New Clause 3 - Power to send for persons
Public Audit (Wales) Bill [Lords]
4:00 pm
Mr Don Touhig (Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Wales), Department for Constitutional Affairs; Islwyn, Labour/Co-operative)
I thank you, Mr. Griffiths, on behalf of all members of the Committee, for the excellent way in which you have chaired today's proceedings. The fact that we have completed our deliberations by four o'clock is down to your patience, guidance and good humour. I should also like to thank all members of the Committee for their contributions. We have had a good standard of debate.
Opposition Members made an important contribution to the smooth running of the process. The hon. Member for Leominster has done sterling work
and has been up to the task. The information I was able to impart about the Government's intention to seek to remove the prison sanction for a breach of clause 54 will enable him to face his colleagues in the other House; he has gained as much by probing and pressing as they did.
The hon. Members for Caernarfon and for Brecon and Radnorshire also made important contributions. We have completed our deliberations in record time. My especial thanks go to my hon. Friends for their contribution in speeding up the process and ensuring that we have completed our business. I also extend my thanks to the Doorkeepers. I am sure that they are pleased that ensuring that the doors were locked for Divisions proved not to be too great a task. My thanks go also to the police, the Clerks and the Officers for helping us carry out our business today.
We have gone through the Bill fairly quickly, but there have been good speeches and good debates. That demonstrates the value of pre-legislative scrutiny. A great deal of work had already been done in the pre-legislative stage, which helped the Government to make changes and amendments to the Bill before it came before us for final consideration. We all recognise the value of that. It is down to us. Certainly the pre-legislative scrutiny carried out by the Welsh Affairs Committee on Wales-only Bills has been of great value to us all in ensuring that we make better legislation.
Our warmest thanks go to you, Mr. Griffiths. I do not know if we will sit under your chairmanship again before you retire—perhaps you know the date of the general election. Certainly if we are fortunate enough to do so I have no doubt that we will see our business progress in a good and useful way, which will ensure that as legislators we are seen to do our best on behalf of the people whom we represent.