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Government of Wales Bill

The term ““effective”” in this provision relates to the substance of a particular Assembly Measure. I realise that this is a probing amendment, and I am glad that the hon. Gentleman accepts that the other two conditions are straightforward, so that the legislation can be enforced in the courts, and that a Measure could be purely incidental or consequential. However, it is not always clear whether an amendment is purely consequential or incidental. Let us take the example of an Assembly Measure that replaced the current system of listing buildings with a system of ““historic buildings”” or ““heritage buildings””. When work is done on such buildings, or materials are bought for them, under the current system, that is zero-rated. If the Assembly wanted to change the listing system and call it ““heritage buildings””, or whatever, a consequential amendment to value added tax legislation would be needed. There could be a debate whether that would be a purely consequential amendment. If the buildings were reclassified as heritage buildings, we would certainly think the Assembly Measure defective if it changed their position with regard to VAT. That is why we are using the term ““effective””. Clearly it is very constrained, but I hope that my brief comments will reassure the hon. Gentleman of the need to include that word, and he will withdraw his amendment.