Wales Bill

Debate between Baroness Gale and Lord Hope of Craighead

Tuesday 11th November 2014 Lords Chamber

[Lord Hope of Craighead]

My Lords, I want to add a few words in support of the amendment. With great respect to the noble Lord, Lord Elystan-Morgan, I do not think that he overstated the case in moving the amendment. I say that against the background of such experience as I have of the Scottish Parliament which is operating under the reserved powers model. If we cast our minds back to 1998, when these figures were being devised, the structures of these various legislatures played a part in deciding the numbers of members that were thought to be appropriate to staff them. One can well understand how the figure of 60 was arrived at for Wales. We have watched how the powers of the legislature have expanded and, no doubt, if it moves to the reserved powers model, we shall find that these will be built on even further, as they are being in Scotland.

There may even be a case for thinking that the membership of the Scottish Parliament is too small, given the immense pressures on the committee structure within which it operates. The more powers that are devolved, the more these committees are being stretched. One cannot simply live with the expanding system and increased powers of these legislatures without remembering that the figures were struck in a different world. It is quite absurd to be stuck with those figures which were devised originally under a different system.

There is an immense amount behind what the noble Lord has said and behind the other points that have been made. Like others, I hope that serious consideration will be given to a way in which that figure may now be increased to recognise the reality of what is going on and the requirements that it imposes on the individual members.

[Baroness Gale]

My Lords, once again we have had an interesting debate, as we did in Committee. There was general consensus then that the number of Welsh Assembly Members should be increased. Indeed, over the 15 years of devolution, many calls have been made to increase the number. Different reports have been produced, including by the Electoral Reform Society Cymru. The 2004 Richard commission supported an increase, and we know that the current presiding officer, Dame Rosemary Butler, has said the same. The Richard commission said that there should be 80 seats, while the Silk 2 report said that the,

“size of the National Assembly should be increased”.

In 2013, the Electoral Reform Society and the Changing Union project published a report recommending that the number of AMs should be 100. The noble Lord, Lord Elystan-Morgan, asked how many Members we should have. He also pointed out the small number of Back-Benchers, at 42. It means that the ability to scrutinise legislation is curtailed, as is holding the Government to account, which is really important in a democracy. As legislation becomes more complex, it is necessary for politicians to develop areas of specialist expertise, but that is difficult for most of the Back- Benchers because they are spread so thinly and they have to do lots of different things. The Minister will have experience of that and obviously she understands everything we are saying in this debate.

The debate today shows that there is consensus around increasing the number of AMs. I do not think that the Minister will be able to make a commitment because we need more discussions in order to decide exactly what would fit the bill, as it were. The Senate was built to cater for 80 Members, so someone must have been thinking ahead, but I do not think that that would be a restriction if the consensus declared it should be 80 or whatever number we come up with. However, I am sure the Minister will agree that there is consensus on this point and generally there is a feeling in Wales that we need to increase the number of Members of the Welsh Assembly.