National Assembly for Wales (Representation of the People) Order 2007

My Lords, the order cannot be amended, so we hope that any comments that we make tonight are helpful and can be thought about for future legislation. We have consulted the party in Wales, because this applies more to it than to us with the coming Assembly elections. It wants us to raise two points this evening. First, there is no provision in the order for a structure for counting a Welsh Assembly election. Under the 1998 Act, there were such provisions. This in effect means that the count can now be a free-for-all. Some constituencies may choose to count as soon as the polls close; some may choose to wait until the following morning. It does not really serve Welsh democracy well to have a chaotic count following what will surely be an extremely well run election. Are there any plans to introduce such provisions? The Minister has almost answered the second point already. Samples of the ballot papers for both the constituency and regional elections are printed at the back of the order. Are these only indicative of ballot papers that may be produced? Form CK for the constituency election refers to a candidate as ““Liberal Democrat””, but the party in Wales prefers to be referred to on ballot papers in the bilingual form: Welsh Liberal Democrats/Democratiaid Rhyddfrydol Cymru. We are delighted that there is now enough space on the ballot paper for this. Also, the logo of the bird might sometimes be used by itself and at other times as part of the fuller title. I am sure that the Minister is aware of our concern and ready to put our minds at rest. Finally, if the Liberal Democrat Benches had won all our amendments when the Government of Wales Bill was introduced here, we would have not an Assembly but a Senedd, or senate. That cannot be amended. We would have had 80 members instead of 60, to thoroughly scrutinise any legislation going before them. To avoid the great dispute between regional and constituency candidates, and who should stand where, we tried to introduce proportional representation in the form of the single transferable vote. That would have been the answer to the problem. There would have been no uncertainty at all between constituency and list members: all members would have equal validity. We would also have given the Welsh Senedd the same powers as the Scottish Parliament. Noble Lords will remember that we had a long discussion on the subject of water. If the Liberal Democrats had had their way, the Welsh Assembly would have had a voice in the quantity, quality and distribution of water in Wales. It is too late. Her Majesty’s Government decreed otherwise. All we can do is say, ““If only you had listened to us on these Benches, we would have had a much more powerful and thorough Act now””. Elections to the Assembly are to go ahead as outlined in this order. We wish them well, but see them merely as a first step to electing a full and far more democratic Senedd, with far greater responsibilities. The best could well be yet to come.