I’m very pleased to speak to this motion to amend Standing Orders and I speak on behalf of the Constitutional and Legislative Affairs Committee and on behalf of Mick Antoniw, the Chair.

In April this year, the Business Committee wrote to us as a committee, seeking our views on the changes being proposed to Standing Orders related to the scrutiny of Orders in Council under section 116C of the Government of Wales Act 2006. Section 116C of the 2006 Act, as you all know, permits the addition or modification, through an Order in Council, of law-making powers for the Assembly in relation to taxation, as David Melding has just said. The Order in Council will specify how the taxation powers are to be changed.   

The Business Committee asked for our views as a committee on whether we saw any reason not to develop an appropriate procedure within Standing Order 27. Standing Order 27 concerns the scrutiny of subordinate legislation. In seeking our views, we were advised by the Business Committee that the Welsh Government considered it to be problematic to mirror Standing Order 25, which sets out the process for scrutinising Orders in Council under section 109 of the 2006 Act. Section 109 concerns modifications to the Assembly’s existing legislative powers. 

Our favoured approach was to include a separate, new Standing Order: Standing Order 25A. We felt that, irrespective of the approach it adopted, a new Standing Order would sit more comfortably within the current structure of our Standing Orders. This would have meant that Standing Orders that relate to acquiring legislative competence, i.e. Standing Orders 25 and 25A, would sit before those related to utilising that competence to make law—Standing Orders 26A, 26B and 26C—and would not come within the ambit of Standing Order 27. This Standing Order concerns scrutiny of subordination legislation that is invariably made as a result of powers delegated from a National Assembly or UK Parliament Act to Welsh Ministers.

As we've said on numerous occasions as a committee, it’s important that laws are accessible to citizens. It is just as important that the way in which the Assembly operates, through its procedures, is accessible too. On that basis, we felt that our solution offered a clearer, neater and more accessible way to proceed. The Finance Committee also questioned whether Standing Orders would be better served by a new stand-alone Standing Order rather than integration into Standing Order 27.

In view of the Business Committee’s decision, we have written to the Welsh Government seeking an explanation why the Welsh Government considered it problematic to subject Orders in Council under section 116C of the 2006 Act to the same scrutiny process as those under section 109, and why the Government felt the new procedure would sit better in Standing Order 27, rather than a newly drafted Standing Order 25A.

We’ve also noted from the Business Committee report that, as part of the commitments given to supplement the process chosen, the Cabinet Secretary will meet with the Chair of our committee to brief him following meetings with the Joint Exchequer Committee. We have therefore sought clarification from the Welsh Government as to why the Cabinet Secretary is meeting the Chair only, rather than the whole committee. The Business Committee has indicated that it will review the effectiveness of the new arrangements in due course and we would be very happy to assist with any review. Thank you very much.