---

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

I shall not follow the noble Lord into the intricacies of the political and philosophical field that he is trying to lead me into, but I make the point that I am sure my noble friend Lord Glentoran did not intend to put forward an anti-devolution argument. I shall move on to the second order dealing with consequential modifications. It is a reflection of the new split in Welsh devolution between the legislative Assembly and the Executive in the form of the Welsh Assembly Government, as explained in paragraph 4.7 of the Explanatory Memorandum. Those of us who welcomed that development as a step away from a local government to a central government model of devolution will welcome this order in principle, and I am happy to do so. The proposed modification to the British Nationality Act 1981 to extend Crown service under the Government of the United Kingdom to Crown service under the Welsh Assembly Government seems to encapsulate the change made by the 2006 Act with regard to the status of those who serve the Assembly Government. Some Assembly civil servants work overseas, as indicated in paragraph 11 of the Explanatory Memorandum. I am happy to hear that their families are successful and producing children, but while the modification proposed will certainly place the parents on an equal footing with those who serve the Scottish and Northern Ireland Administrations as well as those serving the United Kingdom Government, I hope fervently that those who are serving the Welsh Assembly Government will work closely with their United Kingdom counterparts locally wherever they may be because there are sometimes considerable benefits to be gained from collaborating and working together, rather than striking out independently. That was certainly my experience over more than 15 years as a Minister in the old Welsh Office when we successfully attracted a great deal of inward investment to Wales with the assistance of colleagues in departments such as the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Department of Trade and Industry. With my noble friend the Duke of Montrose sitting beside me, I am bound to say that on occasion I was very happy to represent Scotland, simply because there was not a Scot in sight. But I sought to do so in the knowledge that if there had been the Scottish Minister, he would have represented Wales in the absence of a Welsh Minister. Incidentally, I would be interested to know how many Welsh Assembly employees work overseas, what they do and where they work. It would also be interesting to know just how the Welsh numbers compare with those relating to Northern Ireland and the Scottish Administration, although I do not think that we will be given those numbers today.