My concerns lie in two areas, although there are many other concerns and several things in the bill to which many of us would take exception. So far, there are more than 300 amendments to the bill at Westminster.
We have been working very closely with the Welsh Government: early on, the Scottish and Welsh Governments decided that there are two principal areas of concern. Those concerns arose after we had not been shown the bill while it was being drafted, as would be normal for a bill that requires a legislative consent motion. Usually there is a process between officials who discuss a bill to ensure that it is in a form to which legislative consent can be given. That process did not take place, so when we were finally shown the bill—at the beginning of July, with the bill due to be published in mid-July—we expressed concern about two issues. As a result, I met David Davis the following week, but neither we nor the Welsh Government could persuade the United Kingdom Government to make changes to the bill, at that stage.
The first of the two issues is clause 11, which will transfer to Westminster, rather than to the devolved Parliaments, the powers that exist in the EU that are to do with devolved areas—a list of 111 items. That is unacceptable as far as we are concerned, and there is, across a range of political parties, broad agreement that it is unacceptable. That is an on-going issue.
The second issue is to do with so-called Henry VIII powers. We have concerns about the breadth and exercise of those powers—which we will, undoubtedly, come on to—but there is a specific issue with the powers that are given to the Scottish ministers. Those powers are different from the powers that are given to the United Kingdom ministers, which include the ability to change Scottish legislation without consultation of the Scottish Parliament or the Scottish Government. That would be unacceptable to us.
Those are the two principal areas of concern. We can also talk about a variety of other issues that we find difficult, but in our approach to the matter, we decided—very unusually—to propose with the Welsh Government joint amendments that focus on the areas that are of most concern. It is the only time that we have ever proposed joint amendments to a Westminster bill. Members of the UK Parliament from the Labour Party, the Liberals, the Scottish National Party, Plaid Cymru and the Green Party have lodged amendments on other matters, as have some Tory MPs, but the amendments that we have focused on are those that we have developed jointly with the Welsh Government, and which have been tabled in the House of Commons with the support of all the Opposition parties.