and capacity issues hadn't been properly addressed - citing an overall reduction in hospital beds within each proposal.
• A leading brain injury specialist, Prof. Rodger Wood, called for more brain injury rehabilitation units around Wales due to increased numbers of patients. The first specialist unit in Wales is due to open in Carmarthenshire in 2014. In addition, the head of the South Wales Cardiac Network warned patients were dying waiting for surgery in Wales and are choosing to go private as Morriston Hospital and University Hospital Cardiff struggle to cope with demand.
• The Assembly's Public Accounts Committee warned of conflicting reports that patients were “queue jumping” by paying NHS consultants for private treatment. They also said consultants' long working hours were unsustainable and their job-planning was viewed as a “tick-box exercise”.
• The Federation of Small Businesses in Wales rejected proposals to part-fund an M4 Newport bypass through existing Severn bridge tolls, after it was suggested by a Welsh Government adviser. However, the Welsh Government said they would seek to reduce tolls should the powers to set them be devolved. A public consultation on the proposed bypass options was launched on September 23^rd.
• The Human Transplantation Bill was granted Royal Assent on 10^th September. The Human Transplantation Act 2013 will create an opt-out organ donation system in Wales by 2015. The First Minister described it as, “arguably the most significant piece of legislation passed by the Assembly since it acquired law-making powers in 2011.”
• Unemployment in Wales fell by 7,000 in the three months to July 2013 to stand at 8% overall. The UK unemployment rate also fell by 24,000 to 7.7%.
• A Western Mail investigation into Sports Wales funding found what they described as a “postcode lottery”, with Gwynedd receiving the most per head, Cardiff the largest sums overall, while Newport and Vale of Glamorgan were placed towards the bottom. Mohammad Ashgar AM (Con, South Wales East) called on the Welsh Government to “make sure every area is getting its fair share.”
• The First Minister opened the nomination process for the first annual St David Awards, the aim being to honour those “doing exceptional things and making a real difference to quality of life”. The first award ceremony is due to be held in March 2014.
• Finance Minister Jane Hutt (Lab, Vale of Glamorgan) announced the Welsh Government will issue advice to public bodies so that firms that blacklisted both trade unionists and workers who raised health and safety concerns in the past will be barred from public sector contracts.
• Welsh Lib Dem leader Kirsty Williams told the UK Lib Dem annual conference her party should steer the debate on further devolved powers. She also criticised both Welsh Labour's education record and levels of funding for poor pupils.
• The First Minister told a Welsh Governance Centre conference that devolution of fiscal powers could make the case for the Union in Scotland stronger in the run up to the 2014 independence referendum, warning that delaying or blocking further devolution would play into the hands of nationalists. In addition, he called for a written constitution which presumes in favour of devolution.
• A Joseph Rowntree Foundation report found poverty levels were higher in working households than in non-working households, especially in rural Wales, with 23% of people said to be living in poverty in Wales. Deputy Minister for Tackling Poverty, Vaughan Gething (Lab, Cardiff S. & Penarth), called for effective intervention, but conceded that action relies on UK Government levers, criticising both austerity measures and welfare reform.
• UKIP leader Nigel Farage told a BBC Wales reporter at his party's annual conference that they no longer oppose devolution, saying the UK “was moving towards a federal model” but some powers could be devolved to a local level from the National Assembly.
• The First Minister told Labour's annual conference in Brighton his government “sets an example”  for what Labour can achieve in power. Leader of the Opposition, Ed Miliband, defended Welsh Labour's NHS record, saying that it was “as good as possible”.
• Hywel Dda Local Health Board approved hospital reorganisations in west Wales, which will include a downgrading of Llanelli's Prince Philip Hospital A&E department to a nurse-led unit (subject to a judicial review), with the centralisation of neonatal services kept under review by Health Minister Mark Drakeford (Lab, Cardiff West).
• Auditor General, Huw Vaughan Thomas, told the Assembly's Public Accounts Committee that local health boards had developed a culture of overspending, and there needed to be a more consistent approach to health budgets.
• Auditors found more than £20,000 of public funding used as indemnity in a libel case undertaken by Carmarthenshire Council's Chief Executive, Mark James, was unlawful - in addition to a payment in lieu of pension contributions. Rhodri Glyn Thomas AM (Plaid, Carms. E & Dinefwr) said it was “exceptionally damaging for Carmarthenshire”, pressing Local Government Minister Lesley Griffiths (Lab, Wrexham) to investigate further. Similar pension contributions in Pembrokeshire and more than £200,000 in compensation for car allowance cuts for senior staff in Caerphilly, were also deemed unlawful by auditors.
• The National Assembly approved the Mobile Homes Bill on September 25th, following a additional Report Stage over the summer recess. It enshrines new protections for mobile home residents in law and establishes a licensing system for mobile home sites. Introduced by Peter Black AM (Lib Dem, South Wales West), it's the first Member's Bill passed by the Assembly since the 2011 referendum.
• Plaid Cymru leader, Leanne Wood, called for the devolution of postal services to Wales, and the creation of a publicly-owned “Post Cymru”, following the start of a privatisation process of Royal Mail. She cites a legal precedent where postal services were surrendered to the Isle of Man via the Postal Act 1969.
• At the UK Conservative annual conference, Welsh Conservative leader Andrew Davies said his party has the ideas and drive to solve Wales's problems, citing “13 years (sic) of stagnation” under Welsh Labour. UK Prime Minister David Cameron denied that delays to the UK Government's response to the Silk Commission were a sign his party were blocking devolution, saying there was a “bubble in Cardiff that was obsessed with powers” and that fiscal responsibility had a “natural attraction” to conservatives.
• Llyr Huws Gruffydd AM (Plaid, North Wales) called for a corporate manslaughter investigation into Betsi Cadwaladr LHB's handling of C.difficile infection at Glan Clwyd Hospital, from which 30 patients died of 96 infected.

Projects announced in September include : The launch of a new EADS training company – Testia – in Newport, which aims to train more than 1,000 aerospace students and apprentices each year; a £40million redevelopment of Gower College Swansea's Tycoch campus, a 2000-capacity £250million prison in Wrexham and a £35million expansion of Parc Prison in Bridgend.