The National Assembly Commission Achievements during the Fourth Assembly
The National Assembly for Wales is the democratically elected body that represents the interests of Wales and its people, makes laws for Wales and holds the Welsh Government to account.
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National Assembly for Wales The National Assembly Commission Achievements during the Fourth Assembly
Foreword from the Chair of the Assembly Commission, Presiding Officer Rosemary Butler AM It is a great pleasure to write the foreword to the Assembly Commission’s report to Members on activities that have taken place since the election in 2011. One of the things that the Commissioners and I wanted to do from the outset was to ensure that there was good communication between the Commission and Assembly Members. This report is part of our commitment to continue to keep those communication channels open. After all, we are here to enable you, as Assembly Members, to do the important work of holding the Welsh Government to account and creating new Welsh laws. The Assembly Commission strategy which we published last year sets out our ambitions to help ensure that the services we provide make the National Assembly a strong, accessible and forward looking democratic institution and legislature that delivers effectively for the people of Wales. The strategy drives the services that we provide to you and the Welsh public; it stands to reason that, without your input on how we could improve these services and facilities, we will never reach our aim of ensuring we have an exemplar parliamentary service here in Wales. I am extremely grateful for your input so far and I am pleased with the service improvements that the Commission and its staff have implemented to date. Individual Commissioners have pursued their portfolio responsibilities with vigour and I would like to thank them for their hard work and dedication to their roles. During the course of the year I had the pleasure of meeting and discussing a wide range of issues with all 23 Members who were elected in 2011. The purpose of these meetings was to establish how they were settling in to their new roles, their views on the services they had received since joining the Assembly and their ideas for enhancements that could be made. Overwhelmingly, Members said that their induction to the Assembly had been a positive experience and that they had appreciated the opportunities available to them and their staff for professional development. They appreciated the greater opportunities for back-benchers in Plenary sessions and the increased ballots for Member-led legislation. Members and Party Leaders’ input to discussions about Assembly Business has also led me to propose new options for greater variety in the business undertaken in our Plenary sessions and I am extremely grateful for the positive contributions and ideas that were suggested. I also very much appreciate Members’ participation in the events that I have undertaken to engage more of our citizens across Wales in the work that we do. Whether it has been on our outreach bus in communities or at shows, at events undertaken in our regions or here at the Assembly, this is vitally important work. This document sets out examples of the Commission’s work over the last year and how we are addressing and meeting the challenges of a legislature with enhanced powers. The Commission’s promise to you is that we will listen and do our utmost to provide you with the services that you need to undertake your roles. Rosemary Butler AM Presiding Officer and Chair of the Assembly Commission
The National Assembly Commission – roles and responsibilities The Assembly Commission serves the National Assembly to help make it a strong, accessible and forward-looking democratic institution and legislature that delivers effectively for the people of Wales. Its role is to provide the National Assembly with the staff, property and services required to fulfil this role. The Commission consists of the Presiding Officer and four Assembly Members, one nominated by each of the four party groups represented in the Assembly.
Angela Burns AM (Welsh Conservatives) Commissioner with responsibility for budget, governance, including Audit Committee membership, and links with the Remuneration Board. Angela also has responsibility for the improvement of services to Assembly Members, employment support and professional development for Members and their staff.
Peter Black AM (Welsh Liberal Democrats) Commissioner with responsibility for ICT, broadcasting and e-democracy, the Assembly estate, facilities and sustainability, and the Commission’s role as employer.
Sandy Mewies AM (Welsh Labour) Commissioner with responsibility for education services, front of house, catering and security. She also has responsibility for the Commission’s statutory equality functions and Freedom of Information.
Rhodri Glyn Thomas AM (Plaid Cymru) Commissioner with responsibility for citizen engagement and communications and national and international outreach. He is also responsible for the Commission’s Welsh language functions and policy.
Achievements during the first year of the Fourth Assembly Our priorities, as outlined in the Commission’s strategy for the Fourth Assembly, are to provide outstanding parliamentary support to the Assembly, engage effectively with the people of Wales, promote Wales and use our resources wisely. This strategy was informed by comments and feedback from Members and party groups. It is also based on our corporate and constitutional responsibilities. In order to implement the strategy successfully, a key priority for the Commission was to agree its budget for 2012-13 and its indicative budget for 2013-14. Other immediate priorities for the Fourth Assembly included improving the Commission’s ICT services, introducing the National Assembly for Wales Official Languages (Wales) Bill and agreeing the Assembly Commission Equality Plan 2012-16. Budget strategy The Fourth Assembly has a new constitutional position following the ‘yes’ vote in the referendum for greater law-making powers, and its budget strategy reflects this. The Commission’s spending plans for the next three years were set out in the Assembly Commission budget document laid on 9 November 2011. These spending plans were scrutinised by the Finance Committee and received the unanimous support of Assembly Members in Plenary on 16 November 2011. In real terms, the Commission will be spending less every year than it did in 2010-11, and its overall percentage of the Welsh block funding will remain at 0.3% annually. Overall, the Commission’s budget is £47.0 million, of which £13.5 million provides funding for Assembly Members’ salaries, those of their support staff and the costs of running their constituency offices. The remaining £33.5 million allows the Assembly to carry out the day-to-day functions of a legislature, including staffing, accommodation and facilities, security, ICT, depreciation costs and other essential support services. We believe that this is an appropriate cost to provide proper support to the Assembly in scrutinising and challenging the actions and spending of the Welsh Government, making laws, and representing the interests of the people of Wales. During this Assembly, we have strengthened the support provided to Members in a number of ways. For example, we have put additional resource into the Research Service to strengthen financial analysis and scrutiny. This is being used to provide better support for committees in the financial scrutiny of legislation and Government policy; to cost alternative spending proposals; to analyse key areas of Government spend; and to provide more economic/labour market information and analyses. We have also provided the resource to allow Committees to draw on more external expertise to support their inquiries. In the last term alone, Committees have appointed more expert advisers, from academia and a range of specialist fields, than in any previous year. We intend to continue to strengthen the support available to Members in this way in the year ahead.
