I thank my friend the noble Lord, Lord Anderson, for continuing to move his amendment. I was afraid at one moment that he was seeking to withdraw it before he had actually proposed it, and that would have been entirely disorderly.
I am delighted with the progress of our discussions today. I had a list of three issues that I wished to raise on behalf of myself and my noble friend Lord Wigley, and our colleagues of all parties in the National Assembly. This is the third issue. The response to the previous two has been extremely good, so I am expecting an even better response to this one.
In addition to the points that had already been covered on the reserved powers order and on the recognition for a decision involving tax-raising powers reflecting the agreement of the people of Wales, part of the resolution that was passed unanimously by the National Assembly two weeks ago was a call on the UK Government to give the National Assembly the power to determine its electoral arrangements. The Minister indicated in an earlier response that this might indeed be a matter that would be looked at in the great deliberation before St David’s Day. We are very keen that these arrangements should be agreed before the next Assembly elections so that we are able to benefit from any changes that will take place.
I will call in aid no greater authority than my friend in the Assembly, and a neighbour of my family in the Vale of Glamorgan, the leader of the Opposition. He is not yet the right honourable Andrew RT Davies, but no doubt will be at some stage. He argued strongly on this resolution and said:
“I find it bizarre that we have an institution that has primary legislative competence and that Ministers are appointed by the Crown, but, ultimately, the electoral arrangements for this institution do not reside in this institution. I do believe that that would be a relatively simple Act to undertake”.
I hope the government Front Bench in this House will agree with that analysis.
This issue was also discussed more recently last week, when we had the Constitutional and Legislative Affairs Committee’s report on the inquiry into the disqualification from membership of the Assembly. Both the First Minister and the very distinguished Deputy Presiding Officer, David Melding, agreed entirely with the view that the Assembly should indeed be in charge of its own electoral arrangements.
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I will not quote any further from the record of the Assembly on this matter, but it is clear that that is the unanimous view. I will say something about the use of the two-thirds majority. In an institution of 60 Members, the two-thirds majority is a very useful device to ensure that anything that is agreed, especially of a constitutional nature, is agreed across parties. The present Minister was a Minister in a coalition government between the Liberal Democrats and Welsh Labour in Wales. The cohabitation of those two parties in Wales ensured that the local Assembly could continue. A similar situation occurred between my old party, Plaid Cymru, and Welsh Labour, more recently. The two-thirds majority could be achieved in the Assembly only if there was agreement across more than one party. Very often in constitutional case it has been issues that have been across all parties,
It is in that spirit that we wish to continue to pursue the development of Welsh devolution. I am very grateful for the response we have had from the Minister so far today, and I look forward to Third Reading. I cannot wait.