Government of Wales Bill

As I said, this issue is way above my pay grade and I am not going to get involved in any discussion about Assembly Members’ salaries. Let us move on the amendments before us. It is important to the Assembly’s effective functioning that there be a limit on the size of the ““payroll vote””, so clause 51 sets a statutory limit on the size of the Government within the Assembly. The limit prescribed—a combined total of no more than 12 Welsh Ministers and Deputy Welsh Ministers—is consistent with the current arrangement. It seems to work now and I see no reason why it should not work post-May 2007.