, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Legislative Consent Memorandum for the Environment Bill: scrutiny of the Minister for Climate Change
Oh yes, we've been very clear indeed. And as I say, one of the nice ways of working like this is that it's absolutely not the case that England is dictating to the rest of us; we're sort of pushing everybody along the path, really.
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Legislative Consent Memorandum for the Environment Bill: scrutiny of the Minister for Climate Change
So, we've only just—. We finished our consultation recently. We're going to publish the responses for that, but our preference is for an all-in scheme, so covering containers up to 3 ft in size—glass and PET plastic bottles, steel and aluminium cans. So…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Legislative Consent Memorandum for the Environment Bill: scrutiny of the Minister for Climate Change
Well, absolutely, Joyce, and one of the things for Wales is that we have of course enshrined that in our law. We've been very clear that we want the Bill to reflect our future generations responsibilities. One of the things about working in this way is not…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Legislative Consent Memorandum for the Environment Bill: scrutiny of the Minister for Climate Change
Yes, absolutely. So, we can have things in Wales that are not present in the other nations. What we'd have to do, though, Llyr, like all of these things, is we'd have to carefully consider the consequences of doing that. There are a range of things, aren't…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Legislative Consent Memorandum for the Environment Bill: scrutiny of the Minister for Climate Change
It is, Llyr—it is expediency. It's slightly trying to futureproof this. None of us expected a global pandemic. I feel like I'm in a Monty Python sketch saying that—nobody expects a global pandemic. But who knows what the next crisis is? We want to be in a…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Legislative Consent Memorandum for the Environment Bill: scrutiny of the Minister for Climate Change
No. So, we have the—. No. We can use the powers as well; we'll all do them together. So, what we're doing is we're looking at having a mirrored set of regulations across the UK. So, we will introduce the same regulations as the Scottish Government will…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Legislative Consent Memorandum for the Environment Bill: scrutiny of the Minister for Climate Change
No, that's not what we're proposing, Delyth. So, the scheme might be identical across the UK, but it will still be a Welsh scheme; it will just be aligned. So, we're not proposing that the UK puts a scheme in place for all of us; we'll have a Welsh scheme. We…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Legislative Consent Memorandum for the Environment Bill: scrutiny of the Minister for Climate Change
I'm personally very much in favour of that, Delyth. I'm not sure this Bill delivers that. This Bill allows us to put a responsibility on to the producer for what they're using in their packaging. It doesn't, as far as I know, unless Howard wants to correct…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Legislative Consent Memorandum for the Environment Bill: scrutiny of the Minister for Climate Change
The way the Bill works is it brings in the power to have an extended producer responsibility scheme on a range of items, rather than one scheme with—. So, it's a case-by-case basis for what we want to look at. The first material we want to have a look at is…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Legislative Consent Memorandum for the Environment Bill: scrutiny of the Minister for Climate Change
There are all kinds of issues with not going at the same time, yes.
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Legislative Consent Memorandum for the Environment Bill: scrutiny of the Minister for Climate Change
One of the things we want is to make sure all the way through that we're engaged, and that the Bill reflects our requirements and that's why we've been tracking it. That's why we're grateful for the committee's engagement on the Bill as well, so you can…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Legislative Consent Memorandum for the Environment Bill: scrutiny of the Minister for Climate Change
Yes, Jenny, that's a very important part of why we want to use the UK Government Bill. So, first of all, we're developing a UK-wide digital waste tracking system. So, the committee, I'm sure, will all be aware—you'll have seen the reports about where UK waste…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Legislative Consent Memorandum for the Environment Bill: scrutiny of the Minister for Climate Change
If at all possible, but as I explained, my portfolio has a very large amount of legislation inside it, so we're in the process of trying to balance all of that about where we are in the legislative programme, so where those Bills sit for Senedd time and…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Legislative Consent Memorandum for the Environment Bill: scrutiny of the Minister for Climate Change
Well, absolutely, definitely, Chair. Although obviously, I'd much prefer to have an Act in place by the end of that period, but no, we don't want to have a gap either. So, we'll make sure that there's some kind of system in place, albeit with all of the…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Legislative Consent Memorandum for the Environment Bill: scrutiny of the Minister for Climate Change
Yes, I entirely agree with that, Huw. It is intended to be an interim measure, rather than not having anything. But, obviously, we want the force of statute behind an environmental protection system, I suppose, for Wales. We have some work to do to make sure…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Legislative Consent Memorandum for the Environment Bill: scrutiny of the Minister for Climate Change
Yes, absolutely. We want to put it in place as soon as possible. We don't want to have a gap in the environmental governance arrangements. And, as Delyth and I were rehearsing in Plenary, we have an interim arrangement in place, but it doesn't have the force…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Legislative Consent Memorandum for the Environment Bill: scrutiny of the Minister for Climate Change
We're hoping to do that, Huw. I'm not in a position yet to promise that, I'm afraid. We're working towards a year 2 Bill. I have to negotiate that with Government colleagues. There's only so much space in the legislative programme, so we're in the normal…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Legislative Consent Memorandum for the Environment Bill: scrutiny of the Minister for Climate Change
We're caught up in the constitutional conversation here with this, aren't we? We're very concerned that we don't do something here that blurs the lines of accountability in a way that would be unhelpful as we negotiate with the UK Government how the devolved…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Legislative Consent Memorandum for the Environment Bill: scrutiny of the Minister for Climate Change
As I said, we're not intending to do that. If it is considered reasonable for a UK-wide approach or there is some uncertainty, then we will have been engaged all the way through. There's been a good process for this Bill. We've also absolutely committed, and…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Legislative Consent Memorandum for the Environment Bill: scrutiny of the Minister for Climate Change
Well, Llyr, we fully intend to exercise the powers ourselves, and it would be very unusual for us to want the UK Government to exercise them for us. If there was some sort of capacity problem, then we would obviously share that with the committee in advance…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Legislative Consent Memorandum for the Environment Bill: scrutiny of the Minister for Climate Change
Absolutely, Chair. Thank you for that. Obviously, we can't control the parliamentary scrutiny timetable, but we have written to request more time for Senedd committees to scrutinise the memorandum on the Bill before the House of Lords Third Reading. We are…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Legislative Consent Memorandum for the Environment Bill: scrutiny of the Minister for Climate Change
Thank you very much, Janet, and just to add my general congratulations to the heap we've got. It's really great to see you in the Chair, Llyr, and welcome to every member of the committee; I look forward to working with you. There are a couple of very…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Legislative Consent Memorandum on the Environment Bill: Evidence session
Thank you very much.
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Legislative Consent Memorandum on the Environment Bill: Evidence session
We'll be off, Huw.
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Legislative Consent Memorandum on the Environment Bill: Evidence session
Pleasure.
