St Davids Day Agreement – Cameron and Clegg in Wales today to announce greater devolution for Wales

Wales is set to be handed powers that could see fracking banned and allow voting at those 16 under proposals – in proposals being published by the UK Government today(Friday)

David Cameron and Nick Clegg will be in Wales today to announce a package of new powers and commitments on the way forward for Welsh devolution which will represents a step change for Wales and a significant constitutional moment for the UK as a whole, Downing Street says.

It is expected the new powers will be granted by the UK Government in what are being called the St David’s Day agreement and will underline the government’s commitment to deliver cross-party consensus on further devolution to Wales by St David’s Day.

The St David’s Day Agreement will transfer new powers to Wales, enabling the Welsh Assembly to move forward from constitutional debate and focus on delivering economic growth, jobs and prosperity for people in Wales.

While no specific details around the proposals have been released ahead of the announcement today media reports suggest a lowering of the voting age, greater control of energy policy and the Assembly given powers to make some laws.

Speaking ahead of this historic agreement, the Prime Minister David Cameron said:

This is the latest step in finding lasting settlements across the country to make our United Kingdom stronger and fairer. We are delivering on devolution in every part of the UK.

We want to deliver new powers to Wales so that more decisions are taken closer to the people and give greater responsibility to the Welsh Assembly.

That means those who spend taxpayers’ money must be more responsible for raising it.

This is devolution with a purpose, working for Wales.

The Secretary of State for Wales Stephen Crabb announced the Wales devolution programme on 17 November 2014. Mr Crabb led a series of meetings with Westminster leaders from the main political parties in Wales and those in the National Assembly to secure today’s agreement on the best way forward for Welsh devolution.

The Secretary of State for Wales Stephen Crabb said:

This is a strong package that creates the foundations for a stronger, fairer, lasting devolution settlement for Wales. These new powers create an important opportunity for Wales, they are powers with a purpose.

As a UK government we believe in rebalancing the economy to enable wealth to be created more fairly and evenly across the whole country. This St David’s Day package provides a toolkit to help strengthen the economy here in Wales too.

Over the past 6 months the UK government has led major developments in devolution in the United Kingdom, including the Scottish referendum; Smith Commission report; the Devolution Cabinet Committee and work on ‘the English Question’; the Wales Act, and the commitment to devolve corporation tax to Northern Ireland.