Devolution in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland is now an accepted part of the UK's political arrangements. Whilst Westminster might be perceived as losing more powers to Brussels, it is fair to say that elected members in the devolved bodies are only too keen to extend their range of competencies. Recently, the Welsh Assembly Government decided that it should really call itself the Welsh Government, with all the implications that a one word deletion would imply. One change in the area of public policy has surprisingly gone unremarked. Take the environmental issue of the billions of plastic bags given to customers every year by supermarkets. Following a successful measure to reduce usage by the Irish government, The Welsh Assembly voted to add a financial surcharge to every bag used in Wales. Now the Westminster government is taking public representations about adopting its own forms of restrictions on the bags. In Scotland, debates continue about how they might act to curtail the vast consumption of alcohol in the country. How long before Westminster wakes up to the health potential of state intervention? This ability for public policy to cross newly established boundaries of competence and pop up almost anywhere is an aspect of devolution that has yet to attract much academic interest. For those in the public affairs arena, this is an important new factor in the area of issues management that they ignore at their peril. Devolved governments want to be seen to be different - but public policy solutions now seem to be more fluid than the original architects of devolution might have imagined.
Comments