The Welsh Government Cabinet in 2000
Yes, I know it wasn't called the Welsh Government then.
In this article, I will summarise key themes discussed at Welsh Cabinet meetings in the year 2000. This is part of my preparation for writing my next book, Governing Wales. As I have previously expained, the archived Cabinet links are not easy to find. I am therefore including working links for each meeting in the article below. I hope that the links are now correct. Let me know if you spot anything that is wrong.
Rhodri Morgan succeeded Alun Michael as First Secretary in February 2000. At the Cabinet Meeting held on 13 March, he set out a series of Open Government measures:
o Minutes of Cabinet Meetings were to be published from this date
o Press spokesman’s briefings were to be published on the Internet
o Special Adviser posts had been advertised.
News that the Cabinet Minutes would be published was publicly announced on 21 March.
The 13 March Cabinet Meeting also heard that launch investment of £560 million was to be given to BAe for its Super Jumbo project at Broughton.
Rhodri also informed the Cabinet that he had received a paper from the Presiding Officer which proposed a clearer separation of the "administrative" and "parliamentary" functions of the Assembly. It included the suggestions that the main offices of Cabinet members should not be in Crickhowell House; that the Presiding Officer should have control of his own budget; and that he should assume responsibility for the Assembly building. Cbinet agreed that a compromise needed to be reached with the Presiding Officer, but that the Cabinet would not be relocated from the Assembly Building in Crickhowell House.
The Cabinet also discussed the the role of ‘the newly appointed Deputy Secretaries’. They were there to share some of the burden of work falling on Cabinet members, and to generate ideas and help develop policy. They could not take executive decisions. In discussion it was agreed that Deputy Secretaries should have access to official cars, but only where they were standing in for an Assembly Secretary who was unavailable to undertake any Cabinet work at that time. This would not put any additional demand on the official car service. Security of official papers was also very important. Deputy Secretaries would be able to have access to papers when agreed by Assembly Secretaries, but files and folders should be viewed on the Fifth Floor. A room would be set aside for this.
The Cabinet noted that a Better Wales Strategic Plan was to be published. It agreed that a wider range of applicants was needed for public appointments. There was a suggestion of a St David’s Day celebratory event to mark the achievements of Welsh men and women. The Cabinet also agreed there was a need to review the role, function and purpose of Assembly Sponsored Public Bodies, something which would result in action four years later.
The Cabinet Meeting of 21 March spent most of its time on Objective 1, looking at its Single Programming Document for agreement with the European Union.
On 27 March, Cabinet discussed action on councillors allowances, spurred by proposals from Cardiff County Council which Cabinet felt were ‘unacceptable’. The First Secretary was shortly to be meeting UK Ministers including the Prime Minister. His discussions would include Objective 1 funding, the issue which had led to Alun Michael’s departure from office, and the working of the Joint Ministerial Committee, and the general principle of devolution and co-operation between UK Government Departments and the Assembly. Cabinet was concerned that the Assembly should be effective at feeding in its views to the UK Government on Bills. Cabinet also agreed a paper from the Finance Secretary setting out proposals for a review of ASPBs (quangoes) by 2003.
The 10 April Cabinet meeting heard that new Assisted Areas were to be announced in Wales - Broughton, Point of Ayr, Machynlleth and Ystradgynlais. The First Secretary reported that the Prime Minister’s visit to Wales, and the meeting of the Joint Ministerial Committee on Health, had been successful. The meeting had provided a useful opportunity to discuss ideas for further improving the provision of health care on a UK wide basis. The First Secretary was looking forward to further meetings of the Committee which would be held in Scotland, London, and Northern Ireland. The Rover crisis was having an impact on suppliers in Wales, and the First Secretary had spoken to Cardiff Business School about this.
Cabinet discussed the Lottery and its impact on Wales, including the Lottery distribution companies. There were concerns about premature announcements from the Secretary of State’s Office in advance of decisions made by the Assembly. It was important that the strategies of Assembly Sponsored Public Bodies were ‘complementary’ to those of the Assembly.
