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Government of Wales Bill

I shall be very brief. I think that I speak for all sides of the Committee when I thank the noble Lord, Lord Temple-Morris, for his extensive, but necessary, introduction to the amendment. He rightly drew attention to the bonfire of the quangos that was lit by Assembly Government in Wales. Various bodies were tied to the stake, as it were, including the Welsh Arts Council. We also heard on the first day of this Committee about the impending fate of the Welsh Language Board, which is another quango threatened with burning. The impression has been given that the decision was taken without full consideration of the feasibility or the consequences. It was automatically assumed that getting rid of the quangos was a good thing and could be only beneficial. Gradually, people have come to realise that the quangos served a useful purpose and had many high achievements to their credit. In The Times of June 15 last year, Magnus Linklater described the situation in Wales as he understood it. He wrote then—I stress that it was June of last year:"““In Wales, where the Assembly has moved to take over arts funding, there is a dawning realisation that the much maligned Arts Council may, after all, be the best body to take these tricky decisions””." He was referring to the allocation of funds to different organisations. He went on to write:"““I know of no European country that does not have some form of semi-independent organisation to manage its arts policy””." So it seems on the face of it that the Assembly Government have committed an error of judgment and would be well advised to revise their thinking.