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The package of powers that the UK Government plans to devolve to the National Assembly could be the “last major piece of legislation on Wales for a long time”, according to the man charged with taking the Wales Bill on the final stage of its journey through Parliament.

Lord Bourne – who led the Conservative group in the Assembly for more than a decade and is now a Wales Office minister – has urged AMs not to delay the passing of the landmark legislation.

The Wales Bill must be approved by a vote in the Assembly known as a Legislative Consent Motion (LCM).

Mr Bourne said: “It’s a consensual process. It takes two to tango and if we haven’t got a dancing partner, [if] we haven’t got an LCM we haven’t got any legislation.”

He cautioned against a long delay in granting an LCM, suggesting that the legislation would be lost if a snap election is called in the new year.

“If there were an election, we lose it,” he said. “I mean, I don’t say that is a prospect but we don’t want to lose our position [in] the legislative timetable because of other pressures.”

Mr Bourne gave no hint that major revisions of the Wales Bill will be made, saying: “There may be a little bit of tinkering here and there but I think broadly what we’ve got is what we end up with.”

Police devolution ruled out

(Image: Steve Parsons/PA Wire)

A key criticism has been that the legislation does not contain provisions to give the Assembly responsibility for Wales’ police forces.

Mr Bourne said: “I made it absolutely clear, as has the Secretary of State in the Commons, that we’re not going to be in the business of transferring policing or law and order powers.”

Key measures include giving the AMs control of the Assembly election process and the freedom to change the name of the institution.

The former Mid and West Wales AM said: “What you call yourself is a matter for you. It’s not a matter for us to decide whether you’re going to be the Welsh Parliament.

“It seems logical in many ways but that’s a matter for what is now the Assembly to decide.”

Mr Bourne said this transfer of power “seems very obvious now – I don’t know why we didn’t do it earlier or why Labour didn’t do it earlier”.

Let the AMs decide if candidates should live in Wales

(Image: Peter Bolter)

Former Welsh Secretaries Paul Murphy and Peter Hain have laid an amendment so that people who are not on the electoral roll in Wales would not be able to stand in Assembly elections.

However, Mr Bourne argued this is an issue which the AMs should decide for themselves.

He said: “Instinctively, you would say, as I did, ‘Well, that’s got to be right, hasn’t it? You know, if you don’t live in Wales you shouldn’t be able to stand in Wales.’ This will be something Cardiff Bay can decide.

“We hope they do. It sounds right... But it’s not for me, it’s not for us to decide that – it’s for the Assembly to decide the rules on elections.”

(Image: Rob Browne)

Mr Bourne reckons it will be “no time soon” before there is another item of Welsh legislation on this scale and hopes that its passage will allow a new focus on issues affecting daily life in Wales.

He said: “The overriding thing about this is this a settlement that Wales, I think, will want to live with... Here we are, close to 20 years on from the first referendum.

“It’s time now to settle down and say, ‘Look, we need to move forward and focus on the big issues.’”