Post by Carl LaFong on Sept 18, 2023 14:32:04 GMT
The Welsh government’s “historic” changes to the Senedd, including sharply increasing the number of members, have been criticised by the Conservatives who say the millions of pounds an expanded Welsh parliament would cost each year should be ploughed into improving public services.
Proposed changes set out in the Senedd reform bill include increasing the number of members from 60 to 96 and ministers from 12 to 17, plus scrapping the first-past-the-post element of the voting system.
Set-up costs are estimated at about £8m and additional running costs for the expanded parliament are expected to be up to about £18m a year, which the Labour-led government argues is a tiny fraction of the £24bn total annual Welsh budget.
The Welsh counsel general, Mick Antoniw, said: “This is an historic moment, a watershed in terms of Welsh parliamentary democracy. It makes us a truly modern Senedd.”
Antoniw said a bigger parliament was justified by the extra law-making powers and tax-raising levers Wales has compared with when devolution came into being in 1999.
He said it also helped make up for the number of seats in the UK parliament being cut from 40 to 32 and the loss of Welsh voices in the European parliament.
Antoniw acknowledged that increasing the number of politicians was difficult to justify
www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/sep/18/wales-historic-plans-to-expand-senedd-draw-conservatives-ire
Proposed changes set out in the Senedd reform bill include increasing the number of members from 60 to 96 and ministers from 12 to 17, plus scrapping the first-past-the-post element of the voting system.
Set-up costs are estimated at about £8m and additional running costs for the expanded parliament are expected to be up to about £18m a year, which the Labour-led government argues is a tiny fraction of the £24bn total annual Welsh budget.
The Welsh counsel general, Mick Antoniw, said: “This is an historic moment, a watershed in terms of Welsh parliamentary democracy. It makes us a truly modern Senedd.”
Antoniw said a bigger parliament was justified by the extra law-making powers and tax-raising levers Wales has compared with when devolution came into being in 1999.
He said it also helped make up for the number of seats in the UK parliament being cut from 40 to 32 and the loss of Welsh voices in the European parliament.
Antoniw acknowledged that increasing the number of politicians was difficult to justify
www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/sep/18/wales-historic-plans-to-expand-senedd-draw-conservatives-ire