COMMONS AMENDMENT (Hansard, 8 September 2004)

§ Lord Evans of Temple Guiting
My Lords, I beg to move that the House do agree with the Commons in their Amendment No. 8. This Commons amendment removes the privilege amendment which was inserted in the Bill in this House at Third Reading. A money resolution was passed immediately after the Second Reading of the Bill in another place on 17 June.
Moved, That the House do agree with the Commons in their Amendment No. 8.—(Lord Evans of Temple Gutting.)

§ Lord Roberts of Conwy
My Lords, any layman looking at what is proposed by this amendment would be very surprised to find that Clause 75(2) is in the Bill at all. It states quite clearly that: Nothing in this Act shall impose any charge on the people or on public funds or vary the amount or incidence of or otherwise alter any such charge in any manner, or affect the assessment, levying, administration or application of any money raised by any such charge". It was obvious from the beginning that this Bill would cost money for various bodies and, ultimately, for the council tax payer. I seem to recollect that the Explanatory Notes acknowledged that and stated that costs of some £985,000 had been identified since the introduction of the Bill.
As the noble Lord has pointed out, this was a privilege amendment which it is conventional to insert into a Bill in the other place before authority has been given by that place for the expenditure of money. However, if more costs have been identified further to those I have mentioned, perhaps the noble Lord would share that information with us. It would be a fitting 638 end to our proceedings on this Welsh audit Bill if we were given such additional information on the costs as may be available.

§ Lord Evans of Temple Guiting
My Lords, it is worth putting on the record what this amendment does. It is a formality and a well established procedure, being an example of what is known as a privilege amendment. It is introduced before a Bill leaves this House and goes to another place in acknowledgment of the convention that all money resolutions are passed in another place permitting public expenditure on matters provided for in legislation. As I have said, a money resolution was passed immediately after the Second Reading of the Bill on 17 June.
The noble Lord, Lord Roberts, is absolutely correct to point out that we have anticipated the set-up costs of the Wales Audit Office to be around £985,000. This has already been reported to both Houses of Parliament. The amount will be met by the budget of the National Assembly for Wales. As regards future costs, the Auditor General for Wales is currently working on his administrative budget for the first year of the body's operation. This will shortly be considered by the Assembly Audit Committee.