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Government of Wales Bill

moved Amendment No. 98:"Page 67, line 39, at beginning insert ““Subject to subsection (2A),””" The noble Baroness said: In moving Amendment No. 98, I shall speak also to Amendment No. 100. They seek to amend Clause 124, which deals with annual budget motions, the mechanism used to authorise expenditure each year. These are probing amendments. These two amendments concern payments in respect of the work of the Assembly, the Auditor General and the ombudsman. I understand that the cost of the work of those bodies will be overseen by a budget scrutiny process, which will be determined by new standing orders, and in the case of the Auditor General it will be overseen by the Audit Committee by virtue of paragraph 12 of Schedule 8. Clause 124 says that annual budget motions can be moved only by the First Minister or a Welsh Minister. That is fine if they include amounts for the Assembly, the Auditor General and the ombudsman that are in accordance with the budgetary scrutiny procedures, which are independent of Welsh Ministers. But what happens if Ministers allow less than the bodies need? I concede that my amendment is imperfect as it refers to amounts determined by the bodies and clearly the amounts will be determined by budgetary scrutiny procedures as well. But, with the exception of the Auditor General’s expenditure, I could not see where in the Bill provisions were made for the bodies’ budgets to be scrutinised, hence my probing amendment today. Will the Minister explain how the independent resource allocation processes that are essential for functions such as the Auditor General’s are to be protected from the actions of Welsh Ministers? What procedures will be applied in relation to the work of the ombudsman and the Assembly itself? What happens if there is a disagreement with Ministers? I beg to move.