, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Scrutiny session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution, and the Permanent Secretary to the Welsh Government
Counsel General, you raised a really interesting example there, and we could probably point to another dozen. The building and cladding regulations—was that a priority for Welsh Government? If it was a priority for Welsh Government, why wasn't it within 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
Sorry, Alun, go ahead.
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Scrutiny session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution, and the Permanent Secretary to the Welsh Government
Not to worry. Rhys, 10 minutes.
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Scrutiny session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution, and the Permanent Secretary to the Welsh Government
Minister, Permanent Secretary, before I hand to Rhys to take us on, I'm going to ask you a question. I don't want to abuse the fact that we've got you here for an hour, but if we ran five minutes over, would you be okay, or do you need to rush?
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Scrutiny session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution, and the Permanent Secretary to the Welsh Government
Counsel General.
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Scrutiny session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution, and the Permanent Secretary to the Welsh Government
Which is interesting for us as well that they're yet to be tested, and when that's going to happen. Alun.
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Scrutiny session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution, and the Permanent Secretary to the Welsh Government
James, go on.
, 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. James, go ahead.
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Scrutiny session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution, and the Permanent Secretary to the Welsh Government
Before you continue, I think we're getting to the nub of something quite interesting here, because you seem to be—. I don't want to put words in your mouth, but it's helpful if we can understand if, in those discussions, when you look at the resource you have…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Scrutiny session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution, and the Permanent Secretary to the Welsh Government
We have no doubt of the scale of legislative activity that's going on within Government at the moment, at all. Alun, over to you.
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Scrutiny session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution, and the Permanent Secretary to the Welsh Government
Permanent Secretary, and then I'll go to Alun.
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Scrutiny session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution, and the Permanent Secretary to the Welsh Government
Permanent Secretary, you want to come in on this, but could I just, Counsel General, put one final question to you on this. Accepting that what you describe are quite extraordinary times, post Brexit, pandemic, et cetera, et cetera, and difficult decisions…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Scrutiny session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution, and the Permanent Secretary to the Welsh Government
So, there's the internal mechanisms that you have to really think hard through, but, Counsel General, I wonder if I could ask you, just drawing on what the Permanent Secretary has said, if you can give us any examples of where you've had to make difficult…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Scrutiny session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution, and the Permanent Secretary to the Welsh Government
So, just to pause you for a moment, what you are saying is you can definitely deploy, redeploy, and creatively, ingeniously marshal your resources to where they're needed, but you are acknowledging that because of, sometimes, external factors, other pressures…
, 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 that answer. Permanent Secretary, do we have—? Following on from the Counsel General's answer, do you feel we have sufficient resources—people, the right people, creative deployment of those people? Do we have adequate resources to face 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
With that, we're going to move to the first substantive item of this afternoon's meeting, and it is a significant one. We regularly have the Counsel General in front of us, which we're very grateful for, but we have the Counsel General and Minister for the…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Introductions, apologies, substitutions and declarations of interest
Welcome to this afternoon's meeting of the Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee. We have no apologies. We have full attendance from committee members, as normal. We have one Member, James Evans, joining us on virtual setting. Just a reminder that…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Introductions, apologies, substitutions and declarations of interest
Good afternoon to you all. Welcome.
, Plenary
Welsh Conservatives Debate: Major events
But it just does strike me that some of the criticism around the support given to events—. When the Olympics came to London—I was Parliamentary Private Secretary to Tessa Jowell at the time—it was universally derided by many Conservative Members as a waste of…
, Plenary
Welsh Conservatives Debate: Major events
I am enjoying a lot of what you're saying—
, Plenary
Welsh Conservatives Debate: Major events
Would you give way?
, Plenary
Welsh Conservatives Debate: Major events
Yes, thanks, James, for giving way. Sorry, it's a subject I used to lecture on years ago. Noticeably, it's not the mega, mega events that earn the big bucks for Wales plc or UK plc; it's the regular, annual events, just the ones that you were mentioning…
, Plenary
Welsh Conservatives Debate: Major events
I’m really delighted to take part in this debate, and 'thank you' to the Conservatives for moving this debate today. My focus, I hope, will interest the Chamber. I’m going to start with a quote from a theatre group that organises theatre that is based on our…
, Plenary
Questions to the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution
It is, thank you very much. Counsel General, the assurance you've given following the meeting you've recently had gives some quiet assurance to us that the UK Government is minded to tread very carefully on devolved competences in this area, but I know you've…
, Plenary
Questions to the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution
Indeed, Dirprwy Lywydd. I don't know whose phone that was that went off, but clearly the Llywydd is going to have a word with them, I'm sure. Dirprwy Lywydd, can I just check, is this grouped?
