Government of Wales Bill

My Lords, I wish to concentrate on what I regard as the basic postulate of the case put forward with such charm and lucidity by the noble Lord, Lord Kingsland. His case—I hope that I do justice to it—is that this is essentially primary legislation that Parliament is not entitled to deal with in the normal way. If he is correct in that, it is a serious charge that deserves to be answered by some change in the whole structure or in some other way. However, with very great respect, I believe that he is wrong. That is not only my personal view—I shall quote from page 65 of the Explanatory Notes. As I understand it, these notes are drawn up in a neutral way by people of considerable expertise and experience who try as best they possibly can to set out an accurate legal position. If they are wrong it would be contrary to the experience of Parliament in relation to the standard of Explanatory Notes. Paragraph 320 states: ““This clause””—that is, Clause 92—"““confers on the Assembly the power to make a type of subordinate legislation in relation to Wales””." I quoted that previously in Committee and I went on to quote further the statement later in the same paragraph to the effect that of course the Westminster Parliament still has a parallel right to legislate. I was chided mildly but politely and firmly by the noble Lord, Lord Norton, in an intervention lasting seconds rather than minutes. I do not know whether it was my unnatural shyness or the onset of early arthritis but I did not manage to get my feet in time to intervene. He was entirely wrong to say that that was a flawed argument. I was not at all arguing the point about Westminster’s right to legislate; I was relying on the considered, objective, competent opinion of the compilers of the Explanatory Notes. If I am right about that, the case put forward so attractively by the noble Lord, Lord Kingsland, falls.