Background Enhanced legislative powers for the Assembly
14.The White Paper proposed increasing the Assembly’s legislative powers in three ways:
15.The White Paper stated that the new (first stage) approach to the drafting of power-conferring clauses could begin immediately(10). If Parliament approved the proposals, the (second stage) Order in Council mechanism could be in place from immediately after the next Assembly elections in 2007. The third stage in the process could however only be introduced following endorsement of that proposal in a referendum. The White Paper noted that the Government had no current plans to hold such a referendum, but the Bill implementing its proposals should nevertheless provide the powers for one to be held, so as to avoid the need to have to return to Parliament to secure the necessary legislation if it was ever decided to hold one at some future time.