, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Scrutiny session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution
I think—. Well, listen, the first thing is the loss of the sub-national role that we played within the EU is one that it's quite difficult to replicate, but it's certainly one that needs to be replicated within a new structure. In the inter-governmental…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Scrutiny session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution
It's a very interesting question. In fact, I also attended the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee meeting when they came down from Westminster last week, and this is one of the areas that certainly I raised in terms of the issue of…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Scrutiny session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution
I don't think underpinning by law was ever anything that was from the original framework of discussions when this took place in, I think, 2018 it was launched. I don't think it was specifically excluded, but I don't think there was ever any talk of…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Scrutiny session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution
I think it is certainly a realistic opportunity. There are certainly opportunities there, and, again, we have to see how it will develop, and I think it may potentially develop its own momentum in terms of the way in and scale at which it develops. There is…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Scrutiny session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution
Well, Chair, I'm glad to see that you are excited. Listen, the answer is 'yes', but, of course, don't forget, the whole basis of this is that there is basically almost a four-nation agreement on this in terms of the direction and the way forward. So, you're…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Scrutiny session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution
Listen, I certainly agree with that, because the purpose of the review, I think, is to deal with very serious matters. I think it's also again necessary to look at the three stages of it, because, obviously, at an inter-ministerial governmental level, where…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Scrutiny session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution
The answer, I think, is 'yes', isn't it?
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Scrutiny session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution
I'm not sure that there's much I could add on that other than you'd want it to have the resources to enable it to do its job properly, effectively and efficiently. In terms of the actual scale and size of that, I don't know, Piers, whether you've got any more…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Scrutiny session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution
I think there will. And, of course, justice is one of the ones that are in the indicative list and I think the whole purpose to the inter-governmental review is to actually provide a framework within which common areas that need to be discussed collectively…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Scrutiny session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution
Well, the existing inter-ministerial groups, of course, are still taking place, and, of course, there have been—. You see there was an indicative list of what the areas for the inter-ministerial groups would be. They very much mirror, I think, some of the key…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Scrutiny session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution
It's difficult to me to say. Piers.
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Scrutiny session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution
Certainly, Chair, my understanding is that the first meeting of the inter-ministerial standing committee is likely to be taking place in a week or so, and the same with the FISC, the financial equivalent. So, things are beginning to move, but there is…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Scrutiny session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution
Well, I probably best refer to Piers on this. As I understand it now, the discussions are under way in terms of drawing together the sorts of resource and staffing from the four Governments and how that would operate, then, independently. As I say, I think…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Scrutiny session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution
You mean in terms of the establishment now of the review and the secretariats and so on?
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Scrutiny session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution
I don't think there should be any consequences, because I think, as I said, we're moving into a new territory, new relations based on principles and so on. So, I think we'll be sort of creating those as we move forward. You've seen in the review itself that…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Scrutiny session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution
Yes. To some extent, the existing memorandum, I suppose, is being surpassed now by the new review. It may influence, to some extent, arrangements and principles and so on, but I think what's more likely to happen is that as the framework and the…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Scrutiny session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution
It's difficult to say, isn't it, really? Because it depends on what the level of the disputes are, how serious they are, the extent to which they are escalated, and the importance of them, because at the moment, in inter-ministerial meetings on UK Bills, for…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Scrutiny session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution
Well, you'll see the structure of it is really a sort of three-tier structure, isn't it, where you have inter-ministerial groups. You then have an inter-ministerial council, which basically is enabled to deal with all the cross-cutting issues that are there…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Scrutiny session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution
Well, those are important questions, and I think, to some extent, they are built into the published format for the inter-governmental relations to take place. So, there will be, for example, an annual report from the independent secretariat. I suppose it is…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Scrutiny session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution
Well, the first thing is that it was a review that was based on work that was commissioned some two or three years ago. In my view, it is a significant constitutional step forward. It has a primary weakness. The primary weakness is that it doesn't have any…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Scrutiny session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution
No, I'm happy to get straight into it.
, Plenary
Welsh Conservatives Debate: Making Saint David's Day a bank holiday
I certainly would support that proposal and, of course, we do recall that it was one of the things that we requested in the 2017 Wales Act that was declined. I will come to that perhaps in a moment, but I thank you for the point that you've made, and I'm sure…
, Plenary
Welsh Conservatives Debate: Making Saint David's Day a bank holiday
Please.
, Plenary
Welsh Conservatives Debate: Making Saint David's Day a bank holiday
There is widespread public support, as indeed there is across the parties in this Chamber, for making St David's Day a holiday here in Wales. However, the creation of bank holidays in England and Wales is not a devolved matter. In order to create St David's…
, Plenary
Welsh Conservatives Debate: Making Saint David's Day a bank holiday
Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. What's happened in Ukraine over the last week has caused huge concern. It's emphasised how important it is to be able to celebrate your nationhood, and what better opportunity for us to celebrate here than on St David's…
