Reluctant MPs offered escape route

MPs who don't turn up for committee meetings could get the boot under plans endorsed by several select committee chairs.

Hywel Francis, who chairs the Welsh affairs committee, has put his name to a move that would allow chairs to dump members who turn up for fewer than 60 per cent of meetings.

Should this be implemented, fewer than half of the current Welsh affairs membership would survive. David Davies, Nia Griffith, Sian James, Martyn Jones, Albert Owen and Mark Pritchard would be made to walk the plank.

Some of these already sit on more than one committee and might welcome a discharge.

The new barely quorate committee would comprise Hywel Francis, Mark Williams, David Jones, Hywel Williams and Alun Michael.

Of course, any mass cull would possibly be followed by a stampede of MPs eager to join the main committee for holding Welsh Ministers to account here.

Or maybe not. Dr Francis tells me: "Many people are reluctant members. Parties put people on to make up the numbers."

The issue is being discussed by the liaison committee, made up of committee chairs.

History denied

I could see the hand of history coming over the horizon. The Welsh Health Minister - and Labour leadership contender - Edwina Hart was due to make her long-awaited debut before a committee of MPs at Westminster next Thursday.

Alas, this historic event has been cancelled as, according to a spokeswoman, the chairman of the select committee on Welsh Affairs decided this was not a suitable date, denying MPs a first chance to grill Ms Hart during her 10 years as a Minister.

She had been asked to appear before, some years ago but was apparently reluctant, leading to First Minister Rhodri Morgan stepping in to answer questions on her brief.

Of course, the committee could use its powers to summon witnesses to invite Ms H to Westminster but that is thought unlikely. With the result of the leadership election due within two weeks, this is an encounter that may never happen.

Another historic first

I can feel the hand of history on my keyboard. Having tweeted the Welsh Grand Committee to the satisfaction of almost a handful of readers, I'm now ready to have a go at Parliament's Select Committee on Welsh Affairs.

The committee is taking evidence from Secretary of State Peter Hain from 11am this morning and you can follow my tweets here.

Hanging up his bow tie?

His is one of the most distinctive bow ties seen at Westminster since the era of Robin Day.

But the word is that Martyn Jones's neckwear of choice is unlikely to be seen in the Commons after the next general election.

After 22 years as MP for Clwyd South, Mr Jones, who is 62, has apparently decided to call it a day. Expect an official announcement within the next 24 hours.

Besides his unusual taste in ties, he'll be remembered for his eight years as chairman of the Welsh affairs select committee, his campaigning on dormant accounts and Wrexham Lager.

Very select?

If you or I only turned up for work six days out of 10, questions would be asked by our employers.

But for MPs on select committees an absence rate of around 40 per cent is par for the course.

The eleven members of the select committee on Welsh affairs managed an overall attendance rate of 60.4 per cent last year, only slightly below the average for Commons committees.

The average disguises variations between MPs. One - the chair, Hywel Francis - went to all 42 meetings. He believes his committee is a hard-working one.

Three members attended fewer than half. David Davies, the Tory MP for Monmouth, went to just eight, largely due to his membership of the slightly more prestigious home affairs committee.

Other members and the number of meetings attended: Nia Griffith 18 out of 42, Sian James 23/42, David Jones 35/42, Martyn Jones 16/42, Alun Michael 31/40, Albert Owen 25/42, Mark Pritchard 19/34, Hywel Williams 28/42 and Mark Williams 30/42.

All MPs have other duties, of course, and the introduction of more "family-friendly" hours at Westminster has made it harder for backbenchers to pack everything into a contracted working week.

The committee plays a growing role scrutinising requests from the Welsh Assembly for more law-making powers, a role that has won it critics as well as friends.

Bye for now

I have decided to spend more time with my family.

Forgive my use of this over-used cliche from the political world, but it is actually true. Today is my day at the office for a while.

Twenty years since I started work at Westminster, I will be disappearing for a few months to work on my childcare skills.

Reports that I am retiring on the proceeds of the takeover by a Dubai-based investment company of Charlton Athletic (I declare a small shareholding) are sadly wide of the mark.

The decision is prompted by the imminent arrival of our son. As an equal opportunities family, I will be taking the adoption leave while my wife goes out to work...

Admittedly, this is a risky, volatile, unpredictable time for a political correspondent to remove himself from the fray.

But the battle for the Welsh Liberal Democrat leadership will just have to cope without me.

I will miss the presidential election - but Lembit Opik's chances of taking this top job in the Lib Dems appear remote.

Listeners to Good Morning Wales will no longer be able to set their clocks by my appearance and can look forward to hearing a new voice at 6.30am.

By my return in March, the United States will have a new leader.

The Conservatives may have decided their policy on devolution.

