UK Parliament / Open data

Water Bill

Proceeding contribution from Hywel Williams (Plaid Cymru) in the House of Commons on Monday, 6 January 2014. It occurred during Debate on bills on Water Bill.

My hon. Friend the Member for Perth and North Perthshire (Pete Wishart) asks from a sedentary position, “What do you think?” The Minister might choose to enlighten us, but possibly not—he would prefer to listen to the Silk commission.

My hon. Friend the Member for Carmarthen East and Dinefwr (Jonathan Edwards) made a point about legislative competencies and borders. In Northern Ireland the matter is not considered problematic, because the national or state boundaries are followed; nor is it considered problematic for legislative competencies to cross the border in the case of Wales. Legislative competency seems to become a problem only when proposed by Plaid Cymru. Of course, it is also proposed by the Labour Welsh Government, but they are not here to make that point. That does not seem particularly fair dealing.

The Minister said that the status quo is the status quo, and that the matter is not devolved because it is not devolved, and presumably it will not be. He gave us no indication of what the Government would eventually propose following Silk. We look forward to that with interest.

On a personal note, I missed many of the sittings of the Public Bill Committee—

Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
573 c72 
Session
2013-14
Chamber / Committee
House of Commons chamber
Legislation
Water Bill 2013-14
Back to top