Subject: 9th Report from the Welsh Affairs Committee, Proposed National Assembly for Wales (Legislative Competence) (Welsh Language) Order 2009, HC 348, and its implications for Wales
Secretary of State: I wanted to do this to make a statement of solidarity with the language, its culture and its traditions and I was grateful for the response that it received. I requested this session Mr Jones, of the Welsh Grand Committee, because I believe that it is essential that Parliament gives this order full consideration and thorough scrutiny.
And my honourable friend the member for Pembrokeshire South and Carmarthen, Pembrokeshire and Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire was then of course the Wales office, sorry the other way around Carmarthen West and south Pembrokeshire. I am a little rusty in this role. He and the then assembly business minister Jane Hut? submitted a memorandum of evidence to the Welsh Affairs Committee enquiry into legislative competence orders in 2006, and it stated something very important, I think for our consideration today.
It said and I quote 'It is anticipated that the report of the Welsh Affairs Committee following its pre legislative scrutiny process, would usually be sufficient for the Commons. However, if the proposals were extensive, complex, or of considerable political interest it may be necessary for the Welsh Grand Committee to be convened to debate that report'. And indeed I think he will recall, that he mentioned that possibility and the procedure to be followed in debate in the floor of the house, when taking the government of Wales Bill through the Commons so that is the,
[The leader of the Opposition interrupts]
Secretary of State: Of course
Official Opposition Spokesperson: I am grateful to the Secretary of State and of he is quite right, it is important that on occasions this committee should consider matters of importance to Wales such as of course this draft LCO, but given that there are likely to be very substantial changes to the form of the LCO, does he not agree that really this committee is sitting prematurely. And that we should be considering the substantive draft LCO once it has been produced.
Secretary of State: No I don't, Mr Jones for this very reason, first of all I am anxious subject to proper parliamentary scrutiny, and I agree with the phrase used earlier about Parliament not being a rubber stamp, for any legislative competence order, or anything else for that matter, contrary to some criticisms that have come from up the M4 towards us, from Wales.
I also think that it is important that we recognise the imperative from the Welsh Assembly government to get this Welsh Language Order enacted as soon as possible, so that the assembly itself can begin the task of legislating a measure, to take it into effect, as it wishes to do by the time of the next assembly elections in 2011. And there is quite a tight timetable for that and what I have sought to balance, is the quite proper role of scrutiny that the committee has played invaluably and very importantly in serving this process but also to make sure that the process wasn't delayed.