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Commissioner for Older People (Wales) Bill [HL]

My Lords, the effect of Amendment No. 6 would be to replace the wide powers the Bill gives the commissioner to review the effectiveness of legislation with a rather narrower power merely to review its implementation. That would mean that the commissioner would be unable to review the effectiveness of existing or proposed legislation, and would not, for example, be able to look at whether proposed legislation would be effective in achieving the policy aims that it was designed to fulfil. In the Government’s view, that would restrict rather than enhance the commissioner’s powers, whereas the clause as drafted would encompass all that the noble Lord seeks to include. During our consideration of this amendment in Grand Committee, the noble Lord, Lord Roberts of Conwy, said that,"““we are faced with a new concept of the role of the commissioner in law””.—[Official Report, 18/10/05; col. GC 214.]" I can reassure noble Lords that similar powers to review the adequacy and effectiveness of law have a precedent in other commissioner legislation—in the Commissioner for Children and Young People in Scotland, and the Northern Ireland Commissioner for Children and Young People. I turn to Amendments Nos. 8 and 9. These seek to extend the devolution settlement by giving the commissioner a power to exercise his general functions in Clause 2 in respect of matters that are not devolved to the National Assembly for Wales. We discussed this matter at great length in Grand Committee where I hope I made the Government’s position quite clear. The establishment of the commissioner and the functions of that office must be consistent with the existing constitutional settlement. We absolutely agree that devolution is a process and not an event. That is why the Government will be bringing forward a Bill to address the future directions of the devolution process. I have made the Government’s position absolutely clear on this, and we must wait for the new Bill to debate that direction. Non-devolved functions, as we know, are the responsibility of the UK Government and not the Assembly. It simply would not be appropriate for a commissioner established by the Assembly and for Wales to exercise his general powers in relation to non-devolved matters in the way that these amendments propose. The proper constitutional route, within the devolution settlement as it currently exists, is for the commissioner to make representations on non-devolved matters via the Assembly, as the elected body with democratic responsibility for the people of Wales. The Government hold firm to that view. I stated in Grand Committee that the Assembly Government understand and accept that position, although presumably they—and we—are looking forward to the new Bill, when published. Furthermore, the recent exchange of letters between the Wales Office and the Assembly Ministers, copies of which have been placed in the Library, show the commitment of both to ensuring that the process of dealing with the commissioner’s representations is very effective. For the reasons I have explained, the Government cannot accept the amendment and I invite the noble Lord to withdraw it.