Part 16 – Miscellaneous amendments relating to the Government of Wales Act 1998
193.The 1998 Act provided for the establishment of the National Assembly for Wales. Unlike the devolution arrangements put in place at the same time in Scotland and Northern Ireland, the 1998 Act did not provide for a separation between the legislature and the executive. Instead, the National Assembly was established as a single corporate body, which exercised its functions on behalf of the Crown. This meant that one organisation, the National Assembly, was responsible for discharging both legislative and executive functions.
194.The Assembly assumed the statutory powers and duties that the Secretary of State for Wales had previously exercised. Provision was made for Orders in Council to transfer these mostly executive responsibilities to the Assembly and subsequent Acts of Parliament conferred additional powers on the Assembly.
195.The Assembly could only make secondary legislation, such as orders and regulations, in devolved areas. It could not make primary legislation for Wales, which remained the UK Parliament’s responsibility in both devolved and reserved areas.
196.In June 2005, the Secretary of State for Wales published a White Paper, Better Governance for Wales(22), which included proposals to effect a formal separation between the executive and legislative branches of the Assembly, reform existing electoral arrangements and increase the legislative powers of the Assembly. The 2006 Act gave effect to the broad policy objectives contained in the White Paper proposals. Although it repealed the majority of the 1998 Act, certain provisions continued to be in force.
197.As noted elsewhere in these Explanatory Notes the Act makes several changes to the remaining provisions of the 1998 Act. Part 16 of this Schedule to the Act also makes a number of miscellaneous amendments to the 1998 Act to remove references to obsolete bodies, remove spent transitional provisions, update certain references to other bodies and remove certain amendments that the 1998 Act made to other enactments because these are no longer needed as a result of repeals and substitutions by later Acts. In particular:
Reform of other Welsh public bodies:
section 28 of the 1998 Act provides a power to the Welsh Ministers to order the transfer of one or more of the functions of bodies listed in Schedule 4 to the 1998 Act. Section 28 is therefore amended to remove reference to Part 2 of Schedule 4, because advisory committees for Wales were provided for by the National Health Service Act 1977, which was repealed with effect from 1 March 2007. Part 2 of Schedule 4 itself is also omitted, for the same reason.
Part 1 of Schedule 4 to the 1998 Act is amended to omit public bodies that no longer exist or, in the case of the reference to the Care Council for Wales, to reflect the change in name of that body to Social Care Wales(23).
Schedule 10 to the 1998 Act makes consequential amendments to the Health Service Commissioners Act 1993. Most of these amendments have been superseded, and the Act will omit them.
Schedule 12 to the 1998 Act deals with minor and consequential amendments to legislation relating to the Public Audit (Wales) Act 2004:
the amendment by the Act to paragraph 17 omits provision amending the Local Government Act 1974 because the amended provision in that Act was repealed by the Public Services Ombudsman (Wales) Act 2005;
the words inserted by paragraph 22 into section 134(3) of the Mental Health Act 1983 were substituted by Public Services Ombudsman (Wales) Act 2005, and paragraphs 21 and 22 are therefore omitted;
similarly, the words inserted by paragraph 36(b) were substituted by the Public Services Ombudsman (Wales) Act 2005 and can now be omitted.
Schedule 16 to the 1998 Act deals with amendments that arise in consequence of the abolition of Housing for Wales. The Act omits:
paragraph 1 because it amends the Friendly and Industrial and Provident Societies Act 1968, which was repealed by the Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014;
paragraph 12 because it amends section 157(4) of the Housing Act 1985 but this subsection was omitted by virtue of the Housing Act 2004;
paragraphs 56 and 57 because they amend the Income and Corporation Taxes Act 1988. The relevant provisions of the 1988 Act were repealed by the Corporation Tax Act 2010;
paragraph 68 because it amends the Housing Act 1988 but the relevant provision was omitted by the Regulation of Registered Social Landlords (Wales) Act 2018;
paragraph 84 because it amends section 9 of the Housing Act 1996 but this was substituted by the Regulation of Registered Social Landlords (Wales) Act 2018;
paragraph 96 because it amends various provisions in Schedule 1 to the Housing Act 1996, which have since been substituted or repealed.
paragraphs 98 to 100 because they amend the Audit Commission Act 1998. That Act was repealed by the Local Audit and Accountability Act 2014.
198.Paragraph 57 of this Schedule to the Act also repeals certain paragraphs in Schedule 10 to the 2006 Act. Those paragraphs amended the 1998 Act to provide for the transfer of certain functions in relation to forestry and the environment from the (then) National Assembly to the Welsh Ministers. Those functions subsequently fell away upon the creation of the Natural Resources Body for Wales, and the underlying provisions of the 1998 Act were repealed(24). The provisions being omitted by the Act are therefore spent.
Section 67(1) of the Regulation and Inspection of Social Care (Wales) Act 2016 provides that section 54 of the Care Standards Act 2000 is repealed. Section 67(2) provides that the body corporate called the Care Council for Wales (established by section 54) is to continue in existence; section 67(3) provides that it is to be renamed, and is to be known as, Social Care Wales.
See the Natural Resources Body for Wales (Functions) Order 2013 (S.I. 2013/755) and the Natural Resources Body for Wales (Consequential Provision) Order 2013 (S.I. 2013/1821)
