Clause 22 - Duty to secure sufficient childcare for working parents
Childcare Bill
6:15 pm
Beverley Hughes (Minister of State (Children, Young People and Families), Department for Education and Skills; Stretford and Urmston, Labour)
Before we launch into any more of the clauses in part 2, perhaps I could disabuse the hon. Gentleman of his assumption that they are a Westminster imposition on the Welsh Assembly Government. They are not an imposition: they contain measures that the Welsh Assembly Government wanted and are written in the way that they wanted. This is a completely devolved matter, and the phrasing of the clauses was a matter for the Welsh Assembly, just as the task of drafting regulation and guidance, which will fall to the Assembly as a result of the powers that it secures under the Bill, will be a matter for the Assembly. If the hon. Gentleman has complaints about the drafting, he should take them to the Welsh Assembly and have his debate there.
To give just one example, clause 22 replicates clause 6, but there is an extra provision to ensure that sufficient child care provision makes use of the Welsh language. The Welsh Assembly clearly wanted that addition and it is entirely happy with the wording of all the clauses.