Agenda and minutes
Venue: Presiding Officer’s office, 4th floor - Tŷ Hywel. View directions
Contact: Aled Elwyn Jones
No. | Item |
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Introductions, apologies and substitutions |
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Committees Minutes: At
the meeting of 8 June, Business Managers considered a paper setting out the
role of Business Committee in establishing a committee system. At that meeting,
The Committee requested the Secretariat bring forward further options for committee
sizes and remits based on Business Managers’ suggestions. Business
Managers also requested the Secretariat to bring forward a paper outlining a
possible procedure for electing committee chairs, and to provide various
options within that procedure, for Business Managers to consider. Number of
committees There
was a general consensus that six specialist and six policy and legislation
committees should be established, with one reserve committee to undertake
additional pressures from other committees. Jane Hutt proposed that the reserve
committee should be able to assume both policy and legislative scrutiny and
Simon Thomas suggested that the committee could also scrutinise matters that
might arise that are of public importance, but are not necessarily devolved.
Business Managers also noted that the reserve committee may decide to carry out
initial work based on the outcome of the EU referendum. Mark
Reckless suggested that the committee may want to return to the matter of the
number of committees should there be disagreement around the allocation of
committee chairs to political groups. The
Presiding Officer suggested the Committee consider the practicalities of
timetabling slots for the reserve committee to meet. The Committee agreed that
some flexibility should be built in to the timetable to allow the committee to
meet depending on its workload and that its membership should be taken into
consideration when agreeing the timetable. Remits The
Committee considered and agreed the remits of the policy and legislation
committees, as set out in the paper. Business
Managers agreed that the membership of the Scrutiny of the First Minister
Committee should comprise of the committee chairs of the 6 policy and
legislation committees, PAC, Finance and CLA and would consider its operation
at a later date when a decision had been made whether to introduce a procedure
to elect committee chairs. It was suggested that the Scrutiny of the First
Minister Committee sit outside the allocation of chairs to political groups and
be chaired by the Deputy Presiding Officer. Business
Managers commented that the fourth Assembly Business Committee’s role to review
Assembly procedures had worked well and as such should be retained in the fifth
Assembly. The
Committee also agreed to retain the Standards of Conduct Committee with its
current remit. They also agreed to review the scrutiny of public appointments
in due course. Size of
Committees Jane
Hutt conveyed the Labour group’s view that policy and legislation committees
should comprise of eight members, with the exception of Finance and Public
Accounts Committees which should have seven members and be chaired by
opposition parties. Paul
Davies and Simon Thomas commented that as political balance could not be
achieved without unreasonably large committee sizes, they would be content to
establish committees of 8 members but would expect the Labour group to
compromise on its membership, and allocation of chairs, to better reflect the
Assembly’s political make-up. Mark
Reckless expressed concerns that committee membership comprising of 8 members
contradicts the Committee’s previous discussions about trying to achieve
political balance. He also stated that should the two largest opposition
parties chair the Finance and Public Accounts Committees, and if some
committees comprise of 8 members with a 3:2:1 split of opposition chairs, the
UKIP group would be disadvantaged and the overall arrangements might not
reflect political balance. All
Business Managers agreed that attempting to reach a compromise of committee
membership would be preferable to the application of D’hondt. The Presiding
Officer encouraged Business Managers to meet outside of committee to reach an
agreement on the size of committees and to return to the matter at the
following meeting with the expectation of making a decision. In
light of the letter by the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government
setting out his intention to lay the Supplementary Budget on 21 June, Business
Managers agreed to table a motion to establish permanent Finance and Public
Accounts Committees and agreed to confirm the membership of the Finance
committee by the following meeting. Procedures
for electing committee chairs Business
Managers considered and agreed in principle to introduce a procedure for
electing committee chairs. Jane
Hutt prompted a discussion around the minimum threshold required for
nominations. Business Managers agreed that a nomination by one Member would be
a reasonable threshold for an institution of the Assembly’s size. The Committee
agreed in principle that candidates should be nominated by a member of their
own group, and that no seconder would be required. Jane Hutt, however,
commented that she would need to give further consideration to the minimum
threshold required for nominations on account of the size of the Labour group. Business
Managers all agreed that should there be only one nomination, that Member would
be declared elected as is the case for the election of the Presiding and Deputy
Presiding Officer. If there is more than one nomination, the Committee agreed
that a secret ballot should take place whereby Members vote in order of
preference for their preferred candidate, avoiding multiple rounds of secret
ballots. The successful candidate would be the first to secure more than half
the votes. Business
Managers decided that no Member should be a candidate for multiple chairs,
where more than one chair is being elected at the same time. The
Committee agreed that a motion to remove a committee chair should be supported
by the majority of the committee, have cross-party support and that the Chair
should not be able to participate in any vote on their removal. Paper to
note - Letter from the National Union of Journalists Business
Managers noted the letter. |