Government of Wales Bill

May I welcome you to the Chair, Mr. Gale? The hon. Member for Beaconsfield (Mr. Grieve) is right to say that we rehearsed these arguments last Tuesday. In fact, I wrote to him to clarify some of the points that he wanted clarifying. The purpose of the clause is to ensure that, in emergency circumstances, the Assembly can introduce Bills to address a problem. The hon. Gentleman expresses concerns that perhaps the Standing Orders could be used to truncate the proper scrutiny of the legislation. I am sympathetic to the view that Assembly Acts must receive proper scrutiny, but clause 110(2) will not circumvent that. Instead, it recognises that there may be circumstances in which the Assembly’s standard scrutiny procedures may not be appropriate, because the Bill under consideration requires urgent attention. The important thing is that the Assembly should be able, as the House is, to introduce legislation to address a particularly urgent problem. In my letter to the hon. Gentleman, I referred to the fact that the House had to pass a new Act to delay the local government elections in England because of practical problems that related to foot and mouth disease. That is a good example. I assure him that I am absolutely certain that the Standing Orders will ensure proper scrutiny, although it may well be truncated in order to pass emergency legislation, as happens in the House. On amendment No. 193, both the hon. Member for Beaconsfield and the hon. Member for Meirionnydd Nant Conwy (Mr. Llwyd) make interesting points, but I assure them that the wording will not prevent an Assembly Act from including words in languages other than English and Welsh if their use proves necessary. Bearing in mind that we had a good debate on the issue when we were considering part 3 and following my letter, I urge the hon. Gentleman to withdraw the amendment.