Role of Law in Devolution - Essay Example

? Law and Lecturer Law and Introduction It has been d that in history that it was possible to consider the United Kingdom state as a unitary set of institutions that was headed by ministers who were accountable to the Parliament. However in a modern context, in a state fragmented by devolution, the creation of new regulatory authorities and private provision of public services, law must play a greater role than politics in holding the state to account1. This paper seeks to discuss this assertion. As mention in the topic, it was historically possible to regard United Kingdom as a set of unitary institution controlled by the ministers. The United Kingdom is a unitary state where the central government controls most of the activities of the government substantially. This is what the historical government of the United Kingdom was considered to be in history. This however changed in the modern context with devolution of the United Kingdom states, where there was a creation of new regulatory authorities and provision of public services. With respect to the devolution, law played a greater role compared to politics in holding the state to account, compared to the previous central government where politics had a major role2. Role of Law in Devolution Due to the devolution, the structure of public services in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland is different in some respect. The law plays a significant role in this devolution, every particular region has both its own assembly and executive, and a Secretary of State and administrative department based in the central government, both taking the role of the ministries of the central government in the region3. Even though the laws have greater roles in the devolved government compared the great role of politics which was dominant in the historical central government, the laws that apply in Northern Ireland and Scotland are particularly different from those in Wales and England. The parliament of Scotland has very much more influence in consequence compared to the Welsh parliament4. The Scottish government played the role of civil service for Scotland and has a social policy governing the state. The structure of administration of Northern Ireland is different significantly; the health board is responsible for personal social services with Northern Ireland Housing Executive managing the public housing5. In the modern context of the devolved government that was established after a simple majority referenda in Scotland and Wales in 1997 September. Because of the need for law to keep the state in check, the National Assembly for Wales, the Scottish Parliament and the Assembly for the Northern Ireland were developed by the law6. England was left un-established. This was added to the legislatures newly established in Scotland and Wales that devolved much spending to the shires and councils of the United Kingdom. The law was enforced in the states via the taxes locally collected and the grants for services provided such as fire service, the police, and the ambulance service under the authority of the elected local government7. Because of the major role played by the law in the devolved governments, the framework has frequently changed from the historical context where politics had a major role in the central government. Among the most important changes that took place with devolution include: the reformation of the Social Security Department of Work and Pensions, the transfer to the Inland Revenue of the income maintenance, the demolition of the Transport Department, the local government and the regional states8. The responsibilities of the key social policy were placed in the Deputy prime Minister’s office; these have been relocated to the Local Government and Communities majorly due to the role that the law plays over the politics in the devolved system9. Due to the role played by law in holding the state to account. The government departments dealing with the social policy were established in order to ensure the law presides over politics in keeping the state in check. Previously in the central government, the parliament was responsible for primary legislation, the cabinet office was charged with the responsibility of reforming the public service, the treasury dealt with the economic policy government finance, the department of health looked into the health care social services, the department for Pensions and Work responsible for National Insurance Social Assistance Employment, local government, housing and urban policy was presided over by the Department for Local Government and Communities, the Ministry of Justice maintained law and order in the central government10. Finally the Department of Education was responsible for education in the central government. In the modern context, these functions were taken over by the local authorities and communities at the state level. The law became more stringent and politics had little role to play in the state control11. Role of Politics in the historical Central Government Due to the minimal role played by politics in the devolved system and the greater role by the law in keeping the state in check, the administration of welfare has for this reason undergone through major reforms. The first phase covered from 1960s to 1970s. This ensured the reformation of the central government so as to enable the treasury control and planning of public expenditure. This reform aimed at economic planning and managerial efficiency12. This led to the creation of a system in which the resources were allocated by the Treasury to departments and departments to services so as to ensure effective check of the state by the law which politics could not effectively do in the devolved government. The second phase of