Local Government (Wales) Measure 2009 (Consequential Modifications) Order 2010

My noble friend will accept that when one is dealing with major issues in legislative competence, one concentrates on the major issues and that, from time to time, a small, technical dimension may not be included. I would not accept that what is being covered up here is an error or a mistake. It is, rather, that in dealing with the measure and the competence, the measure was concerned with the principles obtaining with regard to local government and this is an aspect of audit. My noble friend will appreciate that this is a distinct and small dimension which is separate from the process of government in the obvious sense. Audit is about scrutiny and holding to account. Within that framework, what is and was being done and obtained is exactly the same as in audits of all devolved Assemblies and of the United Kingdom Government as a whole. If my noble friend will forgive me, I shall shy away on this occasion. I am more than prepared to own up to the very infrequent mistakes that Her Majesty’s Government—this Administration—make; one or two over the past decade come to mind. This one is less an issue of mistake: it is a recognition that something needed to be done because the legislature said that it did not have the competence to do it without an order. Motion agreed.