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Joint Statement from the Joint Ministerial Committee

Joint Statement from the Joint Ministerial Committee

CABINET OFFICE News Release (071-08) issued by The Government News Network on 25 June 2008

A Plenary session of the Joint Ministerial Committee was held in London today.

The meeting was chaired by the Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice, representing the Prime Minister. The participants were the Secretaries of State for Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales; the First Minister and deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland; the First Minister of Scotland and the Scottish Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth; and the First Minister and the Deputy First Minister of Wales.

There was a constructive discussion of current issues. Participants endorsed the value of close cooperation and communication between the administrations, and agreed they should continue with close and regular ministerial engagement through future meetings of the committee in a range of formats.

In a discussion on renewable energy, all the administrations agreed to play their part in helping to meet the renewable energy target for 2020, set within the EU framework, and agreed to work closely together to achieve a step-change increase in the contribution of renewables to energy needs in the next decade. Steps are already under way: Welsh Ministers have already produced a Renewable Energy Route Map, UK Ministers will publish a Renewable Energy Strategy Consultation tomorrow and Scottish and Northern Ireland Ministers will consult in the coming months. Welsh Ministers raised the issue of the transfer of certain energy functions to the Welsh Assembly Government. (Energy matters are generally the responsibility of the UK Government as respects Scotland and Wales, but the devolved administrations have an important role in their area of responsibility in facilitating a shift to renewables).

The Committee also discussed the Marine Bill, which has been published by the Secretary of State for the Environment for consultation; the administrations in Northern Ireland and Scotland plan legislation covering some of the same fields, but aspects of the Bill extend to the United Kingdom as a whole.

All the administrations agreed with the objectives of the Bill to protect and manage better our seas, and that it was desirable to work closely together in developing and operating measures for that purpose. They also agreed that in principle UK-wide or compatible measures were desirable in order to reduce burdens on stakeholders. Scottish and Welsh Ministers both made a case for extensions of devolved authority in this subject area, and said this should be agreed within the timescale of the Bill: the UK Government said that any legislative changes to the devolution settlement needed to be considered separately, and should not stand in the way of the Bill.

The meeting also took stock of the state of relations between the administrations represented. They noted there was a great deal of daily contact at all levels. Nevertheless they believed that good government across the United Kingdom could be improved by their working together more closely still.

They agreed, therefore, to a meeting in the autumn, which, subject to further consideration, might be in a new format, JMC (Domestic), to be chaired by Paul Murphy (carrying out his responsibility for JMC issues within the UK Government, separate from his role as Secretary of State for Wales). Other ministers would participate as appropriate. This meeting could consider a range of domestic issues, paralleling the successful JMC(E) format, which deals with EU issues.

A number of issues connected with finance were raised. These would currently be remitted to further discussions in the finance ministers' quadrilateral or bilaterally with the Treasury as necessary. Account would be taken of the existing dispute resolution mechanisms in the Memorandum of Understanding and Statement of Funding Policy now in force.

The Committee reaffirmed that it should have a role, as set out in the Memorandum of Understanding that established it, in helping resolve differences between administrations, and asked officials to investigate ways in which, consistently with the principles in the MoU, it could best do so. The Committee reviewed in the course of its discussion a number of issues raised by administrations: it asked that these should be taken forward between ministers concerned with a view to resolution.

It also agreed to work on updating the Memorandum of Understanding under which it is established. These issues will be discussed at the meeting in the Autumn.

Notes to Editors

* The Joint Ministerial Committee is an over-arching body provided for in the Memorandum of Understanding between the UK Government and the Devolved Administrations. It includes ministers of the UK Government, and ministers of each of the devolved administrations.

* Earlier this year, the Prime Minister gave Paul Murphy the task of overseeing a new series of JMC meetings.

* The JMC's terms of reference are as follows:
(i) to consider non-devolved matters which impinge on devolved
responsibilities and devolved matters which impinge on non-devolved
responsibilities;
(ii) where the UK Government and the devolved administrations so
agree, to consider devolved matters if it is beneficial to discuss their
respective treatment in the different parts of the United Kingdom;
(iii) to keep the arrangements for liaison between the UK Government
and the devolved administrations under review; and
(iv) to consider disputes between the administrations.

* The JMC is a forum where administrations can discuss issues that in some way concern all four territories - whether they're purely devolved issues, or ones that straddle the boundaries of the UK Government and devolved administrations.

* There have been four meetings of the European formation of the JMC in the last 12 months to discuss current EU business in which the devolved administrations have an interest. The Joint Ministerial Committee has not met in plenary since 2002.

* Ministers from the devolved administrations attend the regular meetings of the Joint Ministerial Committee (Europe) chaired by the Foreign Secretary.

For further information contact the devolved administrations directly.

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