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Government of Wales Bill

I shall give my understanding of this matter. Schedule 5 already contains 20 fields, under each of which the National Assembly for Wales will be entitled to bring in an Assembly measure. Such a measure goes through the Assembly and then, unless the Secretary of State intervenes under Clause 100 and stops it—by making,"““an order prohibiting the Clerk from submitting the proposed Assembly Measure for approval by Her Majesty in Council””—" the measure is approved under Clause 101. That is the simple way in which an Assembly measure progresses under any of the 20 fields already in the Bill. Parliament has absolutely no part to play in considering the merits of the policy behind an Assembly measure in an existing field. If the Secretary of State steps in to prevent a measure from going through and makes,"““an order prohibiting the Clerk from submitting the proposed Assembly Measure for approval by Her Majesty in Council””," that order is,"““subject to annulment in pursuance of a resolution of either House of Parliament””," under Clause 100(8). That is the procedure. Clause 94 simply deals with extending those 20 fields to something else—some other area. For example, field 5 is education and training. At the moment, without this Parliament getting involved at all, the Assembly will be able to pass an Assembly measure dealing with education—let us say introducing the 11-plus in Wales. A subsequent Welsh Government could abolish the 11-plus. That is all within the fields of competence in Schedule 5. Schedule 5 does not include energy, for example, and there is no competence at the moment for the National Assembly for Wales to introduce, let us say, a Severn barrage. It would be necessary to obtain an Order in Council under Clause 94 to extend the number of fields from 20 to 21 to put energy in, and then for the Assembly to pass a measure, subject to the right or power of the Secretary of State to stop it. I do not approve of this mechanism, particularly the intervention of the Secretary of State to stop an Assembly measure going through, but that is what it is. In relation to Clause 94, all that we are really debating is extending the 20 fields that Schedule 5 provides so that there are other fields. When the noble Lord, Lord Rowlands, seeks to have the proposed Assembly measure attached to the Order in Council or information about it, that is quite different. The Assembly may not want to bring in an Assembly measure in a field at the moment; it may seek competence in energy but do nothing about a Severn barrage for a number of years.