Plaid Cymru will be voting against amendment 8 in group 5, which has been tabled in the name of Janet Finch-Saunders, because it does restrict the Government from introducing the Bill until an impact assessment has been completed and reported back to the Assembly. This is an entirely transparent attempt by the Conservatives to prevent the Bill from passing before the Wales Act is enacted. Under the current powers model, the Assembly has the right to pass the Bill before the Assembly today, but when the Wales Act comes into force, the new powers model will mean that the Assembly won’t have the powers to do that, because industrial relations will be a matter reserved to Westminster.

When Plaid Cymru voted against the Wales Bill in January of this year, we did so because we were of the view that that legislation would roll back powers from this Assembly. Unfortunately, the fact that we are having to pass this trade union Bill before that Act comes into force proves that we were right in that regard. Therefore, Plaid Cymru will vote against this amendment, and we will vote against and oppose any future attempt by the Conservatives in Westminster to take more powers from our national Parliament.