IWA Co-Director Joe Rossiter explores how the committee system can help the 7th Senedd to deliver more effectively.
Wales is preparing for a very different kind of Senedd election in May. Taking place under a reformed electoral system, with radically altered (and enlarged) boundaries from those used for the last devolved election in 2021, plus, we will be electing a 60% larger Senedd.
Indeed, following May’s election, 96 rather than 60 Senedd Members will head to their seats in the Siambr. For a number of them, holding elected office will be a completely novel experience. Not only because public opinion polling suggests a shake-up of party representation from 2021, but also because the number of existing Members standing down is so high. The implications of this transition will have positives and negatives: new people with new ideas, but also a loss of experience of doing the job.
While significant media attention has been paid to the politics of Senedd reform, the practicalities of an enlarged Welsh Parliament also require consideration.
Grasping the moment
Whilst the new electoral system is set in place, there remain many decisions to be made on how to ensure that the Senedd expansion results in better democratic outcomes: after all, this was a key argument supporting the endeavour.
As the final report of the Independent Commission on the Constitutional Future of Wales notes, the objective of Senedd reform is ‘to strengthen its capacity to represent people in Wales and to scrutinise and hold the Welsh Government to account.’
How will a larger Senedd result in stronger scrutiny, better legislation, better public service delivery and, cross-cutting it all, a stronger, healthier democracy?
Likewise, the 2017 report from the Expert Panel on Assembly Reform, which laid out the pressing need for Senedd expansion, highlights how, in doing so, the Senedd must:
‘…exercise restraint in the way it makes use of any increase in the size of the institution—for example in relation to the number and size of committees, the appointment of office holders, and the maximum size of the Welsh Government—in order to ensure that the potential benefits for the quality and quantity of scrutiny are realised and additional costs are kept to an absolute minimum.’
We’ve had a lot of public debate about the pros and cons of the increase in Members and the changes to the system to elect them. Now the reforms are being implemented, what about focusing on how an enlarged Senedd will operate? How will a larger Senedd result in stronger scrutiny, better legislation, better public service delivery and, cross-cutting it all, a stronger, healthier democracy?
Many decisions to be made remain which will transform the aspirations of reform into practical reality. Underpinning these decisions is recognising that they are just that, decisions. How the Senedd is set up to deliver its remit is far from a technocratic exercise, but one which has our shared democratic values at its heart.
There remain few full throated advocates for the closed list electoral system we find ourselves with, representing a political compromise. And whilst the intention is that we will see analysis of the 2026 election and further reforms ahead of 2030, we can’t enable this opportunity to deliver meaningful improvements to our democratic institutions to pass us by.
For the rest of this article, I’ll focus on the work of Senedd committees, following on from arguments made in the IWA’s response to the Chair’s Forum’s consultation on Reviewing Committee Effectiveness in the Sixth Senedd.
Syniadau uchelgeisiol, awdurdodol a mentrus.
Ymunwch â ni i gyfrannu at wneud Cymru gwell.
Committees
Committees are where a significant amount of the Senedd’s most vital work is done. Together with plenary, they represent the other portion of what the Senedd does.
Committees are where vital in-depth scrutiny of government, legislation and public bodies takes place. It is also the main forum for collaborative cross-party working, often lacking in other parts of our increasingly polarised democratic system.
At the IWA, we have extensive experience of giving expert evidence to a range of committees over recent years, and are well placed to provide an overview, and scrutiny, on how they currently operate, as well as contribute ideas for how they could be improved ahead of the Senedd reforms.
Committee size and number
Committees have come under significant strain in recent years, with an inadequate number of Members expected to fill seats to enable effective scrutiny to take place. Some Members sit on two or three committees, which puts strain on their calendars, not enabling them to carry out their roles, particularly their committee responsibilities, to the best of their ability. This overworking of MSs and their staff undermines the ability of the committees to carry out their vital functions. Clearly, then, in the 7th Senedd (running from 2026-2030), no Member should sit on more than one committee.
