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Peter Black and South Wales West Liberal DemocratsRepresenting Aberavon, Bridgend, Gower, Neath, Ogmore, Port Talbot, and Swansea |
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Debate and Approval of the Draft National Assembly for Wales (Legislative Competence) (Health and Health Services and Social Welfare) Order 2010
December 9, 2009 12:00 AM
By Peter Black in Plenary
By Peter Black in Plenary
Peter Black: I also welcome the return of this draft legislative competence Order to Plenary and I congratulate Jonathan Morgan on successfully navigating it to this stage. I think that Jonathan used the metaphor of a sheep wandering through a minefield, and I suspect that quite a bit of wool was singed on the way. I also get the impression that for a Member to take a LCO to this stage, it requires having the Minister in front of them with a metal detector to make sure that it actually gets there. In a sense, that is unfortunate because it underlines one of the weaknesses of the LCO procedure. Members need to have the active support of Ministers if they are to make any progress, irrespective of the merits of the LCO. I know that this is also the case with Measures, but it does seem that we have spent two years, effectively, getting to this point. We have had what seem to be quite protracted negotiations on the contents and breadth of the draft LCO, and in relation to what we can and cannot legislate on. Although that has produced an outcome that is broadly acceptable, I will only be fully satisfied that it is acceptable when we see what we can produce in terms of Measures and advocacy.
We are also put in the situation of effectively negotiating future Measures with the Welsh Affairs Committee and with Whitehall in order to get to this point. I do not necessarily share Jonathan's optimism about the LCO process or even his acceptance that it does have merits. It seems that it has merely delayed what should be a natural area of competence for this Assembly to legislate on. I say that not to undermine the achievements of Jonathan or the Minister in any way in getting us this far, but as a general comment on the LCO process as it currently stands.
The Health, Wellbeing and Local Government Committee has just completed a review of mental health services and produced a thorough report, not all of which will need legislation, but there are areas, as identified by a number of outside organisations, where legislation is required and where I hope that Measures will be forthcoming as soon as possible. Like other Members, I look forward to seeing those Measures coming forward as quickly as possible. I know that Jonathan will first be afforded the opportunity to bring a Measure forward as part of the process of Member proposed legislation, and he will no doubt be working with the Minister on that. However, I feel that we need to get on with this, now that we have the competence, and I just hope that the draft LCO itself proves broad enough to deliver everything that we need in terms of mental health in order to deliver the agenda that the Assembly Government and members of all parties in this Chamber want to see brought into effect.
In conclusion, I congratulate Jonathan, and I am pleased that we have reached this stage, but it just seems that we have spent two years negotiating to get to this stage when we could have been getting on with it.
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