Gun to the head blows "bits and pieces"

Following on from Monday, the Presiding Officer Dafydd Elis-Thomas has said the Assembly Commission had agreed to all the report's proposals.

The commission, which includes representatives from all four parties, took the decision on behalf of AMs.

Sir Roger Jones's report, Getting it Right for Wales, followed a 10-month investigation of the pay and expenses of AMs.

The report's implementation will mean

• After the next assembly election in 2011, AMs will no longer be able to claim mortgage interest on second homes.
• Some 25 of them will, however, be able to rent accommodation within five miles of the assembly in Cardiff Bay, half the number of AMs currently entitled to a second home allowance.
• AMs will not be able to employ family members in future but any existing arrangements will continue.
• The current link between AMs' pay and MPs' salaries will also be broken.
• AMs' salaries will be increased in line with inflation next year and in future be linked to changes in average earnings in Wales.
• The current "daily allowance" of £30.65 for members on assembly business to spend on meals will also be scrapped "as soon as possible".
  

Lord Elis-Thomas said work would begin "immediately" on implementing the changes.

That these changes have been endorsed during the year in which we mark the tenth anniversary of devolution is a testament to the assembly's maturity and is a signal that the assembly is committed to operating in ways that are right for Wales.

[The report] addresses the contentious issues of remuneration and financial support - issues which have been such a stumbling block to people truly engaging in the democratic process.

But of equal importance, it places a strong emphasis on ensuring the capacity of the assembly and Members to undertake our work - to represent the interests of Wales and its people, make laws for Wales and hold the Welsh government to account.

Earlier, Conservative AM and commission member William Graham told the BBC Wales am.pm that the plans "were agreed with ease" at a meeting on Tuesday evening.

Labour commissioner Lorraine Barrett said there were "bits and pieces" in the report that not all AMs would like, but "you can't unpick it".

Will it be panel beating of a different kind?

An independent panel investigating pay and expenses among members of the Welsh assembly is about to report back.

The findings will come after almost a year of investigation and following recent controversies over expenses.

Panel members have held more than 20 meetings - including two in public - and compared procedures at other parliamentary bodies.

The panel say the aim is to reward AMs fairly for their work, but with the emphasis on transparency.

"We have adopted a number of principles to guide us in our work. One of these is that our recommendations must be based on evidence," said Sir Roger Jones, who chairs the panel.

"We want to get this right - to ensure not only that any new system of pay and allowances is fair, transparent, and recognises and rewards AMs' skills, but also that it provides value for money."
The panel was established in August last year to "look at all aspects of financial support available to AMs."

The independent review panel includes chair Sir Roger Jones, pro-chancellor at Swansea University, Jackie Nickson, a senior human resources manager, Nigel Rudd, the former chief executive of the East Midlands Regional Assembly, and Dafydd Wigley, the former Plaid Cymru president.