reformation led to the restructuring of the administration of welfare and civil service in the 1980s and 1990s13. The law ensured that some basic elements of devolution were kept in check so as to run the devolved government effectively. These elements included: the introduction of management and making managers accountable for running local agencies in a fashion similar to business context14. This became a widespread in personal social and health services; the break-up of central administrations to local agencies, this enabled the law to assess parts of administration individually, for example the administrative agencies and NHS trusts responsible for Social Security; and the quasi markets through which public services are needed to behave much like the economic markets, with the provision of services and separation of purchasing and the introduction of competition. The law plays a major role in these elements of devolution just to keep the state in check, as opposed to the historical central government in which politics had a major role15. Devolution in the Modern context In the modern context as mentioned in the topic, the United Kingdom is fragmented by devolution with several creations of new regulatory authorities and provision of public services. In order to uphold the devolution, the law must play a greater role than politics in holding the state to account. This is ensured by the regulatory authorities that are recreated to enforce law in the state16. Devolution in this context was granting of statutory powers to the Northern Ireland Assembly, the Scottish Parliament, and the National Assembly for Wales, from the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The same statutory powers were granted to the powers to the executive bodies associated with the Welsh Government, the Scottish Government, and the Northern Ireland Executive. In this respect, devolution is distinct from federalism17. This is because the devolved powers of the local authorities reside ultimately with the central government; hence, the state still remains the de jure unitary. The law creating devolved assemblies or parliament can be amended or repealed by the central government in a similar manner as any other statute18. The law therefore needs to play a significant role in holding the state accountable. There were other movements that called for devolution in other regions. In the United Kingdom, there was a formation of the Campaign for an English Parliament in 1998 as a consequence of Wales and Scotland being given referenda for devolution and leaving England out19. The Campaign for an English Parliament is responsible largely for having English devolution on the social and political agenda. There is though a very little backing for the English Parliament because the United Kingdom Parliament is serves England20. When the referendum for devolution took place in England’s North East Region, an overwhelming majority defeated it leading to the stoppage of other legislations of the region. The law however supported devolution in the modern context. The law ensured that the state was held up to account, and not as historically the politics controlling the businesses of the central government21. The law ensured that the United Kingdom emerged as a union of state in which the arrangements were territorially varied with regard to specific situations of the sequential acts of the unions between the territory of states of England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland. The law ensures that the recent reforms of devolution are built on the non-uniformity of the territory22. This embedded numerous idiosyncrasies into the United Kingdom devolved state: unevenness that left the wealthiest and the biggest part of UK, England centrally governed. Even though the non-English nations also had a devolved government with laws regulating the activities to ensure that the states are held up to account, arrangements of devolved government for such nations were asymmetrical remarkably and had a less developed system of the relations of the inter-governments that connect the United Kingdom and a devolved political arenas23. These issues pose important questions together of whether the reforms of devolution amount to a coherent package in general, whether they erode a similar citizenship in the United Kingdom, and whether the devolution reforms are stable. Politics cannot do this at the level of a devolved state; therefore, the law has the mandate to ensure that the state is hold up to accounts for the activities and operations24. The law also plays a greater role in ensuring the state is accountable through ensuring a full decentralization in devolution and putting power base down to the citizens in order to enable the local factors be recognized in the processes involved in making decisions25. Such laws have seen a paradigm shift, change in the administrative and political powers of the legislatures of the Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland because of the devolution. This began in September 1997, as mentioned earlier, when the devolution referenda was carried out in Wales and Scotland in which most of the voters chose to develop a National Assembly for Wales and a Scottish Parliament26. In the Northern Ireland, it was a significant part of the agreement that was highly supported by voters in the May 1998 referendum. The public endorsement of the devolution led to the three acts of devolution passed by Parliament: the Northern Ireland Act 1998; the Scotland Act 1998; and the Government of Wales Act 199827. This led to the development of the devolved legislatures given power to keep states to account. Even though politics no longer had greater role in holding the states to account compared to the role played by law in keeping the states into