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National Assembly for Wales (Legislative Competence) (Social Welfare) Order 2009

For the convenience of the Committee, I shall speak also to the National Assembly for Wales (Legislative Competence) (Exceptions to Matters) Order. For brevity, I shall refer to them respectively as the carers order and the exceptions order. I will say at the outset how much we welcome the broad agreement that exists on conferring on the National Assembly for Wales the powers set out in the draft carers order, and for making the sensible, technical changes set out in the draft exceptions order. The content of the orders was previously set out in a single proposed order that was subject to pre-legislative scrutiny by a committee of the National Assembly in Cardiff Bay, by this House’s Constitution Committee and by the Welsh Affairs Committee in the other place. The Government are grateful to these committees for the scrutiny that they undertook. Following comments made by this House’s Constitution Committee, the Government and the Welsh Assembly Government decided to separate the previously single order, which covered both carers and the technical changes being made to exceptions, into the two draft orders before us today. These orders, taken together, differ little in content from their single, unified predecessor. The National Assembly for Wales approved them both on 23 June this year. I shall deal first with the draft order on carers. This order forms part of the legislative programme set out by the First Minister of the Welsh Assembly Government, the right honourable Rhodri Morgan AM, on 15 July last year. It inserts a single matter—matter 15.9—into field 15 of Schedule 5 to the Government of Wales Act 2006. Field 15 covers the area of social welfare. The competence conferred by this order will enable the National Assembly to legislate to support the provision of care by carers and to promote their well-being. Many noble Lords have taken a keen interest in this subject, and I am sure that we would all acknowledge the vital role that carers undertake not only in Wales but across the United Kingdom. The Welsh Assembly Government wish to bring forward legislation—an Assembly measure—to strengthen support for carers, not as an add-on but as something that goes to the heart of sustainable health and social care services in Wales. They believe that better ways need to be found to identify carers, for example, including young carers, and for the NHS in Wales to work more effectively with carers as partners in the provision of care. The Committee may be aware that yesterday the First Minister, Rhodri Morgan, announced the third year of the Welsh Assembly Government’s legislative programme. It includes a proposal to bring forward an Assembly measure using the powers conferred through this LCO, subject to its successful passage in this House and the other place. I am pleased to say that the Welsh Affairs Committee and the Committee of the Welsh Assembly, which each scrutinised the proposed order, supported the principles and policy that underpin the approach taken towards carers, and recommended that only technical and definitional changes should be made to the content and scope of the order. The Welsh Ministers have also made some minor drafting changes to the earlier order. The draft order also includes a minor technical change to matter 15.1, which deals with domiciliary care. The matter enables the Welsh Assembly to legislate on the charging for social services that are covered by a direct payments arrangement. The change is needed as the Health and Social Care Act 2008 amended the relevant legislation on direct payments to include a wider range of payment recipients in situations in which an individual lacks the capacity to agree to and manage a direct payments arrangement themselves. This change to the Assembly’s legislative competence therefore reflects the broadening of Welsh Ministers’ executive competence that was brought about by the 2008 Act, and is further explained at paragraph 7.14 of the accompanying Explanatory Memorandum. The National Assembly for Wales (Legislative Competence) (Exceptions to Matters) Order 2009 makes a technical change to the way in which exceptions apply to matters in Schedule 5 to the Government of Wales Act 2006 by making any exceptions to the legislative competence set out in Part 2 of the schedule apply to all matters in that schedule. There will still be occasions when an exception is included in the text of the matter and is thus matter-specific. Exceptions are currently listed against specific matters in tables at the end of each field in Schedule 5. The onus is to ensure that each matter has all the relevant exceptions applied to it when it is inserted into Schedule 5, which runs the risk that an exception might not be applied to a matter when it is relevant to it. The change will make Schedule 5 clearer and easier to understand by ensuring that exceptions apply in all cases where they are relevant. To put it another way, the onus will be to disapply an exception if it should not be applied to a matter. This is a sensible change that further safeguards both UK government and Welsh Assembly government interests. Exceptions usually apply to areas of policy that are not devolved. Applying these exceptions to all matters in Schedule 5 means that the Government no longer need to decide whether each exception should apply to a new matter. This Government are firmly committed to devolving legislative competence to the National Assembly, thereby enabling the Welsh Assembly Government to fulfil their commitments to the people of Wales. That commitment is demonstrated once again by the draft orders before us today. It shows that the process of conferring competence on the Assembly by means of Orders in Council—or legislative competence orders, as they are otherwise known—is working well and is being developed and improved. I commend these orders to the Committee, and I beg to move.