Government of Wales Bill

This has been an interesting and, hopefully, brief debate. Clause 97(2) enables the Assembly, in its Standing Orders, to provide for the circumstances in which a particular proposed Measure can come before the Assembly and be taken through a procedure that is different from that set out in clause 97(1). As the hon. Member for Beaconsfield (Mr Grieve) said, there is an equivalent provision in clause 110(2), as regards Bills in the Assembly. I am sympathetic to the concern that we ensure that all Assembly Measures receive proper scrutiny, but clause 97(2) does not circumvent that. Instead, it recognises that there may be circumstances in which the Assembly’s standard scrutiny procedures would not be appropriate because the Measure concerned deals with a matter that requires urgent attention. Animal health, such as foot and mouth, is an example of that. The circumstances would arise when the Assembly has already been given powers to legislate by this place. If a foot and mouth outbreak, or another animal health issue, required it to legislate quickly, clause 97(2) would allow it to truncate the process, as we have done on occasion. I imagine that the Assembly’s Standing Orders set out the time between its equivalent of our Second Reading, Committee stage, and Report and Third Reading—the same stages as we go through. The Standing Orders could be amended to allow the scrutiny process to take place over one or two days. That is sensible. I am sure that the hon. Gentleman accepts that we have included the provision for those purposes. It will be used on rare occasions, but it would be wrong for the Standing Orders not to set out proceedings in which the Assembly can address urgent issues.