My Lords, I want to add just a word or two to what has just been said from the Scottish perspective. I was involved in the consideration of the Scotland Bill that became the Scotland Act 1998, some considerable number of years ago. One of the groups of sections, which is now to be found in Sections 52 to 56 of the Scotland Act 1998, dealt with ministerial functions. The critical section, which is closely aligned with what is proposed in this amendment, is Section 53, which says in subsection (1) that:
“The functions mentioned in subsection (2) shall, so far as they are exercisable within devolved competence”—
those critical words—
“be exercisable by the Scottish Ministers instead of by a Minister of the Crown”.
That was part of the whole structure of the Scotland Act, which, as the noble Baroness, Lady Morgan, has noted, was designed on a reserved powers basis but is very much relevant to what has been designed for Wales today, dealing as it does with the idea that anything to do with devolved competence so far as Ministers are concerned should be within the functions of Scottish Ministers in place of Ministers of the Crown.
The functions listed in subsection (2) were three. The first is,
“those of Her Majesty’s prerogative and other executive functions which are exercisable on behalf of Her Majesty”.
I do not think it is being suggested that that should be done in this case. The second is,
“other functions conferred on a Minister of the Crown by a prerogative instrument”.
The third and important one for the present purpose is,
“functions conferred on a Minister of the Crown by any pre-commencement enactment”.
Those are the words we see echoed in subsection (1) of proposed new Section 58B. We then have a definition in the Scotland Act of what a pre-commencement enactment means, which is exactly as set out in the amendment.
So far as Scotland is concerned, the effect of Section 53 was to achieve complete clarity and make it very simple for those who were designing statutory instruments to give effect to the transfer of functions to find a solid base for what they were proposing to do. Again, I was quite closely involved in observing the way in which the functions were transferred. It seemed to me that the matter went very smoothly, given the clarity set out in the Scotland Act.
Although I certainly am not as fully aware of the position in Scotland as those who have already spoken are, I think, with great respect, that there is great force in the idea that an amendment of this kind should be made. It is part of the development that the noble Lord, Lord Thomas of Gresford, mentioned earlier of progressing the Welsh Assembly and its Ministers into the modern structure that suits the evolving nature of what is now taking place in Wales.