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Legislative Programme and Budget Statement (Wales)

I am grateful to the right hon. Lady and the hon. Member for Ceredigion for allowing me to do what I did last week at questions. I was assured on 10 May—one of the last days I spent in the Wales Office—that an October referendum was possible; it would be tight, but it was possible. As for the work that had gone on before, in December last year I asked my then officials to consult the Electoral Commission about the whole process. That was preparing well in advance. The Welsh Assembly Government had been working on a question; it was their responsibility to work on the question and to draft different options. However, nobody seriously suggests that there could have been a consultation on the question by the Electoral Commission in the middle of a general election. It was always going to be a matter to come back to after the general election.