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SUMMARY OF RESPONSES
References are to paragraphs of the Federal Union Paper
A. Federal Union is of opinion that the White
Paper fails to give English regions "the opportunity to develop coherent
strategical approaches which have strengthened regional and national performance"
(para. 1.2);
B. The government's proposals lack sufficient federal
elements to realise the full economic potential of the English regions
(para. 1.3);
C. The government should have had the courage to advance
further and faster towards an economic and representative structure for
the regions which, through wider powers, would enable them by economic
advance to contribute more to the British economy (para. 2.3);
D. An opportunity to endow the English regional assemblies
with effective decision-making powers has been missed. The principal role
of the assemblies appears to be to influence government and to co-ordinate
the work of official and non-official bodies (para.3.4);
E. A structured relationship between assemblies and
local councils is vital to public acceptance and the successful administration
of the devolution of power to English regions (para. 4.2);
F. Federal Union supports the government's proposal
to adopt the Additional Member System for election to assemblies, but
urges certain improvements (para. 5.1), viz: -
F.1 the proportion of constituency to list members of
an assembly should be 50:50 (para. 6.1).
F.2 the East, South East and South West regions should
be sub-divided into sub-regions for the purpose of electing list members
(para. 7.2).
F.3 by using "open" lists, electors should
be able to secure the election of a candidate placed low by a party on
its list (para. 8.1).
F.4 the proposal of a threshold of 5% for election from
a list of a member of a party is an intrusive restriction on full and
proper representation and should be abandoned (para. 8.2).
G. To secure adequate representation on assembly committees
of both party members and independent members, Federal Union urges the
government to create assemblies, in the six regions with a population
of over 5 million, of 40 members and of 30 members in the two smaller
regions (para. 9.2);
H. Assembly committees should be responsible for maintaining
relations with the local authorities in the region (para. 10.2);
I. The government should continue to study the
development of federal systems in Member States of the European Union
and elsewhere, so as to apply in the UK those federal principles and practice
which have contributed to democracy, good governance and prosperity in
federal states (para. 11.2).
YOUR REGION, YOUR CHOICE
Response to the White Paper on English Regions
by Federal Union
1. Introduction
1.1 The Committee of Federal Union welcomes the
opportunity to respond to the government's White Paper on the English
regions. In particular it welcomes the government's acceptance that proposals
to strengthen the English regions "make sense within a wider European
context", and also its admission that these regions -
"are now virtually the only regions in Europe which do not enjoy
some form of regional democracy or some form of regional representation"
(para.3.12).
1.2 But while the government recognise that Germany,
Spain and Italy "have given their regions the opportunity to develop
coherent strategic approaches which have strengthened regional and national
performance", Federal Union is of opinion that the White Paper fails
to provide this opportunity in England. Thus the crowning disappointment
of the White Paper is that its analysis of the present state of the English
regions and their needs is not matched by proposals bold or swift enough
to offer a future for them prosperous enough to match the German Laender
or the Autonomous Communities in Spain.
1.3 In short, the government's proposals lack
sufficient federal elements to realise the full economic potential of
the English regions. Such elements should include adequate powers of tax-raising
and of independent decision-making, the support of a regional civil service
owing allegiance to the regional executive, and a negotiated and structured
agreement setting out the respective functions of central government,
the regional executive and the regional assembly.
2. Elements of a federal structure
2.1 Yet it would be churlish not to welcome some
federal characteristics in the government's proposals. The form of devolution
of powers to the English regions is one of "asymmetrical" or
"differentiated" devolution, also called "variable geometry".
This is a prominent feature of the federal structure in Canada, and also
in neo-federal Spain.
2.2 Decision-taking is decentralised to some extent,
although insufficiently, and participation by stake-holders is sought
after. Openness and accountability are imported, following the prescriptions
of the Scottish Constitutional Convention and the key principles adopted
by the Scottish Parliament. Finally, the regional assemblies are to be
endowed with borrowing powers to fund capital expenditure, subject to
limits imposed by Whitehall.
