National Commission for Wales set up to advise on devolution and constitutional options
Dame Menna Rawlings and Professor Emyr Lewis will co-chair a standing advisory body that the Welsh Government says will run for years rather than report once and close.
The Welsh Government has set up a National Commission for Wales, an independent standing body that will give advice, evidence and analysis on how Wales is governed. Dafydd Trystan Davies, the Cabinet Minister for Government Effectiveness and the Constitution, published its terms of reference on Tuesday 10 November.
Its co-chairs are Dame Menna Rawlings, who has served as British ambassador to France and British high commissioner to Australia, and Professor Emyr Lewis, a law academic who specialises in constitutional law and devolution.
The commission has four functions:
- advising on devolution priorities, with the Crown Estate, rail infrastructure, justice and policing named as examples
- running a national conversation with people across Wales about the country's constitutional future
- building the evidence base through research on political, economic and democratic questions
- helping to inform future reform by examining the three options identified by the earlier Independent Commission on the Constitutional Future of Wales: enhanced devolution, a federal United Kingdom and independence
Unlike that time-limited commission, the new body is described by the Welsh Government as a standing forum for debate in the years ahead, building on the earlier work rather than repeating it. Its role is advisory.
The announcement did not say how many members the commission will have beyond the co-chairs, what its budget is, or when it will first report.