Parliament's Welsh affairs committee may even have finished its two-year inquiry into globalisation.

It will certainly have started its inquiry into the National Assembly for Wales (Legislative Competence) (Agriculture and Rural Development) Order 2008, dealing with the red meat industry.

Note to self: hurry back for that one.

People will wonder about the crying, the tantrums and the challenging behaviour. But the kids will just have to get used to their dad.

By next spring, my family will probably have decided it would like to spend less time with me.

I am back at my keyboard/microphone on March 23. Bye for now.

Willy-waving

It's an academic debate over a policy no-one seems to want to introduce.

But don't let that put you off the latest spat between MPs and Welsh Assembly Members.

The Welsh Assembly Government wants the power to scrap the right to buy council housing.

But it doesn't want to actually scrap the right to buy. Do keep up.

The Assembly Government wants to suspend the right to buy in some areas.

But to do that it is requesting wider powers that would allow Ministers to abolish the scheme.

MPs - whose approval is needed before any transfer of power - are not happy. At least, members of Parliament's Welsh affairs committee are not.

Their report says the Assembly Government should drop its request for wider powers or the order granting them should be blocked.

The (Plaid Cymru) deputy Housing Minister Jocelyn Davies says the committee can scrutinise but the Assembly will decide.

The Liberal Democrat housing spokesman Peter Black has accused the MPs of trying to dictate housing policy from Westminster.

The MPs say they are trying to be helpful.

Although one committee member did confide in me his analysis of the conflict: "It's willy-waving, basically"

Going global

An update on the long-running globalisation inquiry by Welsh MPs from committee member Hywel Williams: "I think we are all concerned that this should be finished as soon as possible. I wouldn't want to criticise any of the planning but it did grow unexpectedly.

"We hadn't foreseen how far-reaching globalisation and its inquiry would be."

He added: "Like Topsy, it grew and grew and grew. We were thinking of a straightforward investigation into globalisation. We then realised there were aspects to do with education and the mass media as well as economic matters.

"I am longing for the day when it is published."

He may not be alone in that.

A long time in politics

What were you doing in November 2006? It seems so long ago.

Tony Blair was Prime Minister. Charlton Athletic were in the Premiership.

Peter Hain was running Northern Ireland. The Spice Girls were preparing for their comeback tour.

In November 2006, the credit crunch was a granola bar. Vera Duckworth was hoping to retire to Blackpool.

Parliament's Welsh affairs select committee announced its inquiry into globalisation on November 17, 2006. The FTSE-100 index closed that day at 6,192.

Two years and several international flights later, the committee's report is apparently being written although there is no date for publication as yet.

During what was a major inquiry, the MPs spent £28,000 visiting China and £15,260.99 on a trip to Poland and the Czech Republic. They also went to Spain.

The inquiry has even lasted longer than one political career. The committee took evidence from Digby Jones before he became a Government Minister. He stepped down last week after 15 months as a Trade Minister.

It took evidence from Trade Minister Ian McCartney, who left government more than a year ago, and Welfare Reform Minister Caroline Flint, who has changed jobs twice since then.

The MPs heard from ITV Wales, who have since announced cuts in programming and jobs.

Since the inquiry began, the FTSE-100 index has fallen by 25 per cent. House prices have fallen by more than 10 per cent in the past year. Energy prices have soared. Vera never made it to Blackpool.

You could argue that this is a globalisation inquiry that has been slightly overtaken by events and that much of the evidence gathered is now rather out-of-date.

You could also argue that the global financial crisis makes a globalisation inquiry all the more urgent.

But you'd still have to wait for the report.

So why the delay? Committee members point out that their workload has increased dramatically since they acquired the role of scrutinising requests to legislate from the Welsh Assembly.

Two years on one inquiry still sounds like rather a long time but I guess it's important not to rush things.

At this rate, the Tories' Roberts Review on devolution will be in the bookshops before the globalisation report is finished (although I wouldn't bet on it)

The morning after the night before

Another crushing by-election defeat, another government response that includes warm phrases such as "listening and learning" and re-assurances about feeling your pain.

Governments often lose by-elections but last night was a surprise to many of the many Labour MPs - and the media - who had spent time in Glasgow recently.

Gordon Brown tells us he is "getting on with the job" - it's become a familiar refrain after by-election disasters. The post-poll routine has almost become part of the British constitution. There's inevitable speculation about the Prime Minister's future, although so far the rolling news channels have failed to persuade critics other than usual suspects Lord Desai and Graham Stringer to take to the airwaves.

Bob Marshall-Andrews dismissed "listening and learning" as "platitudinous nonsense" but warned that many of the events worrying voters are only under the marginal control of government.

Mr Stringer suggested (as he usually does after by-election defeats) that Cabinet Ministers should visit Mr Brown and tell him the time's up, a Labour equivalent of the Tories' men in grey suits.

