, Plenary
Questions to the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution
I thank the Member for the question. The UK Government has informed the Welsh Government that it intends to fully engage with the devolved Governments in conducting its review of retained EU law. We are pressing for further information in terms of what the…
, Plenary
Legislative Consent Motion on the Public Service Pensions and Judicial Offices Bill
I thank the Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee for their detailed consideration of what is a very technical piece of legislation and, of course, the reference that he made was with regard to certain changes and amendments that were made that…
, Plenary
Legislative Consent Motion on the Public Service Pensions and Judicial Offices Bill
Diolch yn fawr, Dirprwy Lywydd. I move the legislative consent motion for the Public Service Pensions and Judicial Offices Bill. Most of this Bill is outside devolved competence. The provisions with which we are concerned today are solely about increasing the…
, Plenary
Welsh Conservatives Debate: 70th Anniversary of the accession
Llywydd, the Government will be tabling its own motion, as we did 10 years ago at the time of the Jubilee celebrations, in the summer. However, it would be appropriate to mark the forthcoming occasion with some reflection. On her twenty-first birthday, the…
, Plenary
Welsh Conservatives Debate: 70th Anniversary of the accession
Thank you, Llywydd. The Queen's accession will engender mixed emotions for Her Majesty, because it also marks the death of her father. According to reports, she will mark the occasion quietly, and that is natural. Also, this will be her first year without the…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Scrutiny session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution
What I would have expected with such an announcement and such a paper being prepared is that, firstly, when the paper was in draft form, there would have been input into that draft, there would have been engagement with the Governments on that draft as well…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Scrutiny session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution
I think the point you're making, Chair, isn't it, is that in those other areas it seems clear that there needs to be an overview of them, but also to keep it within perspective in terms of what are the key areas that are impacting and that we are engaged…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Scrutiny session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution
Are you talking about the 26 areas, or are you talking about areas that didn't fall within—? The ones that fall within the engagement we have in terms of the common frameworks, those are ones that are directly relevant to us that have been identified. In…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Scrutiny session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution
Well, in terms of EU institutions, I'll probably bring Robert in on that in a minute. But, look, the concerns are the ones that I've outlined throughout here, that we're dealing with a whole variety of areas, many of which clearly fall into devolved…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Scrutiny session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution
To be honest, until I've actually had an opportunity to read what is proposed in the review—. I mean, I can speculate about areas that are there, but, for example, anything that relates to agriculture or fisheries, well, we want to engage with all the…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Scrutiny session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution
The answer is, 'I don't know.' I haven't read the document to ascertain to what extent it does or does not deal with that particular issue. The Attorney-General gave assurances to us that they absolutely would be respecting the devolved arrangements and that…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Scrutiny session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution
Well, it has the potential to. I think what it undermined most was the whole issue of engagement and mutual respect over issues and announcements that would relate to and clearly would impact massively in devolved areas, and was unsatisfactory, to say the…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Scrutiny session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution
Those are important areas and, yes, I'm happy to do so. I think it's also important to recognise, isn't it, that there will be certain areas where divergence may occur that falls into reserved areas. So, for example, you mentioned employment, well, that, of…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Scrutiny session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution
I don't think I'm a position to give you the details on the blood tissues and cells point that you raised there—a bit beyond that. But in terms of EU law and developments in EU law, I think there's a debate and an issue there in terms of what we would want to…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Scrutiny session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution
One of the principles and positions the Welsh Government has taken throughout this process is that there should be no derogation from the standards that we actually hold to at the moment, and that the EU standards should be the very minimum that we should…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Scrutiny session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution
I suppose what is difficult is to speculate or to try and envisage circumstances in which the UK Government acts so irresponsibly that it causes a major constitutional fracture or crisis, and that is something that one would hope would be avoided or be in the…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Scrutiny session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution
I think that is absolutely right, and that is exactly why the review of EU retained law is of such significant constitutional importance not just in terms of the relationship between Wales and Scotland, but the very specific and complex relationship that…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Scrutiny session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution
Changes to the common frameworks have to be achieved by mutual agreement between the four nations, so that would be the starting point, and something that were to happen that would change those would need to be put to the four nations. It would need to be…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Scrutiny session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution
Well, that is one of the cross-cutting issues, isn't it? It's one of the factors that can have a significant impact on the viability and the workability of this. It's obviously been a sensitive issue all along, and of course there are elections that are…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Scrutiny session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution
I think the point to be made in respect of Welsh Government is that we want to make this work, because if it works, it will be better for Wales and for the people of Wales. It will be better for the United Kingdom. So, we have every commitment whatsoever to…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Scrutiny session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution
I'm pretty confident that it will achieve a stronger voice for Welsh Government. Certainly, they are the product of work between the four Governments over a period of time. In many ways, the sort of engagement that we were promised right at the beginning—the…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Scrutiny session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution
And I think the same applies, in particular—. The one that I know that will be of particular concern is, actually, the operation of two committees. One is the committee of the meetings of the First Ministers and Prime Minister, which requires the…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Scrutiny session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution
Yes, just in terms of the inter-governmental review and, I suppose, getting it up and running, et cetera, and operating, what the state of play is with that and in terms of any process of meetings that are being planned on it.
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Scrutiny session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution
Well, listen, it has been agreed, I think, between the four Governments. It has been published; it is there. Work is under way in terms of beginning to put it in practice, but, for all intents and purposes, it is there now as the basis for those…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Scrutiny session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution
Well, it's a very good question and it's one that has been raised. It was one of the cross-cutting issues in the development of the frameworks. There was agreement in the process that devolved Governments will be engaged in the international processes and…
