Labour AM admits she's not up to the job - German

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Wed 27th Jul 2005

A Labour AM has admitted that she doesn't think her fellow Assembly Members are competent enough to draft their own rules and procedures.

Ann Jones, AM for the Vale of Clwyd, was raising her objections to the Assembly's Legislation Committee's written representation to the Assembly committee which is looking at the White Paper 'Better Governance for Wales'.

Point 7 in the paper, in the name of Legislation Chair Glyn Davies, stated that the committee wished to be "very involved in the Assembly's preparation of its own procedures and Standing Orders in readiness for 2007". In an e-mail response sent yesterday to members of the Legislation Committee, Mrs Jones said that she was "content to allow the Sec of State to oversee the Standing Orders of the Assembly and feel Point 7 is not needed."

Responding to Ann Jones's dismissal of AMs, Mike German Assembly leader of the Welsh Lib Dems said:

"Bizarrely, Ann Jones suggests that the Secretary of State in Westminster should write the standing orders for the Assembly in Cardiff. This Assembly now has six years of experience - we can and should write our own standing orders.

"She clearly doesn't think that she's up to the job of writing these rules and would rather see a hand-me-down set from Peter Hain. The experience she has of her own talents and the Labour Assembly Group's talents shouldn't be used to cast doubt on the rest of the Assembly."