Use Of Resources In The Welsh Assembly

EDM number 317 in 2000-01, proposed by Jackie Lawrence on 08/02/2001.

That this House notes with interest that a Conservative spokeman in the National Assembly for Wales wishes to use the precious resources of the Assembly to investigate evidence which would only 'convince us that it is absolutely imperative that Wales continues to hunt'; commends Labour AMs who argued instead that any consideration by the Assembly must look at both sides of the argument; notes that the Conservative proposal is intended to go over ground already covered objectively and in detail in the Burns Report, with the deliberate intention of manipulating the evidence to provide a different outcome; confirms that Welsh honourable Members do listen to the views of Assembly members in the spirit of devolution but then have to take personal responsibility for the way they vote on a non-devolved matter like hunting; and therefore urges both Conservatives and Nationalists to recognise the need to target resources provided by Government sensibly on the urgent needs of Wales in accordance with the devolution settlement and to heed the advice of the Assembly's officials concerned to progress the 'packed programme' for which the Assembly does have responsibility instead of wasting resources duplicating sound research which already exists in relation to an issue which is the responsibility of the UK Government.

This motion has been signed by a total of 16 MPs.