6. 4. Legislative Consent Motion on the Wales Bill

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:02 pm on 17 January 2017.

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Photo of Andrew RT Davies Andrew RT Davies Conservative 5:02, 17 January 2017

And I readily admit that I stood in the way of criminal justice and policing coming to this place. I made sure that that was not the case in this particular instance, but where powers made sense to be transferred, I argued for those powers to be transferred. I am particularly pleased to say that income tax will be coming to this institution to make sure that we do have greater accountability in the way the money has been spent in this institution and by the Government. And I do thank the Member for the Rhondda for highlighting the importance of the role that the Conservatives in the Welsh Assembly have played, working with colleagues in Westminster, to make sure that we have brought forward this second Bill that sees a huge transfer of power and responsibilities to this institution. We will never be able to meet your aspiration because we wouldn’t want to meet your aspiration of independence. I will say the word ‘independence’, but what we will make sure we deliver going forward is that this institution and the decisions of this institution are respected and enhanced where they need to be enhanced, and that the will of the people of Wales is carried out by the politicians who sit within this institution.

Alun Cairns deserves a huge amount of credit for the work he, Guto Bebb and Lord Bourne have undertaken over the last weeks and months that they have been in office in Gwydyr House to make sure that this Bill has moved considerably on from where it was back in 2014, I think, if my memory serves me right, when it first came forward. I am more than happy to pay credit to the First Minister as well in the way that he has engaged in the process, and indeed the Presiding Officer and her predecessor, Rosemary Butler, in the way that she conducted the discussions around the way this Bill has come together.

Is any Bill perfect? No, it’s not. But this Bill offers a huge opportunity to actually take responsibility—[Interruption.]—I’ll take the intervention in a minute—over energy, over transport, over electoral arrangements, over income tax: the list goes on.