Assembly will need Houdini's skill to escape Hain's Triple lock

12.00.00am GMT Mon 16th Jan 2006

Welsh Liberal Democrats are warning that the next Welsh Government will need the skills of Houdini to make laws, under Labour's proposals for Assembly powers.

The Government of Wales Bill, which will be debated in the Assembly for the first time tomorrow, would give the Assembly full law-making powers, but only via the most tortuous of routes.

Mike German, Assembly leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats said: "The Government of Wales Bill puts a triple lock on the door to further powers. Mr Hain - when talking the pro-devolution talk - gives the impression that the Assembly will be granted whatever powers it seeks.

"But to make sure the Assembly isn't too ambitious he has put a triple lock on the door. First it has to pass the Secretary of State's approval, then the House of Commons, then the House of Lords. At any one of these stages, a democratically elected Government of Wales could see its ambitions and pledges stymied by politicians from any part of the UK.

"The post-2007 Welsh Government will need the skills of Houdini to make the laws it wants to see. Particularly if it is a non-Labour government, battling the anti-devolutionists in Labour's number at Westminster."

Mr German also raised the issue of how the new bill will impact on the courts in Wales. Echoing a view put forward by leading QC Lord Carlile of Berriew, Mr German said a split in the courts would be inevitable as a result of the new powers.

He said: "Devolution has already had a great impact on the law, but the creation of a law-making parliament in Wales - through the Government of Wales bill - necessitates a Welsh legal system.

"This can be done fairly simply. We do not need to reinvent the wheel. It simply requires the creation of a Welsh division of the High Court. That way, legal rulings in Welsh law could be made, in Wales, up to the Court of Appeal level.

"Much of the law is already devolved. Magistrates Courts, Crown Courts and county courts, Commercial courts, Divisional Courts, The Court of Appeal Criminal Division all sit in Wales at present.

"Peter Hain has said that 75% of powers will be devolved by 2011. If that is the case, then the courts will necessarily follow. If we look at it now we can ensure the split is properly managed, not just done by slip and slide."

Mr German also called for "insulting" references to water in the bill to be removed. Welsh Liberal Democrats want to see clause 100b changed. The clause allows Assembly Measures to be blocked if it: "would have a serious adverse impact on water resources in England, water supply in England or the quality of water in England".

He said: "We are not children. Does anyone seriously think that a future Welsh Government would turn off the taps to England? Or that we would poison the water in our reservoirs?

"The whole bill is shot through with a patronising attitude - but this clause takes the biscuit."

Notes:

A transcript of Lord Carlile's evidence to the Richard Commission, which first put the case for a Welsh division of the High Court can be seen at: http://www.comisiwnrichard.gov.uk/content/template.asp?ID=/content/evidence/oral/lordcarlisle/index-w.asp