Group 5: Commencement (Amendment 10)

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 6:49 pm on 21 January 2020.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Helen Mary Jones Helen Mary Jones Plaid Cymru 6:49, 21 January 2020

I have allowed Darren Millar to make an intervention; I would like him, if he will, to listen to my reply. And my reply is this: the things that the Bill we debated earlier—the Westminster Bill—and this have in common is that, read the wrong way, they both amount to a Westminster power grab. If we pass this amendment, non-devolved bodies, which Janet Finch-Saunders has rightly highlighted, would be able, if they refused to co-operate, to prevent the commencement of a piece of legislation here. I have no reason—no reason at all—to think that either the police or the Crown Prosecution Service in Wales would want to do such a thing, but this amendment makes specific reference to the UK Government needing to do something before legislation that we've passed in this place can be put into place. That's not acceptable. The thing that the two things have in common is an attempt to reduce the power and authority of this place and I for one am not prepared to tolerate either of them.