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Government of Wales Bill

I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Kingsland, for his response. When my noble friend said there were two groups, the devolutionists and the restrictionists, I am not sure where he was putting me—in the middle. It is an uncomfortable position to be in the middle. Nevertheless, I think that Amendment No. 64B in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Kingsland, definitely falls in the restrictionist class. I do not consider myself a restrictionist, although I am somewhere between my noble friend and the restrictionists. I raise one other important issue. In the background to the debate on what the content of an Order in Council should be is the question of how these Orders in Council will be scrutinised. My noble friend rightly placed heavy emphasis on pre-legislative scrutiny. I serve on the Constitution Committee. It produced a report and evidence on the Bill. A major concern of the Constitution Committee was how this House will be involved in the process of pre-legislative scrutiny. The Secretary of State who gave evidence to us said that it had to be concurrent with anything that might happen in the other place. What kind of process are we going to use? The Government’s response to our report was that it was in the hands of the House. I do not know who the House is. Is it the usual channels, or is it the Procedure Committee? I ask all those who have spoken today on the role of this House and pre-legislative scrutiny how we will handle this new process, whether it is in six months, in 60 days or within whatever timescale is available. The Constitution Committee poses that question, and I believe that the House has to answer it. I have found this debate to be extremely useful and important. I am still not totally clear about this, but I will read what my noble friend has said about how much information the Order in Council will contain. I simply put on the record—I do not know how much support one would have for it—that Orders in Council should be specific requests to legislate on specific aspects of a field, and we should be very squeamish about receiving orders that are widely drawn and minimally worded. If my noble friend can assure us in this debate—presumably we will have a debate at some stage on Report—I shall be more than happy not to press my amendment to a vote. I beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.