I would first like to thank the committee for their work on the Wales Bill and for the comprehensive report produced by the committee. In principle, the move from a conferred-powers to a reserved-powers model is a positive step. However, as pointed out by the committee, the Bill is complex and inaccessible. The move to a reserved-powers model is therefore undermined by that complexity and by the number of reservations included in the Bill. The powers reserved to the UK Government are so extensive as to leave one wondering which areas of legislative competence are left to the Welsh Assembly after all the reservations have been taken into account. The way that the reservations have been drafted lends them to disagreement between the Assembly and the UK Government regarding what is within the competence of the Assembly. The inevitable delay while such issues are being resolved will not aid good or effective government in Wales. That the reservations in some cases do not make sense speaks of a lack of attention and forethought on the part of the UK Government. That legislative competence is being rolled backwards in some cases is particularly alarming. I completely agree with the committee that this Bill does not present a lasting constitutional settlement for Wales. Perhaps if the UK Government had properly consulted this Assembly on the Wales Bill, instead of imposing a new devolution settlement on Wales as if from above, we would not now be greeting this Bill with a big question mark.

However, the repatriation of legislative power from Brussels to the UK gives Wales a golden opportunity to have a mature conversation with the UK Government about the proper apportionment of legislative competence between the UK legislature and the Assembly. The committee was presented with a sow’s ear, and the recommendations valiantly tried to sew it into something meaningful. I would urge the UK Government to give the committee’s recommendations serious consideration. Although, in my opinion, what is required is a root-and-branch rethink and rewrite of the Bill.

My sympathies go to the Presiding Officer, who has the unenviable task of navigating us through this dog’s dinner of a statute once it’s in force. Thank you.