Statement by the Presiding Officer on behalf of the Assembly Commission

The Presiding Officer: As Chair of the Assembly Commission, I wish to make a statement on the report of the independent review panel on financial support for Assembly Members, under the chairmanship of Sir Roger Jones. My commission colleagues join me in thanking warmly the members of the independent panel, Jackie Nickson, Nigel Rudd and Dafydd Wigley, for the enormous amount of hard work that went into their report. We were fortunate to be able to recruit a panel with such extensive experience and skills and we are grateful to them for tackling the task in such a thorough and principled manner.

We asked the panel to look at all aspects of financial support available to Assembly Members, including pay and allowances for travel, accommodation, constituency offices and support staff. We made it clear to panel members that their remit was to be as broad as their work was to be fiercely independent. At no point did Assembly Commissioners have any involvement with their work, thus abiding by the crucial principle that, as Assembly Members, we should not ourselves be involved in decisions about our own financial position.

The panel was in no doubt that Assembly Members must be given the means to ensure that they can undertake the role for which they have been elected in a way that is beyond reproach, so that ‘Assembly Members must be held accountable and the whole process must be transparent’.

The report contains 23 principal recommendations together with a further 85 supporting recommendations. The Assembly Commission has agreed to accept the recommendations in full.

I am grateful to my fellow commissioners for their clear and unanimous response guided by their strong sense of accountability to the people of Wales. On the recommendations where the panel is proposing immediate action, and where the commission already has legal powers, we will not delay. The chief executive and her staff have already started to make arrangements to implement such recommendations at the earliest possible opportunity. For many of the recommendations, the changes require a substantial amount of preparatory work before they can be implemented, and this was recognised by the panel in the report. However, the commission intends to start this work immediately, to be completed by May 2011.

I am particularly grateful for the way in which our chief executive and her team have provided detailed and full advice to commissioners on legal and administrative aspects, which has enabled us respond in such a timely and clear fashion.

To demonstrate the Assembly’s commitment to the highest standards of conduct, the Committee on Standards of Conduct has already introduced a proposed Measure that will strengthen the independence of the National Assembly Commissioner for Standards, and I am grateful to this afternoon’s Temporary Deputy Presiding Officer, in his other role as Chair of the Committee on Standards of Conduct, for leading on that proposed Measure and for accepting amendments to it at Stage 2. The Assembly Commission and the Committee on Standards of Conduct have considered a Standing Order in respect of the employment of family members, which the panel supports. I hope that next week’s Business Committee will consider this with the aim of bringing it to the Assembly for approval soon after the summer recess.

I will turn now to a number of the key recommendations. One is that the automatic link between the pay of Assembly Members and that of Members of Parliament should be broken. The panel has recommended that the current basic salary should be maintained, up-rated in 2010 in line with inflation, and that, before the next election, a statutory independent review body be established to set future salary levels. Those salaries should be fixed for the duration of each 4-year Assembly term. The body should be appointed on a statutory basis, as it will operate independently of the Assembly. Its role will be to decide on all aspects of financial support for Assembly Members. Those decisions will be final and not subject to ratification or approval by the commission or the Assembly in Plenary. We intend to start work immediately on a commission proposed Measure, which, following the agreement of the commission yesterday, as Member in charge under Standing Order No. 23.6, I will bring forward to the Assembly in the autumn, to establish such an independent review body and to put in place the systematic, objective approach to setting pay recommended by the panel.

Another key recommendation is the abolition of a number of payments relating to second homes, including the abolition of the entitlement to claim mortgage interest payments for second homes and the abolition of the flat rate allowance for an overnight stay away from the main home. The panel’s recommendations mean that the number of Members entitled to support with accommodation will be halved.

The panel took the view that issues of capacity were crucial, as they frame the formal operating context for the Assembly and its Members, and impact upon its overall effectiveness. The commission will, therefore, take forward the panel’s suggestions, such as the significant expansion of training and professional development for Assembly Members and their staff, to increase strategic capacity.

The new arrangements for Members’ pay and expenses outlined in this report must be underlined by a robust framework for checking, processing and auditing claims and dealing with standards issues.

I am grateful to the Auditor General for Wales for his commitment to playing a significant part in providing independent assurance and assisting Assembly staff in securing continuous improvements in governance procedures that are an exemplar for others to follow.

I am glad that we are making these changes in the year that we mark 10 years of devolution. In announcing today the Assembly Commission’s decision to implement the independent panel’s recommendations, we are signalling a clean break with the traditions and practices of some parliamentary bodies of the United Kingdom. We are providing a lead for those who are serious about democratic reform. By sustaining public confidence in devolution we are, I am certain, strengthening the democratic process in Wales.