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Government of Wales Bill

The criticisms that have been heaped on that legislation suggest that it was at least four too few, if not 314 too few. On the whole, it is a pretty good process but the problem is that the Government intend to take the detailed scrutiny of the legislation away from this House and to give it to the Welsh Assembly. Not only that, but the process that they are proposing to the Committee to get around the problem of not enacting primary legislation entails a diminution of scrutiny and a raising of the power of the Secretary of State—the Executive—to interfere with the legislative process. Throughout the procedure in part 3, it is the Secretary of State who will be exercising a form of tutelage over the way in which the Welsh Assembly carries out its functions. He has the power to block and to interfere and, in many cases, he will be able to exert influence because he can threaten to stop the procedure. A further difficulty was explained to the House on Second Reading by the Under-Secretary, although I think that he got the procedure wrong.