Speaking of Tories, I've (finally) been reading Gyles Brandreth's Breaking the Code, an entertaining inside account of the dying days of an accident-prone government led by an unpopular Prime Minister.

We all know how that one finished but if it's any consolation John Major's Conservatives suffered by-election swings of more than 30 per cent.

You could be forgiven for thinking politicians had shelved their holiday plans. Parliament's Welsh affairs committee, as I reported on Wednesday, have been keeping me and the rest of the Welsh media busy during the recess. (For which, many thanks.).

Some members of the committee, which often gives the impression that publicity is an unwanted occupational hazard, appear surprised by the fuss their comments have caused.

The Welsh media are often accused of an obsession with constitutional change. I dare say the minutiae of the legislative process will shift few votes during the next general election, but if it keeps a few political anoraks off the streets I will not have toiled in vain.

Peter Black's comments about the committee's "world tour" may not go down well with its Liberal Democrat member although not all MPs on the Welsh affairs committee think their inquiry into globalisation has been a terribly productive use of their time.

MPs swamped

As a parliamentary correspondent, I'm often asked: "David, what do Welsh MPs do now devolution has reduced their role?"

The answer involves legislation - and a committee of Welsh backbenchers is rather worried there's too much of it.

A memo from the Welsh affairs select committee complains about the political system in both Wales and Westminster being "swamped" with legislative requests from the National Assembly for Wales.

It effectively suggests the Assembly should concentrate on quality rather than quantity when it comes to legislation.

The MPs say: "We urge the Assembly and the Wales Office to find ways of giving a proper focus to legislative work, aiming at producing a reasonable number of high-quality Orders {Legislative Orders in Council or LCOs} each year rather than allowing volume to swamp the system here and in the Assembly as seems to be happening at the moment.

"We are convinced that a concentration on quality will enhance the credibility and standing of the LCO process."

MPs on the committee (modestly) say their "constructive contribution" has "helped to significantly improve the quality of those LCOs that have come forward for formal approval to date."

"If the level of LCOs coming forward from the Assembly settles down at something
of the order of the four or five per year originally envisaged, this will enhance scrutiny,
facilitate better planning and avoid the danger that issues over capacity could become
an obstacle to effective working."

Some legislation takes longer to scrutinise than others. Gordon Brown has, it has been widely reported, created 2,823 new laws during his first year in office (the sort of total that will impress those who see law-making as a political virility symbol).

The MPs say there were problems of misunderstandings about scope and intention with some LCOs but these have been overcome with goodwill on both sides.

They raise questions about clarity and say a clause should be added to each LCO making it legally clear "that the power is intended to provide the power that has been
requested and outlined by the Assembly".

An idea unlikely to find favour with their colleagues in Cardiff Bay.

Perhaps the pressure of work explains why the committee has yet to publish the results of its inquiry into globalisation 18 months after it began.

Hold the front page

As headlines go, it's probably not going to make it onto anyone's front page.

"WELSH-ENGLISH BORDER MUST NOT HINDER ACCESS TO HIGH QUALITY HEALTH SERVICES, SAY MPS" is today's offering from Parliament's Welsh affairs select committee.

Does anyone know any politician in any party who thinks the border should hinder access to high quality health services?

The bland, some might say bleedin' obvious, headline from the committee's press release relates to an interim report on services across the Wales/England border.

The committee heard evidence that Welsh patients wait longer than English patients for identical treatment in the same hospitals. The Welsh Health Minister has so far declined an invitation to give evidence.

The report was agreed unanimously by MPs from all parties, although they are drawing very different conclusions from its conclusions.

The Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives both believe it exposes the folly of the "Wales-only" approach of the Labour/Plaid Cymru Welsh Assembly Government - not an analysis shared by the Labour and Plaid members of the committee.

The MPs expect to file a fuller report later this year.

Respite

By way of respite from 42 days, missing secret documents, resigning shadow Home Secretaries, Mr and Mrs Rooney and all that I spent an hour or so plugging in to the Welsh Affairs Committee this morning.

MPs on the committee took evidence from First Minister Rhodri Morgan as part of their inquiry into cross-border services after devolution.

It was intriguing that the most hostile questioning came from Labour MPs Albert Owen and Martyn Jones; the gentlest came from the Plaid Cymru MP Hywel Williams, who bowled a several long hops to Mr Morgan on waiting times. (The Plaid/Labour coalition crosses borders where its reputation on public services is at stake)

Tory MP David Jones apologised before asking Mr Morgan whether his Health Minister had discussed with him a potential conflict of interest over the future of neurosurgery in south Wales.
Edwina Hart shelved plans to close a unit in Swansea used by her constituents - a unit she had campaigned to save before becoming Health Minister. Mr Jones argues that under the ministerial code she should have raised a potential conflict of interests.

