Wales Bill

Baroness Randerson Excerpts

Monday 7th November 2016 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Morgan of Ely]

I can move it, if noble Lords would like that. Is that acceptable? The issue addressed by this group of amendments is that of the trust ports.

The Bill as drafted enables the Assembly to legislate on ports and harbours and transfers additional executive functions in respect of them from the Secretary of State to Welsh Ministers. This is in line with the Silk recommendations and the St David’s Day announcement. However, the Bill also creates a specific category of reserved trust ports which reach a certain turnover threshold on which the Assembly cannot legislate and over which Welsh Ministers cannot exercise any powers. Therefore, the Welsh Assembly is able to legislate on almost all ports, but a significant one is missing. This reservation was absent from both the St David’s Day Command Paper and the Silk report. Currently, the only Welsh port to reach the threshold stated in the Bill is Milford Haven in Pembrokeshire. The UK Government’s justification for this peculiar reservation is the strategic significance of Milford Haven as a key energy port. They point to the fact that 62% of all liquid natural gas that comes through UK ports is handled by Milford Haven and that the oil refinery and fuel storage facilities at the haven, which are dependent on the port, play an important role in securing supplies of road and aviation fuel.

That is especially odd considering that the UK Government declined to cite energy security as a policy driver for investment in Milford Haven to support the sale of the Murco refinery in 2014. It is worth noting that the trust port of Aberdeen, which could be seen to have a strategic significance equal to that of Milford Haven due to the importance of North Sea oil to the UK, is under the control of the Scottish Government. There is an element of double standards at work here. In Scotland, all ports and harbours are devolved, including Aberdeen.

Reserving the port also brings into play the danger that the UK Government could in future privatise the port authority against the wishes of the people and the National Assembly. Some have already noted their concern about the potential for asset-stripping and fragmentation, were that to occur. Removing any reservation regarding Milford Haven would safeguard from privatisation what some have called “The People’s Port”. It would also bring the Welsh Government’s devolved powers with respect to ports and harbours in line with those of Scotland, with the Silk report and with the St David’s Day announcement. I am therefore proposing amendments that would remove the concept of a “reserved trust port” from the Bill, which would enable the National Assembly to have competence in respect of all trust ports in Wales.

I should like to touch briefly on another amendment in this group, concerning coastguards. There is no rhyme or reason to discuss it here but it is included in this group. I think it is asking the Secretary of State very little to consult Welsh Ministers on the strategic priorities of the coastguard in Wales. This is done in Scotland and perhaps the Minister could comment on that.

[Baroness Randerson (LD)]

My Lords, I support the noble Baroness’s comments. I really cannot see any shadow of logic behind the exception being given to Milford Haven. It makes no economic sense to give the Assembly the power over all the other ports but to make this the one exception. Of course, the exception hurts all the more because, by some strange coincidence, it just happens to be the largest port in Wales.

I strongly believe that Welsh devolution should not be a slavish mirror of Scottish devolution. I accept that there is a long and well-populated border between Wales and England, and it is not always the case that what is good for Scotland is good for Wales. However, I can see absolutely no reason why Milford Haven, which is about as far from the border as you could possibly get, should not be subject to the same kinds of rules to which Aberdeen is subject. It is clearly inconsistent for the Scottish Government but not the Welsh Government to be given this power, and I fear that, yet again, it is a case of Wales being treated as second class.

I also fear that we are going to come across dozens of examples—if not today then certainly in next week’s debates—of the Government simply mirroring the existing messy settlement in the long list of reservations. That will not provide the stable settlement I had hoped the Bill would achieve, and which I believe many of the Bill’s architects had originally hoped for. Therefore, I very much hope that the Government will use the opportunity between Committee and Report to think again about this issue.

[Lord Crickhowell]

My Lords, for 17 years I was the Member of Parliament for Pembroke and I had very detailed and involved discussions—and sometimes arguments—with the trust board at Milford Haven. Undoubtedly it is a strategic port. Gas imports are important, and the port’s position at the end of the oil pipeline that conveys the gas to the rest of Britain is clearly of great significance. However, from time to time I had profound disagreements with the port authorities, not least on safety matters, and I frequently urged the UK Government to interfere and take action, which on a number of occasions they were reluctant to do. The Welsh Government might be more likely to give attention to those concerns than the UK Government.

I remain completely open-minded on this issue. As I said, I understand the strategic significance but, on the face of it and on the basis of my experience, I am not entirely convinced that the job could not be done by the Government of Wales. Therefore, I will listen with considerable interest to the case made by my noble friend. I am quite prepared to be persuaded, but I think that a legitimate case is being advanced here and we need to know the exact reasons for the Government’s decision.