Off the wire
• Taiwan sees decline in industrial output  • 18 killed in air strikes, clashes with IS militants in Iraq  • Roundup: Overseas experts, media praise China's plans to mark end of WWII  • Kiev pledges to ease travel restrictions in E.Ukraine  • 30,000 people rally outside Japan's Diet against war legislation, extension of Diet session  • Roundup: Iran's high legislative body endorses Majlis bill on nuke rights  • Interview: Cooperation in satellite technology put Belgium, China to forefront  • Zimbabwe entity to absorb 100 mln USD bad loans from banks  • Chinese Super League soccer standings  • Turkey, Israel seek resumption of reconciliation talks  
You are here: 　 Home

Time for Wales to have its own parliament: Welsh secretary

Xinhua, June 24, 2015 Adjust font size:

Wales must follow in the footsteps of Scotland with its own tax-raising parliament, Britain's Welsh Secretary Stephen Crabb said in a keynote speech Wednesday in Cardiff.

Currently, Wales has its own directly elected assembly, but it has far fewer powers than the parliament in Edinburgh.

Secretary Crabb used his power as a member of the National Assembly of Wales to set out how a new devolution settlement for Wales would provide the tools to create a full parliament with tax raising powers.

Addressing the 60-strong national assembly, Crabb said: "Devolution is not an endless journey, it is time for the 16-year continuous debate about powers to end and for the Welsh Assembly to become a full parliament.

"The Assembly should assume tax-raising powers and not merely be a spending department. The UK government is empowering cities and local communities to grow and innovate, politicians in Wales must work together in a new era of pragmatism to make sure Wales does not fall behind."

Crabb said he firmly believed the Welsh public was hungry to move forwards as a nation, saying he wanted the assembly to become "a true forum of debate, the articulator of our national ambition... not a vehicle for a never-ending conversation about more powers."

"We are embarking upon a fundamental re-writing of the devolution settlement, the most far reaching and significant package of powers ever devolved to Wales," he added.

"It is now time that the Welsh government demonstrate its commitment to becoming a full and accountable legislature, by making progress on the income tax raising powers that are available to it," he said, adding that the new parliament should focus on how to generate growth, champion innovation, increase productivity, and deliver better public services.

Wales has been promised sweeping new powers under the St. David's Day Agreement, signed on the country's national day. It set out a stronger, clearer and fairer devolution settlement for Wales with sweeping new powers for the Welsh Assembly.

Wales' First Minister Carwyn Jones, effectively the Prime Minister of Wales, said handing income tax powers to the Welsh government was a "logical next step."

Wales has a population of just over 3 million people, well outnumbered by the 9 million sheep and lambs grazing on the famous Welsh hillsides. Endit