Assembly Committee welcomes more powers over environment but raises concerns about the increasing complexity of current devolution settlement.
The National Assembly for Wales’ Legislation committee No.4 has backed moves to strengthen the Assembly’s law making power over the environment.
But committee members found that the number and complexity of exceptions added to the Legislative Competence Environment Order 2009 meant that it would make the law very complicated to understand for the public, stakeholders and relevant professionals.
They share the concerns of the House of Lords Constitution Committee that the written constitution for the governance of Wales is becoming too complex.
“We strongly recommend that the Minister investigates ways in which the exceptions to the National Assembly’s proposed legislative competence could be simplified,” said the Committee (chaired by Mike German AM) in its report on the proposed LCO.
A particular way in which the Committee recommended this might be done was by amending the proposed LCO “to remove exceptions that merely duplicate the “functions of a Minister of the Crown” restriction” already contained in the Government of Wales Act 2006.
The Committee also recommended that “in current and future negotiations with the UK government over legislative competence, Welsh Ministers also address the transfer of relevant executive functions” in order “not to constrain the transfer of legislative competence to the Assembly” and also “so that “the boundaries of the National Assembly’s” legislative competence can more clearly be understood.”
The proposed LCO also included exceptions in areas other than the environment. The Committee was not persuaded that the inclusion of such exceptions was justified. It recommended that they should be re-drafted as specific exceptions relating to the environment only.
Committee members also called for more clarity within Explanatory Memoranda which accompany future proposed LCOs as to the reasons why exceptions have had to be included in them.