Silk-y Smooth Devolution?

The big-wigs of political and civic society converged for a momentous event on Wednesday.  No not the one at St Paul’s, but at the Pierhead, for a conference to discuss the ins and outs of the second part of the Silk Commission.

As has been done many times before and will continue to be done in the future, the Welsh devolution settlement was to be dissected and scrutinised. However, as Professor Richard Wyn Jones indicated in his keynote speech, continuously talking about the “rules of the game”, or in this case, continuously discussing the structure of the devolution settlement in Wales, is not very healthy.  But when will we actually be able to get on and play the “game” itself?

A “jagged edged” settlement was the sound-bite of the day.  The mishmash that is the conferred powers model of devolution means that the competency to legislate has repeatedly been called into question and will most probably be questioned in the future, with other Welsh Government bills likely to follow the path of the Local Government Byelaws Bill in its referral to the Supreme Court by the Secretary of State.

The consequence of this “failed model of devolution” is that there is great pressure for the next change in the settlement to be the right one and, according to most of the rhetoric on this topic, the right model is the Scottish model. Where there is confusion and complexity in the Welsh model the reserved powers model in Scotland is clear, something demonstrated in the complete absence of referrals of Scottish legislation to the Supreme Court by the UK Government.

However, we are quick to blame the devolution model when perhaps the problem lies in elsewhere. The lack of capacity, communication and general “tools to do the job” was a common thread of concern in all policy areas under discussion and indicated that before any decisions on policy devolution are made, assurances are needed about the equipment needed to play the game.

As the perpetually used Ron Davies reference asserts, devolution is a “process not an event”, but unless achievable changes are proposed and implemented in Wales and a conscious move away from “failed devolution” is made, that process may never end.

Naomi Williams is a consultant at Positif Politics. The conference was organised by Positif Politics, WCVA, Public Affairs Cymru, the UK Changing Union project and the Bevan Foundation.