DWYFOR Meirionnydd MP Liz Saville Roberts has urged the Secretary of State for Wales to make significant changes to the draft Wales Bill before its publication.

On the morning of Wednesday, 3 February the MP addressed the Welsh Grand Committee debating the Draft Wales Bill.

She said: “We have before us a draft Bill which contains provisions which would reverse key parts of the 2011 settlement, clawing back powers from Wales and undermining the recommendations of the cross-party Silk Commission, singling Wales out as a second class nation.

“The Silk Commission voiced hope that a move to a reserved powers model would provide an opportunity to rewrite the settlement and remove the barriers that have impaired devolution in Wales. But the current list of reservations does not reflect that optimism.

“It is clear that the Secretary of State has instead facilitated a Whitehall trawl of powers based on no principles whatsoever.

"If he’s serious about creating a lasting devolution settlement, he cannot allow Whitehall to pick and choose which powers they want.

“The Secretary of State ought to reflect carefully on the significance of what he is building; the task of reshaping Wales’ constitution is far more important than filling a particular time slot in the parliamentary calendar.

“I urge the Secretary of State to take these criticisms on board in the positive spirit in which they are intended, listen to the concerns of everybody around him and come back with a different Bill, one mindful of the 2011 settlement, overwhelmingly endorsed by the people of Wales in a referendum.”