Implications for Devolution in England

On 16th December the coalition parties - Conservatives and Liberal Democrats,  published a command paper on Implications for Devolution in England. It is not a cross-party paper and does not contain ideas from the Labour Party.

The Command Paper was announced by Leader of the Commons William Hague in an oral statement to MPs and sets out proposals for responding to the implications of devolution for England after the Scottish Independence referendum and contains separate proposals from each of the coalition parties on how best to address these issues.

The paper includes:

•  How powers have been passed to the devolved administrations so far;
• What the Coalition Government has done to transfer powers from central government to local communities in England;
• Options for further devolution and decentralisation;
• The impact of the devolution landscape for the Westminster Parliament, in particular the West Lothian Question and the issues that would need to be considered in designing a way forward;
• How the Coalition Parties might respond to these challenges in the next Parliament.

Conservative Party key points and proposals include:

• power should be decentralised down to the lowest appropriate level – down from Europe, down from Whitehall, to councils, to community groups and to individual taxpayers: giving power to the people
• we wish to continue with the empowerment of neighbourhoods and parishes in England, not least through a huge further increase in neighbourhood planning
• there should be greater use of direct democracy, such as allowing local people to hold local referendums on local issues
• extend and strengthen the transparency and accountability and help support the press and public in holding local politicians to account
• localism must not be a way of imposing new taxes: the English taxpayer already pays too much tax. Instead, we wish to strengthen the fiscal incentives councils have to support enterprise and growth -- for example, by further extending the local retention of business rates
• introducing English Votes for English Laws, or English and Welsh Votes for English and Welsh Laws, is crucial and cannot be ignored any longer, options include Reformed consideration of Bills at all stages, Reformed Amending Stages of Bills and Reformed Committee Stage and Legislative Consent Motions.

Liberal Democrat Party key points and proposals include:

• we are guided by the twin principles of subsidiarity and accountability, as we believe people can best hold politicians to account if those elected locally are in charge. And we also believe that taking decisions at a lower level means better decision-making, more responsive public services and greater value for money
• we would deliver this through an “English Devolution Enabling Bill” and Liberal Democrats would introduce legislation in the next Parliament which would empower local areas within England
• the “English Devolution Enabling Bill” would provide for areas to be able to demand from Westminster and Whitehall the powers that they want from a menu of options
• in order to successfully claim the powers they wished, a given area would need to demonstrate it met tests around geography / population, competence, local democratic mandate, a fair electoral system and a transparent and accountable governance structure
• it is right that any new stage in the Westminster legislative process which would limit the involvement of MPs to those from English constituencies should operate on the same fair basis
• the time is right for a Constitutional Convention to discuss the relationship between the constituent parts of the UK and also to explore the values and principles which bind us together
• a Constitutional Convention should be composed of representatives of the political parties, academia, civic society and members of the public. The Convention should be led by an independent Chair agreed by the leaders of the three main political parties. The remit of the Convention should be decided by parliament through legislation, if possible on a cross party basis. 

If you would like to respond to these proposals the contact details are on page 33 of the Command Paper.