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Government of Wales Bill

moved Amendment No. 54A:"Page 50, line 26, at end insert ““, adopted by resolution of each House of Parliament””" The noble Lord said: Now that we have covered most of the issues in a general way during the debate on the previous amendment, my submissions on the detailed points can be relatively succinct. First, we come to Amendment No. 54A to Clause 92(2), which is a good illustration of the point that I was trying to make about the way that the Bill is drafted when speaking to the previous amendment. We are having to deal with stage two before we go on to stage one. My point is simple. Clause 92(2) states:"““A proposed Assembly measure is enacted by being passed by the Assembly and approved by Her Majesty in Council””." There is no mention of the order being tabled in your Lordships’ House and in another place before being taken to the council for approval. Why? I cannot think of any precedent of that being so in this country. There are precedents for the overseas territories, but, as far as I am aware, there is no precedent for an Order in Council going in front of Her Majesty before it has been treated by either the negative resolution procedure or the affirmative procedure. One can only speculate on why that is so. There are two answers. One is that the Secretary of State has no discretion whatever. Once he or she receives evidence that an Assembly measure has gone through all its stages, the Secretary of State has no alternative but to table it. The other is that the Secretary of State does have discretion whether to say yes or no. If that is so, surely the case for the order being tabled before both Houses of Parliament is overwhelmingly strong. I beg to move.