HC Deb 12 November 1998 vol 319 cc285-6W
Ms Lawrence

To ask the Secretary of State for Wales when he intends to publish the draft of the National Assembly for Wales Transfer of Functions Order. [59873]

Mr. Michael

I am pleased to announce that I have today placed in the Vote Office and the Library of the House the final draft of the Assembly Transfer of Functions Order. I am simultaneously issuing it for public consultation.

The Order transfers virtually all of my functions to the National Assembly for Wales. It lists all the Acts of Parliament under which I currently exercise functions, and transfers those functions to the Assembly. Accompanying the Order is a Technical Guide which details all of the several thousand functions which we will transfer in this way. Copies of the Technical Guide are also in the Vote Office and the Library.

My functions are numerous and wide-ranging, and this means that the Transfer Order and Technical Guide are weighty documents. This is a reflection of the fact that the Assembly will in turn have many important powers; moreover, specifying its functions in this way minimises the risk of future legal challenges as to its vires. I am, though, anxious that there should be widespread understanding about what the Assembly will be able to do. I am therefore also publishing today a short lay person's guide to the Assembly's powers, entitled "Making the Difference in Wales". Copies are, again, in the Vote Office and the Library.

I have been committed from the outset to full transparency and openness in setting up the Assembly. That is why I am issuing this draft and allowing a period of three months for public consultation and comment. During this period, I should be happy to consider any suggestions, whether of a general or detailed nature, which hon. Members might have: the text as it stands is without prejudice to any such suggestions. The Order is, of course, not capable of amendment once it is laid in draft before the House.

My intention is to lay the Order in its agreed form in the new year, and, if the House and the other place approves, to request that it be made before the Easter recess. That should allow the campaign for the first Assembly elections next year to be conducted on the basis of certainty about the extent of the Assembly's powers.