Welsh Secretary job 'should be reconsidered'

The current Welsh Secretary is Alun Cairns, who was promoted in 2016.

The UK government should reconsider if Wales needs its own cabinet minister after Brexit, MPs have said.

They called for a review to ask whether it is necessary to keep separate departments for Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Leaving the EU means it is time to look again at how devolution works, a House of Commons committee said.

The UK government said it wanted a Brexit deal that worked for the whole of the UK.

A report by the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee (PACAC) said political rows over a key piece of Brexit legislation could have been avoided if the devolved administrations had been involved earlier.

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Twenty years on from devolution, the committee said Whitehall still operates "extensively on the basis of a structure and culture which take little account of the realities of devolution".

Former Welsh Secretary Cheryl Gillan is among the MPs on the committee

It calls for the UK government to publish a Devolution Policy for the Union, and says there should also be a "systematic review" of Whitehall's structure and how it relates to the administrations in the year after Brexit.

"This review should also consider whether the role of the territorial offices in Whitehall and corresponding Secretaries of State are still necessary and, if they are, whether they might be reformed to promote better relations across Whitehall with the devolved administrations," it says.

The committee includes two former Welsh Secretaries among its members: Tory MPs David Jones and Cheryl Gillan.

Welsh and Scottish government ministers accused the UK government of using Brexit as a "power grab" that would weaken devolution last year.

After months of negotiating, a compromise was eventually hammered out with the Welsh Government, but the Scottish Government refused to endorse Westminster's EU Withdrawal Act.

A lack of consultation with Cardiff and Edinburgh before the legislation was published was "highly regrettable", the report said, adding that acting sooner could have "avoided much of the acrimony".

MPs also say people in England risk becoming disconnected from the political system unless its regions are fairly represented.

Bernard Jenkin said the UK's constitutional arrangements need a "re-think"

Decentralising more powers and funding to English authorities and mayors should be considered, it said, as should allowing English regions to join committees of ministers from around the UK.

Complaints that Whitehall has a "tendency to hold on to power and resists devolving" were a "persistent theme" during the inquiry.

Wales' top civil servant - Permanent Secretary Shan Morgan - said "the quality of engagement (with London) had been severely constrained at times by a lack of transparency from the UK government".

PACAC chairman Sir Bernard Jenkin, said: "Leaving the EU will change the UK's constitutional arrangements, so it needs a re-think.

"We recommend the government sets out a clear devolution policy for the Union as we leave the EU. Failure to do this just prolongs misunderstandings which are the basis for more conflict.

"The present machinery for developing inter-governmental relations is flimsy, and there is nothing to give the various parts of England a say.

"Ignoring this risks the future relations within the UK. We set out a path to reconciling differences and building strong relationships across the UK, which recognises that many parts of England have more in common with parts of Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland than they do with London and the South East."

In a statement, the UK government said: "We are committed to securing a deal that works for the entire United Kingdom and have been absolutely clear that when devolved powers are returned from Brussels, the vast majority will go straight to the devolved administrations."

It said officials and ministers were continuing to have meetings with the Welsh and Scottish governments, adding: "All sides have committed to continuing to work together, including building common frameworks so that UK businesses won't face a cliff edge on the day we leave the EU."