check, the Parliament remained the sovereign, and still had powers to amend the Acts of devolution and/ or legislate the devolved things28. The law took a role to ensure that the states remain accountable on devolution matters. In addition, the government clarified that it will not legislate normally on devolved matters with no consent from the devolved legislature: Legislative Consent Motion29. Devolved legislatures and Parliament The law governed the devolved legislatures and stated a distinction between the devolved legislatures and the Parliament: the way members are elected. The devolved legislatures entail aspects of a proportional representation30. For example, the Scottish Parliament members and the Wales’ National Assembly are generally elected to represent a region on the additional member system using a representation model of the d’Hondt, and a constituency with the use of first past the post. Although the members are elected in varying ways, the law asserts that they all have equal powers in the two legislatures in monitoring the activities of the state31. These legislatures also ensure that politics has less to do with keeping the state in check, and the law given an upper hand in holding the state to account. The Parliament Houses, the devolved legislature members nominate ministers from among themselves in order to establish an executive for reasons of devolved administrations. The law ensures that this is done and their mandates are put to check and they remain accountable for all the activities. Politics to this end plays a minimal role at the state devolution level. It is important to note that the administration of the devolved states are not serving similar ministers as the central government, but serve their own ministers with their own political mandates and priorities32. Role of territorial secretary in state accountability The law is very stringent on ensuring accountability of the devolved states. The devolved governments of Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland are represented in the cabinet by a secretary of the territorial state. The territorial secretary ensures that the devolved system is running smoothly33. In addition, the law in its attempts to hold up the state to account grants powers to the territorial secretary of state to perform functions such as: handling legislations affecting the territory, giving responses to the interests of the parliament in the affairs of the territory, representing the interests of the territory in cabinet committees and the cabinet, transmitting the grants to the administrations of the devolved systems, promoting the territorial interests, and supporting collaborations between the devolved administration and the central government. The law also ensures that every devolved territory has its own departments that are accountable for liaising between the relevant territory and the central United Kingdom government. The law also sets out the principles supporting relations between the two administrations. The principle of good communication is particularly emphasized to ensure effective running of the devolved administration. The reason has seen the law uphold cooperation and consultation principles with the central government. This leaves very minimal room for politics to play a role as opposed to the historical government where politics was a major player in administration34. Conclusion In summary, the historical central government encouraged politics in the administration. In contrary, the modern context of the devolved system gives room to the law to hold up the states into account. Due to the devolution, the structure of public services in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland is different in some respect. The law plays a significant role in this devolution, every particular region has both its own assembly and executive, and a Secretary of State and administrative department based in the central government, both taking the role of the ministries of the central government in the region. As mentioned earlier, it has been noted that in history, it was possible to consider the United Kingdom state as a unitary set of institutions that was headed by ministers who were accountable to the Parliament. However in a modern context, in a state fragmented by devolution, the creation of new regulatory authorities and private provision of public services, law must play a greater role than politics in holding the state to account. This paper has discussed this statement through critically evaluating the aspects of law in the devolution of states such as Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Bibliography AG v De Keyser’s Royal Hotel Ltd. [1920] AC 508 Alcock, P. 2008. Social policy in Britain, London: Macmillan Alder, J, 2011. Constitutional and Administrative Law, London: Palgrave Macmillan. Alvin Jackson, 2003. Home Rule, an Irish History 1800–2000. 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British Government and the Constitution, 5th Edition, London: Butterworths Websites http://www.parliament.uk/ (Official web site of the United Kingdom) http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/ (Official web site of the Scottish Parliament) http://www.wales.gov.uk/index.htm (Official web site of the Welsh Assembly) http://www.ni-assembly.gov.uk/ (Official web site of the Northern Ireland Assembly) http://www.privy-council.org.uk/output/page5.asp (Official Web site of the Judicial Committee of Privy Council) http://www.labour.org.uk/ (Official web site of the Labor Party) http://www.conservatives.com/ (Official web site of the Conservative Party) http://www.libdems.org.uk/ (Official web site of the Liberal Democrat Party) http://www.snp.org.uk/index_hires.php (Official Web site of the Scottish National Party) Read More