§ Mr. Michael Lathamasked the Lord President of the Council whether the proposed Scottish and Welsh Assemblies will in general be responsible for deciding town and country planning appears; and, if so, how he envisages that this power will be exercised by the Welsh Assembly, in the light of the fact that the proposed scheme does not envisage the creation of a Welsh Executive.
§ Mr. Edward ShortOn the first part of the Question the answer is "Yes", except that the responsibility will rest with the Scottish Executive and not the Scottish Assembly. On the second part of the Question I would refer the hon. Member to paragraph 188 of the White Paper "Our changing Democracy: Devolution to Scotland and Wales"—Cmnd. 6348.
§ Mr. Michael Lathamasked the Lord President of the Council what specific powers the Scottish and Welsh Assemblies will have regarding new towns; and whether they will be able to create fresh new towns in Scotland or Wales without the sanction of the Secretary of State, or vary the designated areas for existing new towns, or otherwise substantially alter already approved policies for existing new towns.
§ Mr. Edward ShortHow each of the powers which existing new towns legislation confers on the Secretary of State will be treated is a matter of detail to be settled in the course of preparing the devolution legislation; but I envisage that most of those powers will be transferred to the Scottish and Welsh administrations which would then be in a position to take the action referred to in the second part of the question. In addition, it would be open to the Scottish Assembly to amend or repeal existing legislation on new towns.