Sovereignty’s at the heart of the Assembly power debate, says think-tank director

Apr 30 2008 by Martin Shipton, Western Mail

A LEADING political commentator told a conference yesterday that the debate about extra powers for the National Assembly should be refashioned into a debate about giving sovereignty to the people of Wales.

John Osmond, director of the Institute of Welsh Affairs, a think-tank, told a conference organised by the campaign group Cymru Yfory (Tomorrow’s Wales): “At present we have to go cap in hand to the Westminster Parliament to ask them to approve what is called a Legislative Competence Order – to hand down, or devolve if you like, permission or competence for the Assembly to pass measures in prescribed fields.

“So far, since the 2006 Act came into force last May, we have succeeded in prising just one Legislative Competence Order out of Westminster, celebrated the other day, relating to additional learning needs.

“What this process underlines is that the sovereignty, or where the real power lies in all of this, still resides in Westminster. It is my contention that this question of sovereignty goes to the heart of the matter.

“Notionally, all power devolved by Westminster – whether to Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland – is power retained. That is to say, and in theory at least, Westminster retains complete sovereignty. Theoretically it could abolish the National Assembly or even the Scottish Parliament. But we know that, in practice, it cannot. So, paradoxically and illogically – but typically under the unwritten British Constitution – we have degrees and portioning out of sovereignty within the devolution processes under way inside the United Kingdom.

“In the case of Wales, everything devolved is itemised and labelled. The powers are derived from specific ministerial functions named in pieces of primary and secondary legislation scattered across the Westminster Statute Book.

“In this process there was no sense sovereignty over the devolved functions was being passed to Wales. Indeed, and in contrast with the Scotland Act, the architecture and tone of the Wales Act was to see the Assembly as, in essence, a tier of local government. In turn this has produced all the complexities and difficulties over the years in both understanding the operation of the Assembly and defining in detail what it can and cannot do.

“Once the Assembly has untrammelled authority over its devolved functions, that is to say once it does not have to go cap in hand to Westminster for Competence Orders to allow it to legislate, it will be able to exercise sovereignty in the areas over which it has powers.”