Yesterday’s significant vote in which all 53 Assembly Members present in the Chamber agreed to proceed with a referendum on utilising the full powers in the 2006 Government of Wales Act, has been put into context today with reports of evidence from the Head of the Civil Service to the Welsh Affairs Committee.
Sir Gus O’Donnell told MPs that he was concerned London officials suffered from “forgetfulness” about Welsh devolution:
“I think it’s very patchy. At its best it’s very good [but] I worry there is this group of people who were around when the first settlement was sorted out, and they are involved in issues where you have to think about Wales all the time. That’s a group that probably gets it.
“I worry about those people for whom it’s not part of their everyday work, and suddenly an issue comes up where it’s really important to take the devolved arrangements into account, and they don’t naturally get it right first time.
“These are, I think, sins of forgetfulness really and we need to up our game.”
He added that the Act “creates quite a complex environment for civil servants to operate in, and quite an unusual one, so we need to make sure we’re getting that right”.
All parties have accepted now that the present set-up is both expensive, complex and time-consuming. If civil servants in Whitehall are also having difficulties knowing what is devolved and what is not then that adds another reason why Wales should move to Part Four of the Act as soon as possible.
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