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Residential Care (Abuse)
16. Fiona Mactaggart: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps he plans to take to increase the protection from abuse of people with learning disabilities in residential care. [7959]
Mr. Boateng: We take the issue of abuse extremely seriously. We are determined to send a clear and unambiguous message that abuse in residential care will not be tolerated. The promulgation of good practice based on respect for the individual, and the importance of being able to identify and remedy actual or potential abuse, is a vital part of the Department's funding strategy, as is its work on developing a credible and comprehensive regulatory framework based on national regulatory care standards.
Fiona Mactaggart: I congratulate my hon. Friend on ensuring that there is a public inquiry into the scandal in the long-care residential home on the borders of my constituency. Can he give me an assurance that the inquiry's report will be made public, in view of the fact that reports from certain similar inquiries were not made public because of insurance company requirements? When might the powers in the Police Act 1997 to check
the criminal backgrounds of staff in residential care homes be brought into force, as that would make a huge difference in preventing the occurrence of another long-care tragedy?
Mr. Boateng: We will certainly ensure that the conclusions of the report into the long-care scandal are made known and, more important, acted on. I am currently meeting the Minister of State, Home Office--my hon. Friend the Member for Cardiff, South and Penarth (Mr. Michael)--to determine when we will be able to move forward and ensure that local authorities can safeguard residents in homes by checking on the previous convictions, if any, of those who work there. That is a matter to which we give the highest priority.
Mr. Ian Bruce: The hon. Gentleman will know that the previous Government, and the then Opposition who are now the Government, have had common cause in
ensuring that we root out any abusers in the care sector. However, will he take great care? A head teacher who came to see me the other day told me that nine out of 10 accusations of child abuse against individuals are found to be unfounded, particularly when they involve children with learning disabilities, and that they can cause enormous problems for and strain on the good staff whom we want to encourage. They are leaving the profession because they feel that they must constantly be on their guard and not be alone with children, because perhaps we have gone too far in what we have been trying to do.
Mr. Boateng: We are anxious to avoid in any way reinforcing a culture of blame that can all too readily develop in this area. Equally, it is vital that all engaged in such work understand that toughness, transparency and accountability are the hallmarks of an effective regulatory system. That is something that the House will want to see put in place and that is something that we are determined to do.
Welsh Assembly
3.30 pm
The Secretary of State for Wales (Mr. Ron Davies): With permission, Madam Speaker, I should like to make a statement about the Government's proposals for creating an Assembly for Wales.
The Government believe that, in the United Kingdom, too much power is centralised in the hands of too few people. We believe that there is too little freedom for people in each part of the United Kingdom to decide their own priorities. Our manifesto made clear our intention to give Britain a modern constitution fitting a modern and progressive country. We believe that it is right to bring decisions closer to people, to open up government, to reform Parliament and to increase individual rights.
The White Paper that I am publishing today marks a major step forward in the achievement of our proposals for Wales. We propose to create a democratically elected Assembly that will give the people of Wales a real say in the way public services in Wales are run.
Since the Welsh Office was set up more than 30 years ago, there has been a progressive devolution of administration to Wales. As Secretary of State for Wales, I am responsible for taking decisions about health, education, economic development, roads, planning and many other public services that matter to people's everyday lives. I am accountable to the House, but our procedures here are too often seen as remote from the day-to-day realities of devolved administration.
The Government are committed to bringing decisions closer to the citizen. Our aim is to improve public services by making them more responsive to the needs and the views of people in Wales.
Wales will continue to share the same framework of laws as England, including the primary legislation made for it by Parliament, and it will remain firmly part of the United Kingdom. But the new Assembly will assume many of the functions and powers that I currently exercise. It will have at its disposal the staff and budget of the Welsh Office, now some £7 billion; it will determine policies and set standards for major public services; it will bring forward secondary legislation where necessary to implement those policies; and it will assume responsibility for unelected bodies in Wales, and have powers to reform them and bring them to account.
That means that, in future, decisions on schools, health care and other key services will be taken by people directly elected by, and accountable to, Welsh voters, and therefore responsive to their views. We will be equipping the Assembly to set a new economic agenda for Wales, focused on Welsh needs and priorities, to create the new jobs and industry that Wales still badly needs. Above all else, the Assembly will provide a clear and distinctive voice for Wales.
The Government intend that the Assembly should be a new kind of elected body, open to all talents and close to the people it serves, working in partnership with central and local government, for the benefit of all parts of Wales.
It is the Government's intention to forge a new kind of politics. The Assembly will therefore be based on principles of partnership, democracy and inclusiveness.
