As we all know by now, the solution to every problem in Wales is to form a committee. The more serious committees are called commissions or conventions instead.
The recent announcement of a new Welsh Government-backed constitutional commission chaired by Prof. Laura McAllister and The Rt Rev. Rowan Williams has generated a lot of buzz; given the credentials and profiles of the chairs that’s to be expected. I don’t think there’s any question that this is going to be a serious piece of work even if there’s some confusion over the terms of reference.
Nevertheless, the sobering reality is that Wales is currently averaging a commission to look at the Senedd’s powers, electoral reform or constitutional reform roughly once every three to four years. Yes, that often.
That’s before including the other non-constitutional committees, conventions and commissions – for example, the Diamond Review (student finance), the Senedd-commission review into digital media and the Burns Commission (Newport bypass alternatives).
What everyone needs to keep in mind before they get too excited about the latest commission is the poor track record we have in Wales of turning pages in a report into real things.
- Report: A Parliament that works for Wales (pdf; Senedd Home summary).
- Chaired by: Prof. Laura McAllister.
- Tasked with: Considering options for improving and strengthening democracy in the Senedd.
Yet another echo of the Richard Commission, the expert panel sought to address the growing pressures on the Senedd – namely the lack of members for backbench and committee scrutiny, poor levels of public engagement and improving opportunities for under-represented sections of society.
The final report was fairly comprehensive and went slightly further than previous ones in recommending increasing the size of the Senedd to anything up to 90-100 members, switching to single transferable vote, lowering the voting age to 16, introducing job-sharing and measures to achieve 50:50 gender representation (including possible gender quotas for candidates).
Outcome: The Senedd & Elections Act 2020 did lower the voting age to 16 and introduced a (largely unrelated) formal name change for the institution to Senedd/Welsh Parliament. Although the Act was hailed as some brilliant, ground-breaking revolution in Welsh democracy, in reality most of the changes were cosmetic and the reduction in the voting age hasn’t radically changed Welsh politics.
The electoral reform element was separated and handed to a special Senedd committee who ended up drawing conclusions that were identical to the McAllister Review. Another committee has been tasked with laying the groundwork for a second electoral reform law during the Sixth Senedd. If electoral reform and an increase in the number of members can be secured before 2026 then this could probably be chalked up as a success. Until then….
Verdict: Unsuccessful because the Senedd hasn’t been reformed to any great degree (work in progress).