2.3 Welcome though these forerunners of a federal
system are, Federal Union takes the view that the government should have
had the courage to advance further and faster towards an economic and
representative structure for the regions which, through wider powers,
would enable them by economic advance to contribute more to their own
development, as well as to the British economy.
3. Assemblies' powers of decision
3.1 The responsibilities of the regional assemblies
are set out in Annex 1 of this paper. But in all too few instances can
assemblies actually exercise a power of decision. Each assembly will have
complete responsibility for its Regional Development Agency and will have
limited financial resources for housing, tourism and regeneration (para.
4.16).
3.2 In the field of housing, assemblies will allocate
support for capital investment between councils; and they will allocate
Rail Passenger Partnership grants, currently within the decision of the
Strategy Rail Authority (para. 4.38).
3.3 Assemblies "will fund, sponsor and lead
the regional cultural consortium", (para. 4.40), and will fund the
arts and sports of a regional character (para. 4.42). They will also fund
the regional tourist programme, non-national museums and the upkeep of
English Heritage sites (para. 4.44). Finally, regional strategies for
bio-diversity will be prepared and implemented by regional assemblies.
3.4 While these powers of decision are clearly
diverse, they do not compare with those granted to the Scottish Parliament
or the Northern Ireland Assembly, much less to the Spanish Autonomous
Communities. Federal Union takes the view that an opportunity to endow
the English regional assemblies with effective decision-making powers
has been missed. The principal role of the assemblies appears to be to
influence government and to co-ordinate the work of official and non-official
bodies. The government should set the objective of advancing to a federal
system, giving powers to the assemblies over health and education, transport
and the environment.
3.5 English regional assemblies should, as the
Campaign for the English Regions proposes in its Newsletter of July 2002,
have a formal role in scrutinising the key quangos in the region, and
should have the power to hold the Government Office in the region to account.
Private Finance initiatives (Public-Private Partnerships) should also
be brought under the effective oversight of the assemblies.
3.6 A further improvement to the White Paper proposals
would be to reaffirm the right of regional executives and assemblies to
appeal to the European institutions against a UK government decision on
European Union policy or practice which discriminated against the region
or, in the view of its institutions, acted to their disadvantage.
3.7 Summing up this section on the powers of assemblies,
Federal Union is of the opinion that, consonant with a widening and deepening
of the powers of assemblies, the number of their members should be increased
(see sections 9 and 10 infra).
4. Relations between Assemblies and Local Councils
4.1 One of the keys to acceptance of a regional
assembly is said to be the degree to which its functions will or will
not impinge upon those of existing local councils. This is an area of
devolution still plagued with uncertainty in Scotland. The White Paper
states that "functions are generally not being taken from local government,
which will continue to focus on local service delivery and community leadership"
(para.4.2), but little further explanation is offered. In effect, proposals
are lacking, but are essential for a structured relationship between assemblies
and local councils, such as exist in the German Laender, the Autonomous
Communities in Spain and of course in the United States. Federal Union
takes the view that such a relationship is vital to the success of the
devolution of power to the English regions, as all the ingredients of
conflict between City Regions, councils and regional assemblies exist
in the White Paper.
5. Electoral System for Assemblies
5.1 Federal Union accepts the government's proposal
to adopt the Additional Member System (AMS) for elected regional assemblies,
but urges certain improvements. These can be summarised as the need to
:
5.1.1 balance 50% assembly members elected in
constituencies with 50% elected from lists;
5.1.2 divide the regions with larger areas into
sub-regions, each electing a list;
5.1.3 provide for "open" lists, where
the elector can vary the order of candidates set by parties;
5.1.4 abandon the proposal for a "threshold"
of 5% of the vote for party representation from a list.
