Government of Wales Bill

My Lords, the main feature of these amendments is that they exclude both Houses of this Parliament from the procedure for securing approval for an Order in Council amending the important Schedule 5, which lists the fields where the Assembly has legislative competence. In other words, the amendment would ensure that approval by only the Assembly was required for the statutory instrument containing the order before it was approved by Her Majesty in Council. Orders under Clause 95 may, as subsection (1) makes clear, add, vary or remove any matter relating to one or more of the fields listed in Part 1 of Schedule 5. Orders may also add, vary or remove any field from Part 1 or make changes in Parts 2 and 3, which cover restrictions on Ministers and exceptions to those restrictions. The scope for order-making is, therefore, very extensive and fundamental in the area of legislative competence. It cannot be right that the Assembly and its Government alone decide the extent of their legislative competence without the approval of this Parliament, which is the ultimate source of their power. The absence of parliamentary consent to the Assembly’s exercise of legislative power in an area that properly belongs to this Parliament would be totally unconstitutional. I am not a constitutional lawyer, but I am sure that I am right on this point. The practical consequences do not bear thinking about.