, Plenary
Questions to the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution
My ministerial colleagues and I have made the Welsh Government's position on the devolution of justice very clear to this Lord Chancellor, his predecessors and many other UK Ministers, and most recently Lord Bellamy, the Under-Secretary for justice, this…
, Plenary
Questions to the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution
Thank you very much for the question.
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Legislative Consent Memorandum on the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill: Ministerial evidence session
Thank you very much.
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Legislative Consent Memorandum on the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill: Ministerial evidence session
I'm hopeful of a response. I'm not hopeful of what that response might contain.
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Legislative Consent Memorandum on the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill: Ministerial evidence session
Not yet.
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Legislative Consent Memorandum on the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill: Ministerial evidence session
We need to persuade the UK Government of the need for significant constitutional reform and for the need to change the way it goes around legislation. There is a need for deeper structural constitutional reform, but there are things the UK—. If we can…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Legislative Consent Memorandum on the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill: Ministerial evidence session
There's going to have to be engagement with stakeholders because we're going to have to have that understanding of some of the steps that have been taken. I think the problem is, at this stage, it's not completely clear who we will be engaging with, to what…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Legislative Consent Memorandum on the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill: Ministerial evidence session
I think it's going to be very busy for constitutional committees as well.
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Legislative Consent Memorandum on the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill: Ministerial evidence session
There are issues, and I don't think it's completely understood the scale of what they might be. We know that within the frameworks, we would expect any changes, any exclusions that were to take place—. Some would be discussed within the correct forums and so…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Legislative Consent Memorandum on the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill: Ministerial evidence session
Well, take, for example, water, and take energy areas as well.
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Legislative Consent Memorandum on the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill: Ministerial evidence session
I think the point you're making is that there are very significant interdependencies. One of the concerns about the point-blank revocation of legislation is that it may be a revocation in respect of England, but there may be implications for Wales. It may not…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Legislative Consent Memorandum on the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill: Ministerial evidence session
Sure.
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Legislative Consent Memorandum on the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill: Ministerial evidence session
It's because the Bill actually contains within it elements of retained EU law, and there may be issues that will arise during this process that need to be addressed; it's just not clear what they might be at this stage.
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Legislative Consent Memorandum on the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill: Ministerial evidence session
The way you protect it is by initiating our own legislation. We either assimilate it, we either retain it, or we amend it through additional legislation. Those are the processes by which we retain it within those devolved areas. The point I think you're…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Legislative Consent Memorandum on the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill: Ministerial evidence session
I think what I would promote is, actually, there has to be a change in the legislative and constitutional arrangement between the nations. That is the way to resolve it. As long as the current arrangement occurs, where UK Government can legislate, where we…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Legislative Consent Memorandum on the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill: Ministerial evidence session
There certainly are issues in terms of the parliamentary process and the way in which devolution works and the legislative process works, and the way in which we often are having to be reactive to UK Government legislation because of the way devolution works…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Legislative Consent Memorandum on the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill: Ministerial evidence session
The way in which Welsh Government resources are used and assessed has obviously got to take account of where work needs to be done, and where resources are actually needed. There are processes where these things are on the radar, on the agenda and are being…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Legislative Consent Memorandum on the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill: Ministerial evidence session
I think there has been engagement in general about the nature of the Bill, and there are issues that are arising and emerging. The difficulty you have is how can we be more specific about what the scale of that is, and there will have to be those—. Once we…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Legislative Consent Memorandum on the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill: Ministerial evidence session
Nothing that has any real evidential base at this stage.
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Legislative Consent Memorandum on the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill: Ministerial evidence session
And the reason I don’t know is because, until further progress is made in the evaluation, until we know what approach UK Government departments are going to take, how much of the legislation they’re going to, perhaps, across the board decide that they will…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Legislative Consent Memorandum on the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill: Ministerial evidence session
Well, I think the answer to that is, 'I don’t know.'
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Legislative Consent Memorandum on the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill: Ministerial evidence session
We will work, and certainly my commitment as well is to do everything that is humanly and reasonably possible, to deliver that programme, our legislative programme, to make sure that that is delivered. I think the question is: how difficult is it going to…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Legislative Consent Memorandum on the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill: Ministerial evidence session
And the engagement with all of those stakeholders—those people who have a direct interest in it and a direct specialist knowledge of some of those areas as well. The starting point is that we will try and set a common platform of no reductions in standards…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Legislative Consent Memorandum on the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill: Ministerial evidence session
We don't want to see any legislation put on the back burner or be slowed down, in effect. We have a narrow window of years in which the legislative programme has to proceed, and we want to see all of that legislation delivered. You can't deny that there is…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Legislative Consent Memorandum on the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill: Ministerial evidence session
Well, we're not planning to shelve anything. We want to deliver the Welsh Government's legislative programme; we want to make sure that we deliver on all of the commitments we've made with regard to legislative reform and so on. That having been said, there…
