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.