6. Achieving more representative assemblies:
proportion of list members
6.1 The Scotland Act 1998 provided for 73 "constituency"
Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) and 56 "List" MSPs,
giving a 57% to 43% division. This contrasts with the AMS system used
for elections to the Bundestag, where the proportion is 50 : 50. The Scottish
system may be accounted sufficiently proportional, but the government's
proposals for the English regions are certainly not, even if similar to
the proportion in the National Assembly for Wales. Federal Union is of
opinion that the proportion of constituency to list members should be
50 : 50.
6.2 If it be argued that an increased number of
list members would cause confusion as to the functions exercised by list
and constituency members, this is certainly not the case in Germany as
academic studies have shown. There have been some teething troubles in
Scotland after only 3 years of the Parliament there, but they are not
significant. In the view of Federal Union, the advantage lies therefore
with a 50 : 50 proportion of constituency to list members.
7. Achieving more representative assemblies:
sub-regional lists
7.1 The Scotland Act 1998 laid down that Scotland,
with a population of 5 million, should be divided into 8 regions for the
purpose of electing MSPs, these regions being the former Euro-constituencies.
This sub-division of the territory results in slightly reduced proportionality,
but that should be offset by a 50 : 50 proportion, by "open"
lists and by abandoning the concept of a 5% threshold.
7.2 Federal Union points out that, for example,
the East England region comprises 19,000 square kilometres, and stretches
from Norwich to Southend-on-Sea to Watford; the South East region, with
the same area, stretches from Margate to Southampton to Banbury; while
the South West, with 23,000 square kilometres, extends from Bournemouth
to Penzance to Cheltenham. These are large and diverse areas which should
be sub-divided into sub-regions for the purpose of electing list members,
with the aim of nurturing local loyalties and connections: Federal Union
favours this change.
8. Achieving more representative assemblies:
open lists and the threshold
8.1 The White Paper seeks, by way of the electoral
system, to "promote inclusiveness" (para. 6.8), and to ensure
that each assembly is "broadly representative of the votes cast"
(para. 6.11). Federal Union is convinced that these two desirable outcomes
can only be achieved by using open lists, where the electors' votes can
secure the election of an individual candidate placed far down a party
list. However democratic the procedure a party uses to decide the order
of a list (and few parties have yet achieved an acceptably open procedure),
Federal Union is of opinion that electors should be able to secure the
election of a candidate placed low by a party on its list, as in several
Continental states.
8.2 Even though the Greater London Authority elections
are subject to a 5% threshold to secure the election of a member of any
party from votes cast for a list, Federal Union believes that this is
an intrusive restriction on full and proper representation, and should
be abandoned. The 5% threshold was only adopted for elections to the Bundestag
to prevent the multiplication of parties, which contributed much to the
fall of the Weimar Republic in the 1920s and 1930s. In addition, it militates
against the election of independent candidates.
9. Number of assembly members
9.1 The White Paper proposes that assemblies should
have between 25 and 35 members. The functions proposed for the English
regions are roughly analogous to those exercised by the Welsh Assembly,
where 60 members represent a population of 3.5 million. Only the North
East region, with a population of 2.6 million, is smaller than Wales.
An even more extreme example is the Northern Ireland Assembly, in which
108 Members represent 1.5 million people. Even though Northern Ireland
is something of a special case, it points up the need for more assembly
members in England.
9.2 The government proposes that the assemblies
should set up committees for the purposes of consultation and scrutiny,
and that each assembly should elect a Presiding Officer, a leader and
5 other "cabinet members". In an assembly of 25, 7 members would
thus be ineligible to serve on back-bench committees, leaving 18 members
to serve on them (para.7.6). If each assembly were to set up four committees
related to its functions (e.g., Economic development and planning, Skills
and employment, Transport and tourism, and Housing, health and waste),
each committee would have only 4 or 5 members. Federal Union is convinced
that this number is inadequate to man an effective committee and to secure
adequate representation of both party members and independent members,
much less the diversity of urban and rural communities in each region.
It therefore urges the government to create assemblies, in the six regions
with a population of over 5 million, of 40 members, and of 30 members
in the two smaller regions of East Midlands and North East.
