8 December 2021 , Plenary
Short Debate: The Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015: Envy of the world?
When the former Lord Chief Justice, Lord Thomas of Cwmgiedd, said of the Act that it wasn’t specific and it wasn't tight enough; when one of Wales’s leading silks, Rhodri Williams Queen's Counsel, described it as 'virtually useless'; when the eminent public…
8 December 2021 , Plenary
Short Debate: The Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015: Envy of the world?
How then can we sit here—and I've heard this in the six months that I've been in the Chamber—how can we sit here and praise the Act for being radical and saying that it's the envy of the world, when it doesn't even give our citizens the rights to protect…
8 December 2021 , Plenary
Short Debate: The Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015: Envy of the world?
Many people, both inside this Chamber and outside it, have criticised this Act for its lack of enforceability. When a Labour backbencher, our own Counsel General, argued that the Act was far too loose and too woolly when he was debating it in its first…
8 December 2021 , Plenary
Short Debate: The Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015: Envy of the world?
Unlike the Welsh Language Commissioner, the future generations commissioner has no powers to punish public bodies that have breached their duties. The future generations commissioner has no powers to stop things from happening or to make them happen. On many…
8 December 2021 , Plenary
Short Debate: The Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015: Envy of the world?
I fear the Act has become some sort of a tick-box exercise. Local government and public bodies will say that they've considered it, that they've considered the future, and then move on regardless with their present plans. If asked, they will be able to show…
8 December 2021 , Plenary
Short Debate: The Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015: Envy of the world?
These principles were the roots of the Act, but the Act is yet to blossom, and that is because the Act has not had the opportunity to deliver its true potential.
8 December 2021 , Plenary
Short Debate: The Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015: Envy of the world?
In the auditor general's study into the future generations Act, he concluded that public bodies overwhelmingly focus on improving economic and social well-being over environmental and cultural objectives. We shouldn't need reminding, Llywydd, that COP26 again…
8 December 2021 , Plenary
Short Debate: The Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015: Envy of the world?
This is what the future generations Act was supposed to accomplish. But, after six years, and many court cases later, we see that the Act does not have the necessary powers to achieve its laudable objectives. I will concede that the Act, to an extent, has…
8 December 2021 , Plenary
Short Debate: The Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015: Envy of the world?
It's no wonder that this ambitious and wide-reaching Act was credited as the envy of the world by the Government and many others at the time and subsequently. That's why our future generations commissioner, Sophie Howe, was called by the United Nations to…
8 December 2021 , Plenary
Short Debate: The Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015: Envy of the world?
Would you like me to begin now? Thank you very much, Llywydd. I have agreed to give a minute to my colleague Mabon ap Gwynfor. The Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 was passed in this Chamber six years ago. Its aim was to embed in our law, our…
7 December 2021 , Plenary
Questions to the First Minister
I'm glad that it seems that the south Wales metro line is finally moving forward; we've been discussing it for many years. I think the Counsel General said in the past that he described the south Wales metro line as some sort of Loch Ness project—nobody was…
6 December 2021 , Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Tertiary Education and Research (Wales) Bill: Evidence session
Okay. Thank you very much. No further questions from me, Chair.
6 December 2021 , Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Tertiary Education and Research (Wales) Bill: Evidence session
Thank you, Chair. Minister, you've answered a few of the questions that I was going to ask with regard to why powers are there and you don't want to use them at the moment—reserve powers. So, I won't rehearse old ground. I'm sure the answers would be the same…
6 December 2021 , Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Tertiary Education and Research (Wales) Bill: Evidence session
Okay. Thank you very much.
6 December 2021 , Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Tertiary Education and Research (Wales) Bill: Evidence session
The negative procedure is a swift procedure anyway, isn't it? So, why move from directions that were subject to Senedd procedures to a new system that isn't subject to Senedd procedures at all? And then, of course, there isn't that opportunity to scrutinise…
6 December 2021 , Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Tertiary Education and Research (Wales) Bill: Evidence session
Thank you for that. I wanted to talk then about the Senedd procedures and the fact that section 81 of the previous legislation ensured that any directions by Welsh Ministers to HEFCW, and now for this new commission—. Section 81 stated that any directions to…
6 December 2021 , Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Tertiary Education and Research (Wales) Bill: Evidence session
So you do think that it's workable and practical. But do you think that it provides that legal certainty? Does this strategy provide that certainty in law so that decisions can be challenged?
6 December 2021 , Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Tertiary Education and Research (Wales) Bill: Evidence session
Good afternoon, Minister. I have questions with regard to Part 1 of the Bill. This first Part sets out strategic duties that are very wide-ranging for this new commission. Perhaps some would say that they're too wide-ranging or too nebulous. Are you satisfied…
30 November 2021 , Plenary
Business Statement and Announcement
Thank you very much, Llywydd. Trefnydd, to mark over two years since the publication of the Commission on Justice in Wales report, a conference was staged this morning, chaired by Anna McMorrin, the Deputy Minister for victims and youth services. The trade…
30 November 2021 , Plenary
Business Statement and Announcement
No.
29 November 2021 , Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Codes of Welsh law programme and proposals for the accessibility of Welsh law: Evidence session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution
Thank you, Chair. Counsel General, you'll be aware that the Llywydd has asked us to look at a short inquiry about the accessibility of Welsh law and your proposals. I think, maybe, again, this could be answered in writing. What I would find useful is what…
29 November 2021 , Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Codes of Welsh law programme and proposals for the accessibility of Welsh law: Evidence session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution
Okay. Diolch.
29 November 2021 , Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Codes of Welsh law programme and proposals for the accessibility of Welsh law: Evidence session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution
Diolch yn fawr. Finally from me, with regard to this section, the small topic of EU retained law. You mentioned in Plenary, Counsel General, last week, that you listened to Lord Thomas's evidence, even saying that the additional complexity that this has…
29 November 2021 , Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Codes of Welsh law programme and proposals for the accessibility of Welsh law: Evidence session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution
Diolch yn fawr. I'd like to move on to scrutiny of the Act. There have been concerns about the lack of scrutiny, quite understandable with COVID laws, not so with regard to using Westminster Bills, in my view. But it's so important to get these first…
29 November 2021 , Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Codes of Welsh law programme and proposals for the accessibility of Welsh law: Evidence session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution
If I could just push back slightly with regard to these new topics, Counsel General, let's take allotments, for example. Now, I know Labour leaders past and present are very fond of their allotments, but can you really say that they fall under these…
