Government of Wales Bill

moved Amendment No. 36B:"Page 50, line 39, leave out subsection (3)." The noble Lord said: My Lords, Amendment No. 36B seeks to remove from the Bill Clause 92(3), which states:"““The validity of an Assembly Measure is not affected by any invalidity in the Assembly proceedings leading to its enactment””." I shall also speak to Amendments Nos. 36C, 60D and 72A. Amendment No. 36C refers to Clause 92(4), which states:"““Every Assembly Measure is to be judicially noticed””." We also seek to excise that subsection. The language of Clause 92(4) is, if not in terms then in intent, repeated in Clause 101(4) and Clause 114(7). One thing established by the exchanges on the previous amendment is that both the Government and we, ourselves, accept that the procedure that we are considering is subordinate. If that is so, what on earth are subsections (3) and (4) of Clause 92 doing in the Bill? It is true that the same provisions appear in both the Scottish and the Northern Irish devolution Acts—an identical provision to Clause 92(3), for example, appears in Section 28(5) of the Scotland Act 1998 and in Section 5(5) of the Northern Ireland Act 1998. But the nature of the devolution in Northern Ireland and Scotland is quite distinct from the nature of the devolution that we are entertaining in Part 3 of this Bill. It is clear from those Acts that primary legislative powers have been devolved to the Scotland and the Northern Ireland Parliaments and therefore it is appropriate that a provision like Clause 92(3) should appear in that legislation. Exactly the same common law rule applies to our own Parliament. However, since the Government have now accepted that the legislative process under Part 3 is subordinate, surely subsections (3) and (4) of Clause 92 have no place in the proceedings of the Welsh Assembly. Because subordinate legislation is being determined in relation to a statutory framework decided under Clause 94, procedural defects in the making of that legislation ought to be the basis for judicial intervention, as is true for all subordinate measures. These amendments reflect the logic of the Government’s assertion in all our debates so far that this is subordinate legislation. I beg to move.