Memorandum submitted by the Welsh Consumer
Council
1. The Welsh Consumer Council is the national,
generalist consumer advocate for Wales. The Council is an "independent
but not autonomous" committee of the London based National
Consumer Council which, along with the Welsh and Scottish Consumer
Councils, was established in 1975 "to promote action for
furthering and safeguarding the interests of consumers, to ensure
that those who take decisions which will affect the consumer can
have a balanced and authoritative view of the interests of consumers
before them, and to insist that the interests of all consumers
including the inarticulate and disadvantaged are taken into account."
2. The work of the Welsh Consumer Council
is substantially focused on influencing consumer and public policy
making in Wales through, for example: membership of the Food Standards
Agency Wales nutrition strategy working group; chairing The Welsh
Assembly Government Working Group on Community Transport; secondment
of a staff member to the Welsh Assembly Government to assist with
work on debt policy; membership of the Board and of key working
groups to the governments Making the Connections public services
reform programme; and extensive engagement with sustainable consumption
and development issues through membership of various working groups.
3. As well as influencing policy making
directly through participating in working groups and other policy-making
fora, the Council has taken forward an extensive research programme
to support and underpin its policy-making functions.
4. Based on our long-running experience
of working with both the Welsh Assembly Government, National Assembly
for Wales and with Government in Whitehall and Westminster, we
would like to put forward our comments on the current review—Devolution:
a decade on.
5. Initially after the devolution settlement
in Wales, there was evidence of Whitehall departments failing
to appreciate the realities of devolution and the continued need
to consult with organisations in Wales over policies that had
UK-wide implications.
6. However, we have observed that this situation
has definitely improved. Although there are still parts of Whitehall
or parts of Whitehall departments who still regularly forget.
7. One of the contributing factors seems
to be the high turnover of civil servants and, therefore, there
is a need to ensure that all induction packages for new staff
fully cover devolution and its implications.
8. The situation is improving, but it is
not yet working as well as it could be.
9. As the Welsh Consumer Council has demonstrated
over many years, consumer organisations have an important role
in ensuring that policy-makers are reminded of the importance
of looking at policy and plans and provision from the consumer
or users point of view.
10. This is, moreover, not an abstract function
for general exhortation, but something that needs to be done on
a case-by-case basis, and with an understanding of particular
policy frameworks and objectives.
11. For those working in Whitehall departments
a clear line of communication with organisations working within
the different political landscape of the devolved nations would
be of real use in enabling them to formulate the best possible
understanding of the implications of policy.
We hope that these comments are useful and look
forward to seeing the progress of the inquiry.
Vivienne Sugar
Chair
April 2007
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