THE National Assembly recently surveyed more than 2,500 people in Wales for their opinions about the National Assembly for Wales and how much they understood about the powers of the Assembly.
I was naturally delighted to find that opposition to the Assembly, which has constantly declined from 39% in 1997, is only at 15% today. I am also very pleased that across Wales there is now a similar level of support for the Assembly in all regions.
The research also found a reasonable degree of interest in politics and knowledge about the Assembly. Most people know that the Assembly is responsible for education and isn’t responsible for defence. However, there is very little understanding of the difference between the National Assembly for Wales and Welsh [Assembly] Government.
Only 14% knew that the statement –‘the Presiding Officer of the National Assembly for Wales is Rhodri Morgan’ – is wrong. Western Mail readers, of course, will know that Rhodri Morgan is the First Minister of the Welsh [Assembly] Government, but despite our excellent personal relationship, our roles and our institutions are hardly interchangeable.
The lack of a clear separation between the Assembly itself and “Welsh Ministers” as they are now always described in UK legislation conferring powers on them, and the civil servants working for them, has always been a constitutional issue for me. But the evidence now clearly shows that perpetuating the confusion is preventing clear communication about democratic decisions.
This is the view of the Electoral Commission, who in its reports on general elections to the National Assembly asserts that public uncertainty about powers and responsibilities was a contributory factor in the relatively low level of turn-out. A clearly-perceived separation between a legislature and an executive is a crucial part of democratic governance and is fundamental to the workings of any constitutional political system world-wide. How could Wales be different?
The separation between the two was formally made in the Government of Wales Act 2006. There was complete unanimity both in the National Assembly and in the UK Parliament that the granting of legislative powers should be accompanied by a proper separation between the parliamentary institution of the National Assembly, and the “Welsh Ministers”, as they are described in the Government of Wales Act 2006 which is the present constitution of Wales. However although the term Welsh [Assembly] Government was enshrined in Part Two of that Act itself, “Welsh Ministers” is now far and away the most common term used in legislation.
Our present confusion is a creation of our history. The National Assembly for Wales was set up by our first constitution in the Government of Wales Act 1998 as a “corporate body” with no formal differentiation between executive and legislature, Government and Assembly. But as elected representatives we had only been in Cardiff Bay a few months when we had to begin to create for ourselves separate identities so the work of democratic scrutiny by the legislature and administration by Cabinet government could be clearly differentiated. After all, no democratic society can exist without government and opposition.
The name “Welsh Assembly Government” was adopted in 2001 when the First Minister took the decision to change the quaint name of “Assembly Secretaries” for members of his cabinet to Ministers. Collectively they decided to call themselves the Welsh [Assembly] Government – WAG for short. However, Rhodri Morgan replied to me as then Chair of the Assembly Review of Procedure in July 2001: “It is widely accepted that we should use all the scope available to make a distinction between the governmental and parliamentary side of the corporate body. As regards the terminology, the cabinet’s preference is for Government of the Assembly and that term will be used increasingly.”
These issues had been due to be discussed between parties at a meeting of the Review Group but a few days before, Rhodri Morgan announced to the South Wales Echo that he now favoured the phrase “Welsh Assembly Government” to describe his then coalition administration, and the term the “Welsh Assembly” instead of the National Assembly for Wales.
The following day, Ron Davies, the architect of the original 1998 Act challenged him on the floor of the Assembly: “Do you agree that it is important now to create greater sense of clarity between the National Assembly and its executive who you head as the government. The term Welsh Assembly Government makes about as much sense as the term the British Parliament’s Cabinet. It is a constitutional nonsense and will confuse people even more.” Rhodri Morgan replied that he didn’t want to call his Government the Government of Wales “because Central Government spends half of the public money that is spent in Wales and we spend the other half.”
If we had taken this argument seriously then on an all-Wales level, we should not be using the term “local” in local government since Welsh ministers are responsible for allocating more than half of local government budgets!
Now is the time, when the Assembly is making new Welsh law every week, and before the Constitutional Convention reports or a referendum is considered, for us to make our democratic work clear to everyone by removing the final anomaly of our 1998 constitution. The Scottish Government has recently changed its name from “Scottish Executive” to clarify the difference between the work of parliament and government. It is time for Wales to do the same.