, Constitution, Justice and External Affairs Committee
Ministerial scrutiny session: Cabinet Minister for Government Effectiveness and the Constitution
I think there are examples—. One of the things I'm keen to do is to learn from the examples. If we end up with a national police force, there are some examples of really good practice from Police Scotland. They integrate their serious crime with other…
, Constitution, Justice and External Affairs Committee
Ministerial scrutiny session: Cabinet Minister for Government Effectiveness and the Constitution
Pardon?
, Constitution, Justice and External Affairs Committee
Ministerial scrutiny session: Cabinet Minister for Government Effectiveness and the Constitution
Yes. I think there are two different issues there. There's a force structures issue, and whether—. Let me be clear on my view on this. There are, principally, two options placed in front of Lord Hogan-Howe. One is to maintain the current force structures, and…
, Constitution, Justice and External Affairs Committee
Ministerial scrutiny session: Cabinet Minister for Government Effectiveness and the Constitution
I thank the Member for the question because cross-border policing is an issue that is raised time and time again in the context of policing debates. I am absolutely clear that the structures we develop, going forward, should be based on effective co-operation…
, Constitution, Justice and External Affairs Committee
Ministerial scrutiny session: Cabinet Minister for Government Effectiveness and the Constitution
So, that's the point there. But if I may offer some reassurance to the Member, around youth justice, there's been a considerable amount of work looking at how that would work and how we could bring the youth offending teams for Wales into a more coherent…
, Constitution, Justice and External Affairs Committee
Ministerial scrutiny session: Cabinet Minister for Government Effectiveness and the Constitution
Well, those costs will be borne by the Home Office as part of the reform programme.
, Constitution, Justice and External Affairs Committee
Ministerial scrutiny session: Cabinet Minister for Government Effectiveness and the Constitution
Let's take the police one. The implementation model there is straightforward in the sense that, as a part of the police reforms, we would seek the devolution on the basis that is happening in England.
, Constitution, Justice and External Affairs Committee
Ministerial scrutiny session: Cabinet Minister for Government Effectiveness and the Constitution
No, no, no—
, Constitution, Justice and External Affairs Committee
Ministerial scrutiny session: Cabinet Minister for Government Effectiveness and the Constitution
Well, the devolution of justice and policing is a multifaceted issue, problem, whichever way you'd like to frame it, and there are different elements to it that need to be considered at least in some isolation from each other. Turning specifically, for…
, Constitution, Justice and External Affairs Committee
Ministerial scrutiny session: Cabinet Minister for Government Effectiveness and the Constitution
I think there are two things there. One is, as I've outlined, that my desire, as I've stated in the Senedd and here, and to opposition spokespeople, is to have a broad base of commissioners. So, in terms of representing the wide range of views that there are…
, Constitution, Justice and External Affairs Committee
Ministerial scrutiny session: Cabinet Minister for Government Effectiveness and the Constitution
What we're looking to do is to make an announcement on the co-chairs within the next weeks and, therefore, that will be during the autumn term. I have privately briefed the spokespeople from parties as to where we've got to on the co-chairs. What I'd…
, Constitution, Justice and External Affairs Committee
Ministerial scrutiny session: Cabinet Minister for Government Effectiveness and the Constitution
Well, thank you to the Member for a very important question. I've committed from the beginning that the commission should be independent and should be broad based. I have sought out potential co-chairs for that commission who will reflect that independence of…
, Constitution, Justice and External Affairs Committee
Ministerial scrutiny session: Cabinet Minister for Government Effectiveness and the Constitution
I'll invite Gareth to respond.
, Constitution, Justice and External Affairs Committee
Ministerial scrutiny session: Cabinet Minister for Government Effectiveness and the Constitution
Yes, what I've seen, in my first months as Minister, is that there are examples of very good practice, where the UK Government works at an early stage, and appropriately, with officials within our Government, and the legislation that is developed as a result…
, Constitution, Justice and External Affairs Committee
Ministerial scrutiny session: Cabinet Minister for Government Effectiveness and the Constitution
But what I will say is, as a Government, we see great benefit from that collaboration and joint understanding, and from learning from each other. I've had conversations with Ministers from the UK Government, where I learn from what they do, and I hope that…
, Constitution, Justice and External Affairs Committee
Ministerial scrutiny session: Cabinet Minister for Government Effectiveness and the Constitution
Am I going to actually seek to tell the Senedd what to do rather than the Welsh Government, I don't know.
, Constitution, Justice and External Affairs Committee
Ministerial scrutiny session: Cabinet Minister for Government Effectiveness and the Constitution
The first thing to say is that there is a pattern of inter-governmental collaboration that has existed through the inter-ministerial committee and the work that we do across the four Governments in the United Kingdom. I have met with Ministers of the UK…
, Constitution, Justice and External Affairs Committee
Ministerial scrutiny session: Cabinet Minister for Government Effectiveness and the Constitution
I will turn to officials so that they can introduce themselves. Gareth.
, Legislation Committee
General Scrutiny session with the Counsel General and the Cabinet Minister for Government Effectiveness and the Constitution
Yes.
, Legislation Committee
General Scrutiny session with the Counsel General and the Cabinet Minister for Government Effectiveness and the Constitution
Yes, I think that's the challenge. The downside to being effective, doing it and getting on with the job, is the potential lack of scrutiny. It comes back again to some of the points made here. You certainly shouldn't be rushing to do something that might not…
, Legislation Committee
General Scrutiny session with the Counsel General and the Cabinet Minister for Government Effectiveness and the Constitution
Indeed.
, Legislation Committee
General Scrutiny session with the Counsel General and the Cabinet Minister for Government Effectiveness and the Constitution
I think that there are two comments that I would make to begin with. In the first instance, I think that, at times—and I tread carefully here as someone who was not a Member of previous Seneddau—there has been a tendency to make declaratory legislation, which…
, Legislation Committee
General Scrutiny session with the Counsel General and the Cabinet Minister for Government Effectiveness and the Constitution
With apologies to my friends and colleagues. I was reminded by Professor Thomas Watkin, who is another man who made a significant contribution to the development of Welsh law, who has a great interest in these things, and made a significant contribution in…
, Legislation Committee
General Scrutiny session with the Counsel General and the Cabinet Minister for Government Effectiveness and the Constitution
No, no, I was going to support the Counsel General. Also, when we talk about training future lawyers in our law schools, whether that's in Aberystwyth University or even in Cardiff University, there are opportunities, aren't there, to ensure that the Welsh…
, Legislation Committee
General Scrutiny session with the Counsel General and the Cabinet Minister for Government Effectiveness and the Constitution
It's an interesting one, given the extent of the King's Speech and the UK legislative programme. There are clearly a number of Bills in that announced programme where we're expecting further LCMs, and we've laid 11 already since the King's Speech. Now, let's…