ICT services Members stated strongly their concerns about aspects of the ICT service, and the Commission has taken a number of actions in response to these concerns. As a result, a service improvement plan has been agreed with Atos. Immediate outcomes include engineer visits to every constituency office, the upgrading of data networks to constituency offices and improved responsiveness from the service desk. There has also been a commitment by Atos to increase project and service management to ensure its service better meets Assembly Members’ needs. A new Director of ICT has been appointed. His priorities include ensuring that the improvements to date continue and that major refreshes of infrastructure (for the Senedd) and system upgrades (particularly Caseworker) deliver improvement and value for money. In addition, he will ensure that the significant decision about the future provision of ICT services for the Assembly and Commission is taken in a timely and informed manner. Such decisions will be underpinned by an over-arching vision and strategy for how the ICT and Information Service should support the needs of the present Assembly and the next. Equality The Equality Act 2010 requires that the Commission publishes its equality objectives by April 2012. The Equality Plan 2012-16 has been developed in consultation with Members, their support staff and Assembly staff, as well as external partners and stakeholders. It covers the Commission’s legal duties in relation to equality, our corporate ethos, roles and responsibilities, our priority objectives, consultation methodology and an action plan. While some of the actions outlined are new, many of them build on initiatives already undertaken to embed equality in the Assembly’s work. The plan will be supported and monitored by the Equality Team. An annual report on progress against objectives will be presented to the Commission each April. We also agreed to create a centrally managed access fund to provide additional support to Assembly Members in engaging with constituents with diverse needs (where reasonably practicable) and meet the reasonable additional requirements of disabled Assembly Members and support staff. The Official Languages Bill The National Assembly for Wales (Official Languages) Bill was introduced to the Assembly by the Commission on 30 January 2012, and referred to the Communities, Equalities and Local Government Committee for consideration of its general principles (Stage 1). As well as scrutinising the Bill, the Committee considered the draft Official Languages Scheme. It is expected that the Assembly’s consideration of the Bill will be completed by summer 2012. The Commission will consider the Official Languages Scheme in the autumn of 2012, after which it will be laid before the Assembly for approval. The purpose of the Bill is to clearly place the duties of the Assembly and of the Commission, in relation to the provision of bilingual services, on a sound statutory footing.
The Wales Governance Centre In September 2011, the Assembly Commission signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Wales Governance Centre. Under this initiative, the Wales Governance Centre will help to develop the Pierhead as a forum for outreach and public debate on issues of key relevance to the work of the Assembly; and for dissemination of independent research, involving the participation of other Welsh universities. The Pierhead will become the hub for an all-Wales public policy network drawing together the country’s five research intensive Universities that form the St David’s Day Declaration Group: Cardiff, Swansea, Aberystwyth, Bangor and Glamorgan. The aim is to maximise the Assembly’s access to Welsh academic expertise and knowledge to inform democratic debate on questions of public policy. The St David’s Day group will be able to support the specific programmes and inquiries of the Assembly’s Committees, exploring how Assembly policy and practice can help strengthen civil society and evaluating the Assembly’s arrangements for considering European affairs. An annual progress report will be produced detailing the effectiveness of the initiative. Improving visitors’ experience of the Assembly In January 2012, the Senedd welcomed its millionth visitor since the building was officially opened by Her Majesty the Queen on St David’s Day in 2006. The Senedd has become an iconic landmark in Cardiff Bay, and has welcomed visitors from all over the world. In addition to enhancing visitors’ experiences of the Senedd, the improvements to the Senedd café and shop provided an opportunity to reduce costs and maximise efficiencies of the Assembly estate. It provides greater scope to promote and sell Welsh products, particularly food, Welsh crafts and designs. Sales have already increased. Preparing a Commission for the future Over the coming years, the Assembly Commission will seek to build on the achievements outlined in this report. In line with its governance principles, the Commission wants to guarantee its ongoing effectiveness, and has committed to undertake an evaluation exercise to assess this. The evaluation will be based on evidence gathered by Commissioners, independent advisers, a selection of Assembly Members and other stakeholders, including the Remuneration Board and Assembly staff. The review will examine correspondence, oral and written Assembly questions to the Commission, Freedom of Information requests and relevant media coverage. The Assembly Commission’s Corporate Governance adviser will agree the specific approach, review the evidence and present the findings and conclusions to the Commission. The aim is for the first evaluation to be completed by December 2012.