To date, Wales has not had its own Interpretation Act. Rather, we rely on legislation enacted by the UK Parliament in 1978, and later modified in an attempt to take the existence of Welsh legislation into account. In light of our rapidly developing body of Welsh legislation, I believe it is now time to correct that anomaly and to develop our own specific provisions for Wales.

I believe, therefore, as a matter of principle, that our legislation should be accompanied by its own provisions on how it should be interpreted. Furthermore, the 1978 Act is now 40 years old and is in need of modernisation, which we are taking the opportunity to do in our Bill.

Importantly, the existing arrangements do not properly take into account the bilingual nature of our legislation, and the equal status of the Welsh and English language texts. The 1978 Act was, of course, made in English only, and it defines terms in Welsh legislation in the English language only as well. This must be remedied—something I know that was of concern to the Constitutional and Legislative Affairs Committee of the fourth Assembly and the Law Commission.