What is the role of the Assembly Committees?
Once a legislative consent memorandum is referred to an Assembly committee, the role of the committee is to consider those provisions of the UK bill which deal with a devolution matter and to report its opinion to the Assembly. The committee has up to 15 days in which to undertake its consideration and to report its opinion. The form that committee scrutiny takes, and the nature of its report, is a matter for the committee itself. The committee does not have to report, however committees endeavour to report in order to inform Assembly Members and debate on a legislative consent motion in plenary.
Given the tight timescale within which committees consider and report on a legislative consent memorandum, when possible the committee will undertake pre-legislative scrutiny in advance of the relevant Bill being introduced at the UK Parliament and/or the Legislative Consent Memorandum being laid in the Assembly. This early engagement may include taking written and/or oral evidence from departmental officials, stakeholders and the public and provides time for the Committee to consider the provisions for which legislative consent may be sought and convey its view to the Minister.
If the committee does not report, a debate on legislative consent may still take place, but normally not sooner than 20 days after the memorandum was laid.
Information about the Assembly committees’ consideration of the legislative consent memorandums referred to them is published on the Assembly’s legislative consent webpages under the link to the relevant Westminster bill. Follow this link to find information about the Westminster bills for which legislative consent memorandums have been laid before the Assembly.
