My Lords, I support the noble Lord, Lord Elystan-Morgan. As long ago as 2004, when the commission that I had the honour of chairing looked at this issue, we came to the conclusion that there was a need—not just a desirability but a need—for the number of Members of the Assembly to be increased. We based that conclusion on the fact that not enough Members were untouched by government—if I may use that phrase—to man the committees in a neutral and oppositional way. If that was true then—and I firmly believe that it was—it is even truer now, and will increasingly be in the future.
The first debate we had today was on whether the Assembly should move to a constitution based on reserved, rather than devolved, powers. Remarkably, the House agreed that we should move to a reserved powers model. Not only that, the Minister gave some pretty strong undertakings that she and the Secretary of State for Wales also took that view and were holding talks to achieve it. If the Assembly moves to that model then the need for an increase in the number of Members of the Assembly is increased. I hesitate to use lawyers’ phrases, but, a fortiori, the argument is underlined and indeed is strengthened.
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I do not know whether the Minister can go this far. I suspect that her sympathies may be at least broadly in line with the amendment in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Elystan-Morgan, but I would not expect her to say that she was prepared to accept it. On the other hand, if the Government are to have a great look at what is to happen by 1 March, particularly on whether or not we should move to reserved powers, could she go so far as to say that, in the course of that review, one of the matters to which the Government will give urgent consideration is the size of the Assembly and whether it should increase from 60 to 80? I am not
going to enter into a bidding war as to the precise number of Assembly Members there should be. In 2004 our figure was 80; I think that 80 is probably my figure now. Having a somewhat incremental view of these matters, I would be reasonably satisfied if we got 80 in this bite.