Government of Wales Bill

There are two points behind our amendments in the group, both of which are crucial to the future capacity and legitimacy of the Welsh Assembly. The first refers to the fundamental point of how big we want the Assembly to be. The Government seem deeply opposed to increasing the size of the institution. Our primary concern is the quality of the scrutiny to which legislation in the Assembly will be subjected. One does not have to be Carol Vorderman to work out the maths. If a party with 30 Members forms the Government of a 60-Member Assembly, and thus appoints 12 Ministers and deputy Ministers along with a presiding officer, it is left with 17 Members to make up a majority on all the Committees. If one accepts that no Committee can be properly run with fewer than eight Members, one is left with a maximum of four Committees. However one does the sums, one is left with an unsatisfactory answer.