The code says: "Where Ministers have to take decisions on their own portfolios which might have an impact on their own constituencies, they should, take particular care to avoid any possible conflict of interest.

"Where Ministers are uncertain about whether a conflict arises between their Ministerial and constituency capacity they should consult the First Minister. Where necessary Ministers should refer matters to the First Minister for determination."

So had Mrs Hart raised the issue with the First Minister? He says no. "I certainly don't recall one because I don't think there would have been one to have."

He added: "I don't think there is a potential conflict of interest."

Mr Jones had hoped to ask Mrs Hart in person, but she declined an invitation to appear before the committee, much to the annoyance of some of her Labour colleagues.

Fact-finding

There's more to politics than conflict and U-turns. While Gordon Brown tried to face down a revolt over tax rates, MPs on the Welsh Affairs Select Committee at Westminster have been making headlines beyond these shores on a fact-finding mission.

The committee have been visiting Spain as part of its inquiry into globalisation. It's a tough job, but.....

Bashed by the Bishops

The Welsh Assembly Government may be weathering the storm that followed the suggestion by a UK Government Health Minister that subsidising hospital parking may not be the best use of NHS resources.

But Ministers of the Crown are one thing, Ministers of Religion are another.

The Bishop of Monmouth told MPs this morning that WAG puts ideology before the welfare of patients.

Donimic Walker, criticised plans, currently under review, to develop neurological services in south Wales. He said this could mean patients from the north being sent to Swansea for treatment, rather than Liverpool.

He told a parliamentary inquiry into cross-border issues: "That appears to be putting the philosophy and ideology before the care of the patient when presumably the care of the patient is what matters.

The Bishop told MPs on the Welsh affairs committee that "the ideologies seem to get in the way of practicalities" in treating patients. He questioned the impact of a policy of providing all services within Wales.

He said: "It ought not to be beyond us to regig the system to follow patient needs rather than the other way around but that's not happening.

"While they are saying we put the welfare of the patient first, the practical reality is often that the patient doesn't feel that or that that doesn't appear to be the case."

A Church of England Bishop told the MPs that it's "entirely unreasonable" that some patients on either side of the Wales/England border face longer waiting times for treatment.

Anthony Priddis, the Bishop of Hereford, said people should be treated equally wherever they live. "I think from where we are, it is entirely unreasonable that there should be that difference of treatment according to where people live and waiting lists, and we would want to see a much greater equality for people whichever side of the border they live."

Those who occasionally assume Wales is an island have been told otherwise. I wonder if the Welsh Health Minister will accuse the Bishops of sour grapes.

Better late than never?

You and I may live in a 21st century electronic 24:7 media culture where news breaks around the clock.

Others pursue the news agenda at a more sedate pace. A mere two weeks after they returned to this country from a top-secret trip to China, MPs on the Welsh affairs committee have, wait for it, put out a press release.

Here's the top line: "The Welsh Affairs Committee has visited China as part of its inquiry into globalisation and its impact on Wales. Members visited Shanghai and the Special Economic Zone of Xiamen in the southern province of Fujian."

Well, hold the front page. What the press release doesn't say is that the MPs were rather restricted in what they could see by the Chinese Government.

Chairman of the Committee Dr Hywel Francis MP said: “The most striking part of our visit to China was becoming aware of the current scale and pace of change. We also saw many examples of a workforce that is increasingly skilled, flexible, adaptable and hard-working.

"The importance attached to universities and skills was impressive. We witnessed a great respect for learning and saw how ‘Confucius Institutes’ are now being established worldwide in favoured overseas universities, including Cardiff. Consolidating existing links and establishing new ones between Welsh and Chinese universities is vital to ensure that education remains the key to harnessing globalisation.”

I know of no Welsh media outlet that works on fortnightly deadlines, but I guess the committee will be chuffed that at least this is one outlet that used the press release.

I'm looking forward to receiving a Christmas card from the committee - probably around the middle of January.

Chinese whispers

I may have been asleep on my watch but I discovered by accident that a group of Welsh MPs are toiling on our behalf in China this week.

The publicity-shy Welsh Affairs Committee decided not to let journalists know in advance about their vital fact-finding mission.

Apparently, MPs on the committee did discuss advance publicity but decided against it.

They were also sensitive to questions about why they were going so far on taxpayers' money.

They also decided that rather than be followed by cameras and microphones they'd prefer to return with results they could then discuss in the comfort of Westminster. A discussion that would take place any pictures of their visit, which is something of a handicap when it comes to TV news.

The visit seems shrouded in the sort of secrecy that used to win medals under Chairman Mao.

We must await their return next week to find out why.