Government of Wales Bill

Let us move on to that point. We should remember that the Welsh Affairs Committee was unequivocal in saying that"““the Secretary of State’s powers should be limited to refusing Orders in Council on the basis of procedure, and not on the merits of the policy aspiration.””" The Committee did not ask for a referendum. Although the hon. Lady is perfectly entitled to call for a referendum, that is a matter of judgment, and I do not think that it would be appropriate to hold such a referendum. It is the same story with the Government—this is where I respond to the hon. Member for Ribble Valley (Mr. Evans). Lord Richard called the Bill a ““tortuous route”” towards primary powers. We think that part of that tortuous route is putting a referendum between us and equivalence with Scotland. Hon. Members who feel that they cannot trust the Welsh Assembly, or trust the Welsh people to elect a competent Assembly, might want to support a referendum, but those of us who think that devolution means exactly that believe that the House has the authority and the duty to give the Welsh Assembly responsibilities comparable to those in Scotland.