Conduct Of The Secretary Of State For Wales (No. 3)

EDM number 1023 in 1993-94, proposed by Rhodri Morgan on 14/04/1994.

That this House welcomes the publication on 14th April of the legal notices commencing the Parliamentary Boundary Commission for Wales's public inquiries into new constituency boundaries as evidence that the Government has had to admit defeat in its attempts to gain parliamentary party advantage from the Local Government (Wales) Bill (Lords), now that the Bill has no prospect of receiving Royal Assent by 1st June 1994, the latest date by which the Bill could have triggered the Commission into taking account of the new boundaries of local government in determining the parliamentary constituency boundaries; and regards this outcome as the highly satisfactory denouement of three separate episodes of incompetence by two successive Secretaries of State for Wales, commencing with the delay in publication of the White Paper Cm 2155 on Local Government in Wales until 1st March 1993, by which time it was too late for legislation in that session, followed by introducing the eventual Bill first in another place in December 1993 and culminating in the failure to organise proceedings on the Bill after its First Reading on 7th March 1994 to achieve Royal Assent by 1st June, thereby proving that the Secretary of State for Wales cannot even organise his own carve-ups.

This motion has been signed by a total of 25 MPs.