Written - Legislative Competence Order on Culture and other fields

It is a pleasure to present the proposed Legislative Competence Order on Culture to the National Assembly today and to provide Assembly Members with an opportunity to discuss and scrutinise our proposals. I am sure you will agree that it is appropriate for the National Assembly to be given the power to legislate in the field of culture.

At present the Culture Field (3) and associated Field 2 (ancient monuments and historic buildings) of Part 1 of Schedule 5 to the Government of Wales Act 2006 are empty.  However, this Legislative Competence Order provides a way of starting to fill these voids.

The proposed Order, if approved, would give the Assembly the power, through a Measure, to implement the ‘One Wales’ commitment to place a statutory obligation on local authorities to promote culture and encourage partnership to deliver high quality cultural experiences for their communities. 

The competence is concerned with the cultural functions of local authorities and is specifically linked to three elements of local authority cultural provision namely, ‘support’, ‘improvement’ and ‘promotion’.  In this way the competence will fully enable the policy aim of the One Wales commitment to be achieved through for instance such local authority functions as planning, consultation, collaboration/co-operation, financial or other support, promotion etc.

The competence extends into Fields 2 (ancient monuments and historic buildings) and 16 (sport and recreation), in addition to Field (culture), so that the full range of all the cultural activities and services provided by local authorities across Wales are within the scope of the power.

I look forward to working with Members and others with an interest in local authority cultural provision in scrutinising the proposed Legislative Competence Order.

I will make a Legislative Statement during Plenary on 16 June 2009.