Committees, as currently established, mirror ministerial portfolios. Yet, in the 7th Senedd, the number of Welsh Government Ministers could see an increase from 12 to 17. Whilst there are strong arguments for more focussed committees – enabling them to focus on fewer policy areas in more depth, any significant rise in the number of committees would risk swallowing up any extra capacity created by the rise in the number of Members (not to mention that we should have some backbench Members completely free of committee obligations).
We, therefore, call for the next Senedd to ensure, wherever practically possible, MSs sit on just one committee to enable better and more in-depth scrutiny, whilst ensuring some backbenchers are free of committee responsibilities altogether.
There’s much more scope for public debate, scrutiny and, vitally, ideas for how we can best use additional capacity.
Enhancing engagement and outreach through the committee system
There are more ways that the committee system could aim to bring in further expertise into the process. Increasing the amount of committee work undertaken outside of the Senedd could be fruitful when relevant and purposeful. For example, visits to projects, communities, businesses or meetings across Wales can all help to bring the committees’ work to life and bring them closer to the lived experience of the communities they serve and on behalf of which they carry out their duties.
We advocate for future Senedd committees to host regular stakeholder meetings with key partners in their remit. Such an approach would help to embed Welsh Government’s principle of social partnership into the bloodstream of the Senedd itself.
Senedd committees are also an opportunity to practically embed deliberative democratic methods. The IWA have been at the forefront of the discussion on applying deliberative democratic methods in a devolved setting through our report ‘Fostering Democratic Innovations in Wales: Lessons from around the world.’ These approaches are currently being explored by Welsh Government’s Innovating Democracy Advisory Group. There is potential in the next Senedd for committees to lead the way in integrating deliberative methods into their work. This could lead to the appointment of a citizens assembly or panels aligned to a committee’s remit. This representative group of individuals from across Wales could help to ensure that citizen voice is entrenched in the priorities, scrutiny and recommendations of the committee. Deliberative methods would also present more scope for experimentation with ways of taking oral evidence, including roundtables, collaborative sessions, citizens panels, and online participative methods, amongst others.
Another way to build engagement will be to increase the number of external visits committees undertake. Visiting successful projects, experiencing the areas Members are scrutinising or inquiring about will improve the transparency, engagement and inclusion of their work. Not least an increase in external visits would bring the Senedd and its Members closer to the communities they serve.
Finally, the IWA’s 2020 report ‘Missing Links’ lays out the importance of improving inter-parliamentary relations between the UK’s parliaments. The report found that: ‘Effective inter-parliamentary relations therefore currently happen in an ad hoc and informal way, because they rely on individual members and committees to drive them. The public should reasonably expect this collaboration to be a routine and consistent feature of how the UK works.’
Gofod i drafod, dadlau, ac ymchwilio.
Cefnogwch brif felin drafod annibynnol Cymru.
This remains the case, and in our asymmetrical model of devolution, with the lines between devolved and reserved policy consistently blurred, more proactive engagement between Senedd committees and their counterparts across the UK can help increase the standard of scrutiny. This engagement should cut across the remits of most Senedd committees, but also enable a cross-cutting focus on scrutinising intergovernmental relations across the UK.
Evidencing impact
Over the recent summer recess, the First Minister wrote to the Llywydd to raise concerns over the volume of committee recommendations. She stated that ‘we need to be realistic about our ability to deliver committee recommendations…’ whilst being aware of the context of the ‘limited resources which are available.’ She notes that this will lead to the government rejecting more recommendations.
We urgently need research into what the impact of committee recommendations is. Currently, we have no indication into how many Senedd committee recommendations get accepted and then implemented. There is clearly scope to commission such a piece of work, to truly understand the impact of committees’ work. Getting a better understanding of this impact will only help support a stronger system going into the future.
Public debate
The committee system is but one of the areas which will be transformed during the transition to an enlarged, reformed Senedd. There’s much more scope for public debate, scrutiny and, vitally, ideas for how we can best use additional capacity. We’ve laid out some ideas above, but far more public discussion is needed to enable our reformed Senedd to best perform its increasing functions, beyond political considerations.
All articles published on the welsh agenda are subject to IWA’s disclaimer. If you want to support our work tackling Wales’ key challenges, consider becoming a member.
