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Welsh Ministers (Transfer of Functions) (No. 2) Order 2009

My Lords, in contrast, this order is welcome, given that it transfers building standards functions from the Secretary of State to Welsh Ministers. It enables the power to make building regulations and create a Welsh advisory committee. Given the National Assembly’s commitment to sustainability required by the Government of Wales Act 1998, the order is especially important, because it transfers functions under the Sustainable and Secure Buildings Act 2004 and the Climate Change and Sustainable Energy Act 2006. The functions within these Acts will assist Welsh Ministers to meet the carbon-reduction targets of climate-change policies for Wales. The Climate Change Commission for Wales and a promised 3 per cent per annum carbon-reduction target in operation by 2011 will be drivers to achieve objectives for the buildings defined in the order. What distresses me is the time that it has taken to obtain this order to transfer functions—from 29 November 2007 to enactment by the end of 2011. This is an enormous length of time to get a simple piece of legislation through the parliamentary and Assembly procedures. It proves that the clumsy bureaucratic process of transferring functions in the Government of Wales Act 2006 is far too slow, and the sooner that more primary legislative powers are transferred to the Assembly, the better. Part 4 of the 2006 Act needs to be enacted as soon as possible, and a referendum needs to be brought forward, to give the Assembly the new powers. I agree with the opposition Front Bench that the affordability and impact of the regulation need to be examined. However, in my experience in Wales, building companies from the other side of Offa’s Dyke tend to build a lot of executive houses that local people cannot afford. This is not necessarily the disaster that the opposition Front Bench is promulgating. The second order makes changes consequential to the Government of Wales Act 2006. I agree that this contains a much simpler series of technical amendments relating to Acts of Parliament—three in this case. The impact of the 2006 Act on separation of powers from the Assembly and UK Government to the Executive and Welsh Ministers is a desirable reform. The Secretary of State may make modification orders to enactments as he considers appropriate, as a result of the Government of Wales Act 2006. This is a tidying-up exercise. As the Minister said, the modifying enactments are the British Nationality Act 1981, the Constitutional Reform Act 2005 and the Companies Act 2006. The changes are all consequential on the Government of Wales Act 2006, but there is a drip-feed of gradual transferral. Paragraph 7.3 in the Explanatory Memorandum stresses: ""Most of the executive functions of the old Assembly became functions of the Welsh Ministers"," and it sets out the process consequential to the 2006 Act. The new Assembly now has legislative powers to pass Assembly measures for the Executive, who are the Ministers, to have Executive powers. My party agrees with that, but it is a terribly slow process towards giving the Assembly full legislative powers, and we could spend time better ensuring that the Assembly gets those powers as soon as practicable.