Wales Bill

Baroness Primarolo Excerpts

Wednesday 30th April 2014 Commons Chamber

[Owen Smith (Pontypridd) (Lab)]

I beg to move amendment 9, page 1, line 5, leave out subsection (1) and insert—

‘(1) GOWA 2006 is amended as follows.

(2) Leave out subsection 3(1) and insert in substitution—

“( ) The poll at an election to the National Assembly for Wales is to be held on a Thursday on a date to be determined by a Resolution of the National Assembly for Wales.”.

( ) Subsection 3(2) is amended by—

(a) leaving out “If the poll is to be held on the first Thursday in May”; and

(b) in paragraph 2(a) by leaving out “that day” and inserting “polling day”.

( ) Leave out sections 4 and 5.

( ) Section 13 is amended by inserting after subsection (1)(c)—

“(1A) The order may not include provision about the date of an election to the Assembly.”.’.

[The Second Deputy Chairman of Ways and Means (Dawn Primarolo)]

With this it will be convenient to discuss the following:

Amendment 30, page 1, line 6, at end insert ‘and after the words “order under”, insert ‘section 1A or’.

Amendment 10, page 1, line 8, at end add—

‘(3) A Resolution of the National Assembly for Wales under subsection (1) may not determine a date for the poll at an election to the Assembly that is the same as the date known or reasonably expected for a parliamentary general election as derived from the provisions of the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011.’.

Amendment 31, page 1, line 8, at end add—

‘(3) After section 3(1) of the GOWA 2006 insert—

(1A) A poll for an ordinary general election to the National Assembly for Wales may not be held within six months of the date of a general election to the United Kingdom Parliament.”.’.

Clause stand part.

[Owen Smith]

It is a pleasure to serve under your Bristolian and neighbourly chairmanship, Ms Primarolo.

Clause 1 relates to the timing of elections to the National Assembly for Wales. It is a response to the five-year term that has now been established for elections to this House. Our amendments 9 and 10 are probing amendments that seek to explore the Government’s willingness to concede the principle that the Assembly needs to have greater control and command over elections to it. That is what we are testing with our amendments.