National Assembly for Wales (Legislative Competence) (Agriculture and Rural Development) Order 2009

I thank the Minister for presenting this order so clearly. I do not have a great deal to say about it because, as he explained, it has been extremely well perused by the Welsh Affairs Committee and in your Lordships’ House by our Constitution Committee. I am satisfied that they have probably got it about right and I do not wish to alter it. However, I take issue with a couple of more general points. This is another example of the Welsh Assembly Ministers centralising power, which seems to be a fairly regular habit of those Ministers. I am not sure that we agree with this continued centralisation; in fact, I tend to be rather critical of it so far as the Welsh Assembly is concerned. I do not think that we have yet seen any noticeable benefit from it. The Government say that the legislative competence order system is working well. We do not think that it is. We certainly would not give it more than 75 out of 100. This order was missed out, otherwise it would have been included in previous legislation. The Assembly needs to get on its toes a bit more and not miss things out, and to make sure, looking ahead, that it is getting what it wants in good time. We can then deal with legislation in a more orderly fashion. Having said that, we support—or we certainly do not gainsay—the order.