First, the Assembly will improve the government of Wales by working in partnership with others, especially Welsh local government. The partnership between the Assembly and local government will ensure that each tier respects the legitimate role of the other.
In making that point, I should like to thank my hon. Friend the Member for Rhondda (Mr. Rogers) for his helpful paper on the proper relationship between the Assembly and local government. Let me tell him and the House that the Assembly will promote and foster local government in Wales; it will regularly review with local government how effectively that commitment is being observed; and it will not be given any new power to take functions away from local government, but will be given powers to transfer functions from quangos to local government. The establishment of the Assembly will give local government a new opportunity to reassert its rightful place as an equal partner in the governance of Wales.
The Assembly will also need to work closely with other key partners, including business and industry and the European institutions. The business community will gain easier access to key decision makers in the Assembly as it pursues its new economic agenda, and the Assembly will listen to the voice of business and respond quickly and effectively to its needs.
The Assembly will foster a new relationship with Europe. The administration of European structural funds is a matter of great importance to us in Wales. That responsibility will pass to the Assembly, which will, in consultation with the Commission, be able to determine priorities for European funding in Wales. Assembly members with executive responsibilities and their officials may, where appropriate, have a role to play in delegations to the Council of Ministers as agreed by the United Kingdom Minister leading those negotiations.
The second principle is democracy. For the first time, the key decisions for Wales will be made by people elected by and democratically accountable to the people of Wales. The executive committee will provide the political leadership of the Assembly, and will be subject to scrutiny through the processes of question and debate. Under the Assembly, policies that matter to people in Wales--education, health and other key public services--will be determined in Wales.
I now turn to the quango state. In recent years, the growth in the number of unelected bodies and some of their activities has caused great concern in Wales. Our proposals for a new and democratic structure of government will address that concern. The Assembly will be given sweeping powers to democratise, and if necessary further restructure, the quangos that remain.
That is a major package of reform, but in the Government's view the need to start the reform of the quango state in Wales is too urgent to be left to await the Assembly. Action is required now, even before the Assembly is established: that point was made forcefully by my hon. Friend the Member for Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney (Mr. Rowlands) in earlier debates. I agree with him, so the Bill establishing the Assembly will, by merging the Welsh Development Agency, the Development Board for Rural Wales and the Land Authority for Wales, create a new economic development agency for Wales. It will be a powerhouse to promote the economic regeneration of our country. It will also transfer Tai Cymru's staff and functions to the Welsh Office, and wind up that body.
We shall also wind up Cardiff Bay development corporation by March 2000, while securing the continuing development of Cardiff Bay. We shall reduce the number of training and enterprise councils in Wales from six to four, and we shall make important changes to national health service administration. The Government have already announced that the number of NHS trusts will be reduced. Today, I can tell the House that the Health Promotion Authority for Wales and the Welsh Health Common Services Authority will be wound up and their functions transferred.
Taken together, those proposals will have a profound effect. Unelected bodies will be reduced in number before the Assembly is established, and placed under proper democratic control and scrutiny once the Assembly is in place. No longer will our key public services lie in the hands of political appointees operating in secret and accountable to no one in Wales.
The third principle I mentioned was inclusiveness.
The Assembly that we propose will have 60 members. Forty of them will be directly elected from parliamentary constituencies through the first-past-the-post system, with 20 additional members to provide an element of proportionality. Voters will be able to vote both for constituency candidates and for party lists for additional members. The Assembly will reflect all Wales in its membership and in its working practices, and its committees will give all political parties in the Assembly the opportunity to make their distinctive contribution to its work. Our proposals for regional committees will give all parts of Wales a stake in the Assembly's success.
I want people of real ability and commitment, representing the widest possible range of interests, to serve in the new Assembly. In particular--although this is not a matter for legislation--it is vital for women to participate more in public life in Wales, and I look forward to seeing a high proportion of women as Assembly members.
Members of the official Opposition have suggested that our proposals in some way threaten the integrity of the United Kingdom. That is simply wrong. Parliament will continue to be responsible for primary legislation for Wales, and there will be no reduction in Wales's representation in Parliament as a result of our establishing the Assembly.
The Secretary of State will continue to represent Welsh interests in the Cabinet, and will participate fully in the Government's formulation of policy. Through his links with the Assembly, he will ensure that Wales's voice is heard more clearly on issues of major importance to Wales. In the same way, Assembly officials--who will be members of the Home civil service--will work in close partnership with officials in other Departments in developing policy proposals. Wales will remain an integral part of the United Kingdom: let there be no doubt of that.
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