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Annwyl Dafydd, I thank you for your invitation to comment on the White Paper. You will know that I commented as the Opposition Front Bench Spokesman on Welsh Affairs on the day of publication and in response to the Government's Statement which was repeated in the House of Lords (see Hansard 15 June).I would only draw your attention to one further point at this stage, namely the Government's intention (paragraph 3.12, page 21) that there "should be a more consistent approach to drafting legislation for Wales". Implicit in the White Paper and Ministerial replies is that such legislation should allow greater scope for secondary legislation promoted by the National Assembly.You will know that there is substantial opposition to such delegated powers and that the House of Lords has a special committee - the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee - which examines all Bills and draws the attention of the House to Henry VIII clauses that confer such powers in areas and in ways that might cause difficulty.(See for example the Committee's critical comments on the Commissioner for Older People (Wales) Bill where it is proposed that the Commissioner should be appointed by the Assembly on terms decided by that body but should nevertheless have the power to review the Assembly's discharge of certain functions or failure to do so. HL Paper 17, page 2)While it can be argued that Henry VIII clauses give rise to problems only occasionally, nevertheless they are rightly disliked by legislators because of the uncertainties attached to them and the uses to which they may be put. If there is to be more "framework" legislation, it is likely that there will be more Henry VIII type clauses and sooner or later the validity of the entire concept of "framework" legislation will be severely questioned. I do not have a ready made answer to the problem but it would be unwise to ignore it.I am copying this to the Wales Office. Yn gywir iawn Wyn
Roberts of Conwy