My Lords, I support Amendment 21 in the name of the noble Baroness, Lady Smith. I do so as a former Labour Secretary of State for Wales who was responsible for the 2006 devolution Act. Before that, as a Welsh Minister, I, alongside the noble Lord, Lord Wigley, and others, was closely involved in winning the 1997 referendum, which brought in the 1998 devolution Act to establish the Welsh Assembly, now Senedd. I have also lived in Wales for 34 years now.

Welsh Labour’s programme for government in the Senedd includes a commitment to pursue the devolution of powers needed to help reach net zero, including management of the Crown Estate in Wales. The Crown Estate is devolved in Scotland; surely there is no reason why the same powers should not be devolved to Wales, especially by a new Westminster Labour Government committed to partnership rather than confrontation with the devolved Administrations. That was the essence of the Prime Minister’s message to the special summit of the nations and regions last Friday, and in visiting Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland in July within days of moving into Downing Street.

The Independent Commission on the Constitutional Future of Wales recommended that the Crown Estate be devolved, and Welsh Labour is committed to working with UK Labour in government to implement the recommendations from that commission.

Taking control of the management of Crown Estate assets in Wales would allow the Welsh Government greater autonomy over the speed and direction of the development of Welsh-sited Crown Estate property. The Welsh Government would have the opportunity to better align the management of Crown assets in Wales with the needs of Welsh citizens. The management of Crown assets also generates significant revenue to the UK Exchequer. Devolution of the Crown Estate would better align revenues from Wales with the income available for the Welsh Government to deliver on their priorities for Welsh citizens.

Marine planning is a holistic, statutory process for managing the UK’s seas including the seabed. Aligning Welsh marine planning with seabed leasing rounds for new developments, such as renewable energy, would help to ensure joined-up and plan-led decision-making.

Currently, there are stand-alone leasing rounds for certain types of activity, such as offshore wind or marine aggregates extraction. These leasing rounds, which occur from time to time, take account of relevant government policy, but devolution of the Crown Estate to Scotland has allowed a reshaping of the process, whereby the marine planning process sets the overall policy direction with leasing rounds only progressed after it has set national strategic policy. This ensures that marine management is better joined up and delivered. Taking control of the management of the seabed would allow Welsh Government Ministers both to better implement their policy decisions and priorities for the marine area and to ensure that all relevant interests can be reflected in a way that is simply not as possible with a top-heavy, centralised and London-centric agenda.

A key consideration for the devolution of the Crown Estate is, of course, appropriate resources for the Welsh Government. In Scotland, even prior to devolution in 1999, there had already been an established Crown Estate team in Scotland. However, that is not the case in Wales, so this devolution would need to come with the appropriate resource for a new team to manage Crown Estate assets in Wales.

There would also need to be agreement on how Welsh government funding through the Treasury block grant would change as a result of a new revenue stream coming to Wales from income from Crown assets. In Scotland, the adjustment to the Scottish Government block grant is set out in their fiscal framework agreed alongside the adjustment required to account for the devolution of tax powers. Presumably there would need to be a negotiated revised fiscal framework for Wales, and I accept that this will not be done right now, given the tremendous financial pressures that my right honourable friend the Chancellor is grappling with.

The final report of the Independent Commission on the Constitutional Future of Wales recommended that:

“The Welsh and UK Governments should establish an expert group to advise urgently on how the devolution settlement and inter-governmental engagement in relation to energy could be reformed to prepare for rapid technical innovation in energy generation and distribution, to ensure that Wales can maximise its contribution to net zero and to the local generation of renewable energy. The remit of the group should include advising on the options for the devolution of the Crown Estate, which should become the responsibility of the devolved government of Wales as it is in Scotland”.

The commission found that Welsh and UK Governments’ overlapping responsibilities on energy would work much better with stronger consultation and co-operation, with the Welsh Government as an equal partner. The commission concluded that:

“Energy generation and distribution is an area where the binary devolved or reserved nature of the devolution settlement does not sit easily with the practical realities of delivery”.

Huw Irranca-Davies, Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs, told the Senedd on 17 July 2024, that

“we really welcome the opportunity to collaborate now with the UK Government on the proposals and the progression towards the devolution of the Crown Estate in Wales, which remains our aspiration. There are details that have to be worked out on that as well, but I think the positive engagement that we’ve seen so far from the UK Government on maximising the benefits of the way that the Crown Estate operates currently within Wales bodes well for the future”.

In addition to what he said, Rebecca Evans, then Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Energy and Planning, said on 10 July 2024 in the Senedd:

“The Welsh Government has been very clear that we accepted all of the recommendations of the constitutional commission’s report, and we still absolutely accept those. And there are several things for us to be getting on with in that report, such as .... our position on the Crown Estate”.

The Welsh Government added:

“Our longstanding position is that the Crown Estate should be devolved to Wales in line with the position in Scotland. We have been clear that the current devolution settlement for energy limits our ability to deliver policy in Wales in a way that reflects our policy priorities and the needs of future generations. We welcome .... the broader emphasis on improving intergovernmental relations given the interactions between UK government policy and devolved policy with respect to energy and climate change”.

Welsh Labour’s case is that devolving the Crown Estate is vital so that profits from leasing land for energy projects can be retained in Wales as they are in Scotland.

I understand that it has been argued in the past, on behalf of the previous Conservative Government, that introducing a “new entity”—as they described it—to manage the Crown Estate in Wales would

“fragment the market, complicate existing processes, and likely delay further development offshore, undermining investment in Welsh waters”.

Frankly, that reflects old, centralised, conservative, anti-devolution Whitehall thinking.

I hope that there will be fresh thinking from this new Labour Government, although I fully recognise that the impossible financial predicament inherited from the bankrupt Tory Government means that finding the money to devolve management of the Crown Estate to Wales at this time would be very difficult. I also understand that this matter is not currently a priority, given all the other matters on health, education and local government that certainly are. I hope, therefore, that my noble friend the Minister, when he replies, will give me some encouragement that discussions will now take place with Welsh Labour First Minister Eluned Morgan—my noble friend Lady Morgan—and her colleagues on their firm desire to see powers over the Crown Estate devolved to Wales in the future, as they have long been in Scotland.