The Constitutional and Legislative Affairs Committee agreed to carry out an inquiry into the practice of Acts of the UK Parliament conferring powers directly on Welsh Ministers as well as related issues such as the operation of Devolution Guidance Notes. It also considered the practice of designating Welsh Ministers to make regulations to implement European Union obligations. The principle under investigation was whether the National Assembly should carry the sole responsibility for delegating such powers to Welsh Ministers.

The terms of reference for the inquiry were to examine:

• the extent of the current National Assembly scrutiny of delegated powers given to Welsh Ministers through provisions in UK Acts and through other statutory mechanisms;
• the extent to which the National Assembly is able to exercise robust scrutiny of such processes through its Standing Orders;
• the relevance of the UK Government’s Devolution Guidance Notes in the light of recent Welsh constitutional developments;
• the procedures for Legislative Consent Motions compared to the position in the other devolved legislatures;
• any other matter relevant to the inquiry.