My Lords, I will follow up on my noble friend Lord Howarth’s point on the principles that guided the determination of what should be reserved. To be fair to the Minister, we asked this question before but it was past 10.30 pm so I will give him another opportunity to state on what basis those principles were set—why have they been determined in this way? I underline the point made by many other noble Lords: we know the Minister to be a friend of Wales and that he is doing his very best for Wales. However, it would be interesting to understand why and on what grounds the other departments are making their case on the basis of reserving quite so many powers.
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I express my thanks to the Minister for moving on the important issue of allowing the Welsh Government, if they so choose, to continue to give measures of tax
relief to some of the poorest and most vulnerable members of society in Wales. Responsibility for council tax benefits was transferred to the Welsh Government in April 2013. Unfortunately, when the Tory-Lib Dem Government passed that responsibility over to the Welsh Government, they cut the amount they gave to Wales to fund the scheme by £22 million. Thankfully the Welsh Government, in the face of cuts in the welfare reform bill, decided that the pain would be too much for the poorest in our society in Wales to bear and made up the difference from their own budget, which means that approximately 300,000 households in Wales continue to receive support in meeting their council tax liability and that, of these, around 220,000 will continue to pay no council tax at all. We are grateful that the Minister has conceded on this issue. We hope he will let his colleagues in government know that the need to increase support for some of the poorest members of society may be another area where they could learn lessons from the Welsh Government. I will have pleasure in not moving my Amendment 65 in favour of government Amendment 65A. I thank the Minister for that amendment.
I support Amendment 67C in relation to adoption. As the noble Baroness, Lady Randerson, suggested, the Bill would limit the National Assembly’s competence simply to addressing issues relating to adoption agencies and their functions. That would mean that there is a rollback on current competence, which would inhibit a future Welsh Government’s ability to bring forward legislation. For example, if the Welsh Government wanted to place the Wales Adoption Register on a statutory footing, they could not do so under the Bill. This amendment, relating to adoption, proposes an exception to the reservation which is wide enough to ensure that the National Assembly continues to retain its current level of competence in the field, specifically in respect of the changes to adoption delivered by the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014. That pioneering legislation has led to the setting up of the National Adoption Service for Wales, a fantastic initiative which has reduced the average waiting time in Wales for adoption and offers more children the opportunity to become a part of a loving and supportive family. We would like those powers to continue.
I will also speak on the issue of sports grounds within this group of amendments. It is difficult to see how the safety of sports grounds must be controlled by London, or else the United Kingdom in some way will be imperilled. Why can we not abide by the principle that anything devolved to Scotland or Northern Ireland should also be devolved to Wales? Do the UK Government have the capacity or ability to monitor the safety of sports grounds from London? Do they have the contacts with the devolved fire service or the ambulance services? Again, this is an example of a rollback in Assembly power. I would also be interested to hear the Minister’s response in relation to careers and job search.