At the Cabinet Meeting on 8 May, the first sign of the future change in titles from Assembly Secretaries and First Secretary to Ministers and First Minister was signalled:
There appeared to be a lack of understanding outside the Assembly of the title Assembly Secretary and its relationship to others, such as Chairman of a subject committee. This was leading to confusion, for example about the correct person to whom to address invitations. One solution to this would be to refer to Cabinet members as Ministers instead of Assembly Secretaries. The First Secretary would raise the matter with the other party leaders to see if agreement to this change could be reached.
The First Secretary had agreed a mechanism with the Secretary of State ‘by which the Assembly could put forward bids for primary legislation’. Cabinet Secretaries should ensure that their departmental Policy Boards discussed future legislative bids.
Recruitment of the four Special Advisers was announced.
There was a discussion of the New Assembly Building, looking at the costs and timetable.
Assembly Committees needed to be incorporated into the Budget Planning round. The Cabinet agreed there was a need to encourage strategic thinking by committees so that the Assembly operated as a coherent, corporate body.
To support the Cabinet, the Permanent secretary announced the new post of head of the Cabinet executive. The Cabinet Executive would incorporate the Cabinet Secretariat, the Central Policy and Strategic Planning Unit, and the Communication Directorate.
At the 22 May Cabinet meeting, the First Secretary said that having been in existence for a year the Assembly was now well established in the public’s mind. The start of the second year presented an opportunity to build on this foundation and set out clearly what the public could expect of the Assembly in the year ahead.
The First Secretary expected to meet the Prime Minister at a JMC in London and planned to raise the importance of an effective two-way flow of information between the Assembly and the UK government.
There were discussions on the Cabinet’s need to make effective use of plenary meetings, and how to influence future UK primary legislation. There was a further discussion on lottery funding.
The Cabinet Meeting of 12 June had a more detailed discussion on the new Assembly Building, which noted that City Hall was no longer an option as a building. There were several key principles which the Cabinet felt should be used to judge which option would be in the best interests of the Assembly. These were: need for new facilities, cost, need or otherwise for a "prestige" building, and timing.
The Cabinet Meeting of 19 June was told that agreement had almost been reached on the Assembly’s contribution to the capital costs of the Wales Millennium Centre. The First Secretary said that the four party leaders would be meeting on Thursday and would be discussing the need to review the Assembly’s procedures. In the margins of the Joint Ministerial Committee on Health in Glasgow on 16 June he had been able to speak to the Chief Secretary of the Treasury about Objective 1 funding. The Finance Secretary said that the date of the announcement on the UK Government spending review remained uncertain, but on structural funds, the Administration was seeking sufficient PES cover for all match funding, and the Finance Secretary would be emphasising this in her briefings to Assembly members.
The Permanent Secretary introduced a paper on the work that was being undertaken to implement his Better Government Initiative in the Assembly. Better Government was designed to radically improve the way in which officials provided services to the Administration, other Members, outside bodies, and the public. It was a major task, involving as it did such a large institution with some 3,000 staff, but he attached the highest priority to it. He was pleased that the Assembly had recently been allocated £2.1m from the UK Government’s Invest to Modernise Fund to help implement the Better Government Action Plan.
In discussion several points were made:
There should continue to be a heavy emphasis on educating all officials about the nature of the political environment in which they now worked;
The civil service in the Assembly was still very hierarchical and efforts needed to be made to encourage more ideas and input into policy making to come from lower and middle grades;
Ideas from staff could be encouraged if they were seen to be rewarded, whether the ideas were successful or not. It was inevitable that only a minority of ideas would lead to tangible benefits, but staff had to be encouraged to generate ideas and not be afraid of failure;
There was not currently a full appreciation of customer service, as was found in the better private sector organisations;
The Cabinet had a major role to play in talking to their officials at all grades, informing them what their expectations were, and in ensuring that all the work they commissioned was absolutely necessary. Officials were under considerable pressure, and it was essential to cut out all unnecessary work;
The disadvantages of the geographical split between Cathays Park and the Bay had to be recognised, and as much as possible done to obviate any sense of detachment that officials working in Cathays Park might have from the elected members in the Bay. One option would be for Assembly Secretaries to spend more time in Cathays Park during recesses.
