Localism Bill (ways and means)

I hope to have satisfied the hon. Lady by the time I have completed my remarks. If not, I am sure that she will let me know. All the Government amendments and new clauses, one way or another, are designed to improve the effectiveness of the Bill, given the range of issues that were raised in Committee, as the Minister of State said, and given outside events, including in particular the passage of the Welsh referendum, which means that some of the provisions that were in prospect earlier on can now be made a reality. To that extent, I hope I can reassure the hon. Member for Carmarthen East and Dinefwr (Jonathan Edwards) that we are not inserting a whole lot of totally new provisions; we are simply making available to the Welsh Executive the same powers that are being made available in England. I hope he finds that somewhat reassuring. We have, where appropriate, taken into account feedback from the consultations that have been carried out on elements of the Bill and representations that we have received from a wide range of organisations that have been interested in—and, in some cases, very excited about—the prospect of the Bill coming into force. There was a broad consensus about the general power of competence, with the concerns that were expressed being about the scope of the powers and the role of the Secretary of State. New clause 12 and the related amendments address those points. Equally, there were debates and discussions about the position of fire and rescue authorities, because they will have similar powers. We have reflected on the concerns raised in Committee and the feedback that we received from industry partners, and we have tabled an amendment on that point. Several amendments make the fire and rescue authority powers applicable in Wales. There was much agreement in the Committee's debate on the Standards Board for England, and we listened carefully and have tabled an amendment. On European Union fines, there was a lot of discussion about the practicalities, but we reached a position whereby people agreed that the intentions behind our proposals on EU infractions were broadly reasonable—I think those were the words of the right hon. Member for Greenwich and Woolwich (Mr Raynsford)—and the debate was more about how this would work in practice.