10. Scrutiny functions of assembly committees
10.1 The government envisages scrutiny committees
being concerned with either "post-event enquiry" (like the Commons
Public Accounts Committee) or acting as "a sounding board or a source
of ideas and other views as policy is developed" (para. 7.5). Committees
would also hold the executive to account and probe specific policy areas
(para. 7.6). All the more reason, in the view of Federal Union, to create
assemblies of 40 members (or 30), as proposed above, so as to ensure that
these committees have the powers and resources to fulfil these demanding
tasks. In addition, assemblies must have power to call to account the
civil servants who are administering regional services. To enable this
to happen, all such civil servants should serve the region directly, thus
ceasing to owe loyalty to central government.
10.2 Federal Union sees the committees operating
by making policy proposals, including the allocation of resources therefor,
and seeking the opinions of stakeholders and the public. The proposals,
revised as necessary, would then be put after debate to the assembly's
executive, which would take decisions. After implementation of the decisions,
the assembly committees would engage in post hoc scrutiny of the efficacy
of the policies and their execution. Committees should also, in the opinion
of Federal Union, be responsible for maintaining relations between each
assembly, and the local authorities in its region, something for which
the White Paper makes no provision. Committees should also be the channel
between stakeholders and the assemblies.
11. Conclusion
11.1 This paper is largely devoted to proposing
practical improvements to the government's scheme for regional devolution
in England, which is the purpose of a response to a consultation. It should
conclude on an equally positive but more general note. On the one hand,
Federal Union welcomes the government's proposals as a first step towards
a fuller devolution of power to the English regions. It considers that
the re-establishment of the Scottish Parliament and the Northern Ireland
Assembly, and the creation of the National Assembly for Wales have shown
that devolution of power which includes - particularly in the Scottish
case - federal elements, has already contributed to the better governance
of these parts of the United Kingdom and will further contribute.
11.2 Federal Union therefore urges the government
to continue to study the development of federal systems in Member States
of the European Union and elsewhere, particularly in Australia and Canada,
so as to apply where appropriate in the UK those federal principles and
practice which have contributed to democracy, good governance and local
economic development in federal states.
ANNEX 1
Box 4.1: Regional strategies for an elected
assembly
An elected assembly will be responsible for regional strategies dealing
with the following issues:
sustainable development - which will set
out how their approach in the region works within the context of the Government's
commitment to pursue policies that encompass economic, social and environmental
objectives and achieve stable and sustainable growth, and how regional
activities will contribute to the achievement of sustainable development
in the UK and support action at local level;
economic development - which will address
issues such as attracting inward investment, improving productivity and
the conditions for enterprise, and ensuring that all parts of the region
benefit from economic growth;
skills and employment - which will set
out how an assembly and its partners will improve the skills of the workforce
and ensure that everybody has access to job opportunities;
spatial planning - which will address the
broad location of major development proposals, integrate demands for land
use across the region, outline specific regional or sub-regional policies,
and provide a basis for hard strategic choices;
transport - which will spell out plans
to address congestion, improve public transport and road links, and ensure
that the transport system supports sustainable economic growth;
waste - which will set targets and indicators
for regional waste management capacity and disposal, including for the
recycling and recovery of waste, in order to promote sustainable waste
management, waste minimisation and alternatives to landfill;
housing - which will deal with all aspects
of the housing market and social housing in the region, covering privately-owned
housing as well as social housing provided by local authorities and registered
social landlords;
health improvement - setting out a long-term
public health strategy, which assemblies will agree with the relevant
Regional Directors of Public Health;
culture (including tourism) - which will
explain how an assembly plans to improve access to cultural and sporting
facilities, and develop the tourist industry; and
biodiversity - which will provide a strategic
framework for the work undertaken by regional and local biodiversity partnerships
in conserving biological diversity and the sustainable use of biological
resources.
These strategies will replace the strategies currently
being produced for each region, of which details are given in annex D.
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