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Government of Wales Bill

I cannot forbear commenting on this amendment to Clause 151, a formidable clause that provides for direct intervention by the Secretary of State when it appears to him that the exercise or failure to exercise a function may have a serious adverse effect on water resources, supply or quality in England. He can take over the function himself, and disable anyone else, including Welsh Ministers, from exercising the function. He has to give notice of his action, but that is not really a restraint on his overriding power. Water is, and has been, a sensitive issue, and England draws much of its supply from rivers and sources originating in Wales. The amendment does not surprise me. It seeks to clothe the naked exercise of the power to intervene by the Secretary of State with the veil of representations by him to the Assembly. I do not think for one moment that the Government will accept it, and so we see quite clearly where the ultimate power lies in the scheme of devolution proposed in the Bill. To use a cricketing metaphor, the Secretary of State is the wicketkeeper and the long stop in this clause, as elsewhere in the Bill.