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Government of Wales Bill

I am grateful to the noble Lord. He has, indeed, responded to my amendments as I requested, and it would be churlish of me to do other than thank him most profusely. Perhaps I may make one observation. The object of the six-month period of pre-legislative consideration was in response to what Ministers in another place requested. They deliberately said that they do not want to set down a specific timetable in another place—in your Lordships’ House—because it is entirely a matter for us. A number of noble Lords around the Chamber have said that 60 days for an instrument that cannot be amended for the transfer of perhaps substantial chunks of power from this Parliament to the Welsh Assembly is simply not enough, especially if you engage with the apposite observation of the noble Lord, Lord Richard, that what will shape the Order in Council is a deal between the Welsh Assembly and the Government, not a deal between the Welsh Assembly and the Westminster Parliament. In those circumstances, I should have thought it imperative that the House would have wanted a period of time before the order was tabled in its final form to consider representations from a whole range of parties, some political and some industrial and commercial. I have suggested that the period should be six months, but I am perfectly happy to take views around the Chamber about what the length of that period should be. I know that the noble Lord is impatient to get back. I make one final reflection on his observation about our amendments. He asks: why have such an elaborate procedure every time there is an Order in Council? I think it unlikely, even with the devolutionary enthusiasm that the Government are exhibiting, that there will be that many Orders in Council under Clause 94 because most of the devolved power is already there in Schedule 5. There will be a few Orders in Council on fields, and I should think rather more on matters, but we will not be bombarded with them, and it will not clog up the procedure of your Lordships’ House if we take a little time to look at them and take representations from outside. I am most grateful to the noble Lord.