, Plenary
Statement by the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution: Publication of the Electoral Administration and Reform White Paper
Thank you, Dirprwy Lywydd. Today I present our electoral administration and reform White Paper. In this paper, we consult on our proposals for electoral reform and the next steps for modernising electoral administration in Wales. The consultation will run…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Scrutiny session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution, and the Permanent Secretary to the Welsh Government
I do have the feeling that I sort of live in this committee room. [Laughter.]
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Scrutiny session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution, and the Permanent Secretary to the Welsh Government
The answer is it depends in many ways on what the format of the Bill is going to be, because, at the moment, there are a number of areas where it gives powers to UK Government to legislate in devolved areas. The discussions I've had with the relevant Minister…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Scrutiny session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution, and the Permanent Secretary to the Welsh Government
Well, can I say, I try and have an overview in terms of everything that's happening, and I have a number of criteria in terms of to what extent does this impinge or impact on devolution integrity, as I call it, however you define that. And ultimately, if a…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Scrutiny session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution, and the Permanent Secretary to the Welsh Government
No, but what we have is a process where legislation is initiated that we are required by our Standing Orders to respond to, and that therefore means that we end up with an LCM process. And you're right, it is a lesser form of scrutiny, but it is part of the…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Scrutiny session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution, and the Permanent Secretary to the Welsh Government
Well, can I say, I don't disagree with that, but that is not the nature of the legislative constitutional arrangement we have, because we don't have a proper federalised structure, which is something I would advocate that we ought to have. We don't have an…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Scrutiny session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution, and the Permanent Secretary to the Welsh Government
Well, if we were to bring forward specific legislation in that particular area, the question is whether it would be justifiable to say to people who are in a similar position that you've got lesser rights until that legislation comes forward than in England…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Scrutiny session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution, and the Permanent Secretary to the Welsh Government
Well, that example, the example of building safety, is an area that is important, is covered by the manifesto, and not all elements of the legislative programme have yet been announced.
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Scrutiny session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution, and the Permanent Secretary to the Welsh Government
No, we determine our priorities by virtue of the manifesto we have and our own legislative programme. That is what our priority is. The things that emerge out of the UK Government's legislative programme are the things that we have to make judgments on in…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Scrutiny session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution, and the Permanent Secretary to the Welsh Government
The consequence of what you're suggesting is that, effectively, we divert an enormous part of our capacity to legislate to what is determined by the UK Government in terms of what their priorities are and what their legislative programme is. So, if our role…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Scrutiny session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution, and the Permanent Secretary to the Welsh Government
—it is a judgment as to what that the importance and priority of that is. I don't think it is a case that whole-scale legislation, other than, I think, in exceptional circumstances, would take place.
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Scrutiny session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution, and the Permanent Secretary to the Welsh Government
Can I just say I think the way you've presented that actually distorts what I'm saying? It's something that I fundamentally disagree with you on. If, for example, when the UK Government is proposing to extend the limitation period in respect of legal actions…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Scrutiny session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution, and the Permanent Secretary to the Welsh Government
What I mean is there may be an issue that emerges in a Bill that is being decided by the UK Government, so it's not something that we have proactively sought, but it may be that there's an element in it that relates to or that is beneficial to Wales. Now, the…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Scrutiny session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution, and the Permanent Secretary to the Welsh Government
I think having bespoke is, actually, really important, because I don't think—. You can't go out there; even with experienced and very highly qualified counsel, there is a continual learning process, and you almost have to be engaged within the specialisms of…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Scrutiny session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution, and the Permanent Secretary to the Welsh Government
I really have to rush; I've literally got meetings one after the other.
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Scrutiny session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution, and the Permanent Secretary to the Welsh Government
I think much comes back, as invariably happens, to Sewel and the understanding of Sewel. We have the inter-ministerial council. There was meant to have been one a week or two ago, but that has been delayed. We've obviously had the new premiership, and, I…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Scrutiny session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution, and the Permanent Secretary to the Welsh Government
When a particular proposal for legislation is announced, there are engagements between officials. The quality of those engagements and the scale of engagement depends, firstly, on what those officials know about what the Government actually wants to do, but…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Scrutiny session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution, and the Permanent Secretary to the Welsh Government
It's a good question, and it's very difficult to answer, because one of the problems with what happens with the UK Government's legislative programme is, firstly, we are normally only given an indication of some pieces of legislation that might appear in the…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Scrutiny session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution, and the Permanent Secretary to the Welsh Government
Very, very rarely, because I've certainly not been involved in situations where I'm saying, 'Well, let's go to the UK Government to see if they can do this stuff.' That just doesn't happen. But what does happen is, of course, when the UK Government sets out…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Scrutiny session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution, and the Permanent Secretary to the Welsh Government
Yes, just to come in and say that one of my functions as Counsel General is to chair the Cabinet committee on the legislative programme. That basically looks at all the legislation that is going through. It looks at what all the demands are, it looks at the…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Scrutiny session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution, and the Permanent Secretary to the Welsh Government
I think—
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Scrutiny session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution, and the Permanent Secretary to the Welsh Government
No, I don't think you can say that, because the skills and the resources, the people, the policy people and so on that are involved in the legislative process are all managed as appropriate with regard to what the programme for government is and what the…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Scrutiny session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution, and the Permanent Secretary to the Welsh Government
Look, the most tangible examples are clearly where we've had to deal with COVID and where we've had to deal with Brexit. Those have taken up an enormous chunk of resources and particular skills as well, because the resource is, to some extent, the quality…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Scrutiny session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution, and the Permanent Secretary to the Welsh Government
Thank you for the question. The issue of resources is a complex one, because you've got to start off with saying what are the resources that you actually do have and you actually need in legislating. You also need to have a view as to how those demands change…
, Plenary
Questions to the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution
It really does emphasise that old saying of Nye Bevan that the Tory party know the price of everything and the value of nothing, because one of the functions of any parliamentary democracy and any Government is to ensure that it exercises its responsibilities…
