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Government of Wales Bill

moved Amendment No. 51:"Page 42, line 6, leave out from ““must”” to end of line and insert ““have it approved by the Senedd by a simple majority of those voting before it comes into effect””" The noble Lord said: Amendment No. 51 refers to Clause 74 which concerns regulatory impact assessments. It is an important matter as, if the regulations and legislation are not working properly, they have to be sorted out and expedited. The ability of the Assembly to attempt to resolve these matters in the interests of the effective governance of Wales is very important indeed. Assembly Members may, in some circumstances, be the victims of inadequate regulations which may have an adverse impact on their constituents. If one looks at the regulatory impact assessments, our amendment would require that a code or revisions under subsection (5) must be approved by a simple vote of the Assembly. We wish to ensure that the Assembly gets its head around this matter and, indeed, agrees with the code. This would clearly be an improvement on what happened previously and which necessitated this Bill. We believe that the Assembly can express an opinion in this respect on regulatory impact assessments. Amendment No. 52 refers to sustainability. Under it, the copy of the report would have to be approved by the Senedd by a simple majority of those voting. Sustainable development is a very important function of the Assembly and was enshrined in the 1988 Act. For example, a report could contain many statements or evaluations of projects in Wales which might not in fact be sustainable. I can give your Lordships two examples of this. One is the much talked about Severn barrage. We know of the excellent work done in Swansea University on tidal lagoons. There is clearly an issue as to whether the tidal lagoon idea along the banks of the Severn estuary might be a better and more sustainable answer than the Severn barrage, while producing the same amount of power. That is an important issue. Another current issue—which is outside the Assembly’s power but, none the less, it could pass an opinion on it—concerns the gas pipelines that are being taken from gas holders in Milford Haven through national parks. That could affect the sustainability of the national parks and would certainly have an impact on the landscape. If the report does not meet sustainable development objectives, the Assembly may wish to reject it. Alternatively, however, if courageous decisions have been made which are contained in the report, it can rightly be endorsed by the Assembly which can express its opinion through a vote. I beg to move.