Clause 5 - Referendums: frequency
Regional Assemblies (Preparations) Bill
11:00 am
Mr Philip Hammond (Runnymede and Weybridge, Conservative)
The hon. Gentleman would be right if I were proposing that the decision would be a national one. However, I am proposing that the regional referendums should be held on the same day. The results would not be binding: it would be entirely at the discretion of the Secretary of State whether to proceed further. Nothing in the Bill prevents him from initiating the establishment of an elected regional assembly in a region that had voted against having one, just as nothing requires him to establish an assembly in a region that has voted for one.
Ministers are feeling the pulse of the nation, region by region. Although regional assemblies have a primarily regional dimension and constituency of interest, a wider issue concerns the settlement of the English constitution. The challenge for the Government—