The 3 July Cabinet Meeting heard that agreement had been reached between the Party Leaders and the Presiding Officer for a review of the Assembly’s procedures. There was a thorough discussion on communications and media-handling, and a discussion on higher Education Access Funds. The First Secretary noted that a reception had been arranged at Gwydr House for Assembly Secretaries to meet their UK counter-parts, but this coincided with the Royal Welsh Show and meant attendance difficulties for some Assembly Secretaries.
Cabinet on 19 July discussed the UK Government’s Spending Review. The Finance Secretary said that the UK Chancellor’s announcement on the Spending Review (SR) had been very good news for Wales. It provided an extra £421m to provide full public expenditure cover for all Structural Funds programmes over the next three years. The important issue now was to ensure the best possible quality projects to utilise the money. On match funding, she would be announcing in her plenary speech later that morning the release of additional funds this and next year from uncommitted resources in existing Assembly baselines.
The First Secretary said that following on from the SR announcement were other events showing that the Administration was delivering for Wales. Approval of the Objective 1 programme by the EC was imminent, and this would put the Programme Monitoring Committee on a proper footing which would allow formal approval of Objective 1 projects. EC approval of Wales’ Assisted Areas Map was also expected very soon. It was important that the momentum generated by these announcements was maintained over the summer, and that any other announcements by individual Assembly Secretaries were communicated to, and promoted by, the Cabinet as a whole.
The First Secretary said that the reception at Gwydyr House, at which Assembly Cabinet members could meet their UK Government counterparts, would still be held on 25 July during the Royal Welsh Show.
Three days later, the First Secretary sacked Christine Gwyther as Agriculture Secretary and appointed Carwyn Jones in her place on the eve of the Royal Welsh Show.
The Cabinet Meeting of 11 September discussed the fuel blockades. There would be a plenary statement and the Cabinet agreed that the First Secretary should issue a statement to the press that evening signalling the strength of the Cabinet’s concerns about the impact on the essential services and calling on the protestors to end their blockades before any suffering was caused. The First Secretary had been to Japan and discussed high-tech skills.
The Finance Secretary said that the spending bids she had received for 2001-02 to 2003-04 considerably exceeded the resources available. Her priority was to meet the administration’s commitments on health and social services, provide a respectable local government settlement, and meet all match funding requirements.
On Thursday 5 October Rhodri Morgan announced an agreement with the Liberal Democrats for a Partnership Government. The Liberal Democrats would have two seats in the Cabinet.
At the Cabinet Meeting on 9 October, the First Secretary announced that Tom Middlehurst had resigned from the Cabinet. A public announcement would be made later that day, and his letter of resignation would be published. In this he cited aspects of the proposed Partnership Agreement with the Liberal Democrats as reasons for his decision.
Cabinet discussed the draft Budget. The Finance Secretary said that preparing the draft budget had been challenging and had required detailed discussions with individual Assembly Secretaries, and for account to be taken of the evolving relationship with the Liberal Democrats. All of the commitments contained in the Partnership Agreement were included in the budget. Concessionary bus fares for pensioners were part of the budget.
Before the next Cabinet Meeting, Peter Law was sacked by Rhodri Morgan. Rosemary Butler also left the Cabinet and was proposed by Labour as Deputy Presiding Officer but defeated by John Marek.
