I am sure we will work together when it is for the best for Wales, but I understand that that is not the case in Cardiff, and Plaid Cymru will, of course, be standing for the arguments that we believe in our hearts to be for the best for Wales.
To reiterate, I ask the shadow Secretary of State for Wales to support our amendment, which will implement what his colleagues in the Welsh Government have been calling for. We have had the prelegislative scrutiny, and the evidence is there. It is clear that we must act to create a new Welsh jurisdiction, and the amendments tabled by Labour would simply kick the issue into the long grass. As I have said, Plaid Cymru is far from alone in making this call. The evidence supports our position and the Labour-run Welsh Government have called for this step—the wording on the amendment paper is theirs.
1.30 pm
I warmly welcome the inclusion of clause 2. It is essentially a Sewel convention for Wales, setting out that the UK Parliament will not normally legislate on devolved matters without the consent of the Assembly. I stress the word “normally” because it brings me to amendment 23, in my name and those of my hon. Friends, which would remove that word from the clause. Quite simply, we do not believe that it is necessary. The UK Parliament should not legislate on devolved matters full stop. Amendment 24 would add an exception to that rule, allowing the UK Government to pass such legislation if there were an imminent risk to national security and the legislation in question specifically addressed that risk. We believe that is a sensible and pragmatic way forward.
Amendments 3 and 4, tabled by the leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats, the hon. Member for Ceredigion (Mr Williams), seek to achieve broadly the same ends as our amendment 25. Ours are probing amendments. It is for the Government to look at them ahead of the Bill’s remaining stages.
I reluctantly welcome clause 4, with its accompanying schedule 4. It is an improvement on the utterly unworkable clause in the draft Bill. I have already mentioned that
preventing the Welsh Government from modifying the functions of public authorities is one of the many complexities included in the Bill as a result of a blind insistence on maintaining the unified legal jurisdiction. Although the clause goes some way to easing the complexity, in my view creating a separate jurisdiction would negate the need for any complexities. As it stands, we have tabled amendments 26 and 27 to the clause; they would add the National Assembly of Wales Commissioner for Standards and the National Assembly for Wales Remuneration Board to the list of so-called Wales public authorities. The amendments speak for themselves and should not be considered controversial.