A press statement on 16 October announced the new Cabinet, which now included former Deputy Presiding Officer of the National Assembly, Labour’s Jane Davidson, and Michael German and Jenny Randerson from the Liberal Democrats. and confirmed that from now on, the title of ‘Minister’ would be used in place of Assembly Secretary. The press release stated:
The term 'Minister' has now been adopted by the Cabinet in order to distinguish clearly between members of the Cabinet and members of the Civil Service where the term "Secretary" is a common title. This change will provide clarity for the public about lines of accountability and bring Wales into line with practice in the other devolved administrations in the UK.
The Cabinet Meeting on 23 October was the first of the Partnership Government. The First Minister noted that this was a historic Cabinet meeting and welcomed the new Ministers to the Cabinet.
The Minister for Assembly business said that his paper recommended that an early statement be made to Plenary outlining the Cabinet's forward programme to summer 2001. There was a need to emphasise in the statement that this was the Administration's agenda for the coming year. It was the Assembly's "Queen's Speech" and was about stability with the purpose of delivering policies.
The First Minister encouraged Cabinet Ministers, where possible, to have early discussions with their predecessors.
A paper on a draft National Economic Development Strategy was discussed.
The Cabinet Meeting of 6 November commenced with a discussion on the recent flooding, which was to be a regular discussion at Welsh Cabinet meetings over the years. There wwas also a discussion on preparations for any future fuel dispute.
The meeting of 20 November heard from the Minister for Education and Lifelong Learning that concerns had been raised with her concerning school performance booklets and the way in which performance was currently measured and documented.
The First Minister informed the Cabinet that the Prime Minister would be making an announcement in Parliament about the plans for celebrating the Queen's Golden Jubilee on 23 November. It was agreed that the First Minister would write to Party leaders outlining the details of the celebrations and that a written statement would be published on the Assembly's Intranet.
At the Cabinet Meeting on 11 December, the First Minister said that there were a number of announcements on important appointments due over the coming weeks. They included the appointment of the clerk to the Assembly, the Assembly's head of news and the new board members of the Welsh Development Agency. The new board members of the WDA were all outstanding choices but there was a concern that not enough top quality female candidates were applying for such posts.
The First Minister said that the appointment of Peter Clarke as Children’s Commissioner had received good coverage in the Welsh press, as had the winter plan for the NHS in Wales. However, the media’s coverage of the Assembly’s summer recess announcement had been less positive. The First Minister said that there was a need to rebut the charge that the summer recess period was nothing more than a 12 week holiday for Assembly Members.
The First Minister said that a comparison had been made during the North Wales Regional Committee meeting on education expenditure between Flintshire and Cheshire. This related to the way in which school funding was delivered in Wales compared with England. The Minister for Education and Lifelong Learning said that funding in Wales was delivered to schools via local authorities rather than direct to schools as was the case in England. It needed to be emphasised that the Assembly funding process differed from England because the Assembly believed in providing local government with the freedom and responsibility for funding their own schools, and in the principle of non-hypothecation. The Assembly was providing the necessary funding for education, and it was therefore up to local authorities to deliver and respond on any variations in spending per head, if challenged. This issue was to re-surface regularly.
The Minister for Education and Lifelong Learning updated the Cabinet on progress that had been made on piloting a Welsh Baccalaureate and sought the agreement of Cabinet to change the commitment in respect of the use of the International Baccalaureate Organisation. The Partnership Agreement committed the Assembly to using the International Baccalaureate as part of the pilot. The Minister for Education and Lifelong Learning said that there were two concerns however relating to this commitment. The first related to the size of the qualification and the amount of work students would have to undertake with the International Baccalaureate with the additional pilot elements specific to Wales. The second related to procurement. The specification needed to be neutral about how the awarding body should achieve the aim of protecting students who would take part in the pilot through ensuring recognition by universities and employers. As a result, the Minister for Education and Lifelong Learning recommended that the Cabinet agree to change the commitment in respect of the use of the International Baccalaureate Organisation. This change was agreed.