Huw Irranca-Davies: I'd like to open my remarks by making some very general observations about our experiences with the reporting on these memoranda in respect of our committee's remit. The Minister reflected in her opening remarks on the complexity of the process of this UK Bill being brought forward. We agree with that. We also note from the Minister's remarks that more amendments might be forthcoming in some...
Huw Irranca-Davies: Thank you once again, Llywydd. We have published three reports on the four memoranda laid by the Welsh Government with regard to the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill of the UK Government.
Huw Irranca-Davies: Diolch yn fawr iawn, Llywydd. Counsel General, the Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee welcomes the statement today. It's in a very important area of policy. It's a pleasure as well to follow on from the comments of my committee colleagues, Rhys ab Owen and Alun Davies, which are well informed and, in the case of Rhys, professionally informed too. It's an area that he knows we're...
Huw Irranca-Davies: First Minister, I'm glad to see this question, and, certainly, the cross-party group on active travel has set up an expert panel to help inform the Government of stakeholders' views in terms of the review as well. But can I just thank the Government for their engagement on this agenda? They've really pushed it up the agenda. The investment has had a significant uplift, and many local...
Huw Irranca-Davies: Thank you very much for that answer.
Huw Irranca-Davies: I have to say we have to give a compliment to all the people within the Commission who've managed to adapt very rapidly to moving services and provision online so that we can do the sort of engagement we've seen, and not least amongst this, I have to say, is the welcome approach of the education outreach section, separate from our committees and everything else, who've done so much to keep an...
Huw Irranca-Davies: A simple supplementary, Counsel General. In awaiting the future response from the UK Government, I wonder on what basis does he expect engagement between the UK Government and Welsh Government Ministers such as himself, the Counsel General, to be conducted. Should it be on the basis of respect and understanding of the competences of devolved administrations? Does he have any other thoughts on...
Huw Irranca-Davies: I thank the Counsel General for that answer, and he'll know that, during the pandemic, we've seen a real shift to using online services to allow people to access justice across Wales. It's out of necessity, and it has provided some opportunities. Without it, many more people would be affected by the delays and backlogs that we do indeed see. But we've got to bear in mind that not everyone has...
Huw Irranca-Davies: Minister, as you say, many of our constituents throughout the whole of Wales are now really experiencing a day-to-day cost-of-living crisis. They're making choices—genuinely—between heating and eating, either feeding themselves or feeding the prepayment meters. We've had COVID-19 and post-Brexit impacts on supply chains; we've had shipping delays; factories in lockdown or slowdown...
Huw Irranca-Davies: 3. What assessment has the Minister made of the social justice impacts of the Welsh Government winter fuel support scheme? OQ57406
Huw Irranca-Davies: 4. What assessment has the Welsh Government made of the impact of digital technology on access to justice in Wales? OQ57410
Huw Irranca-Davies: 8. What discussions has the Counsel General had with other UK law officers in respect of the UK Government's review of EU retained law? OQ57407
Huw Irranca-Davies: 1. What assessment has the Commission made of the impact of COVID-19 on the engagement activities of the Senedd and its committees? OQ57408
Huw Irranca-Davies: Our first report, which we laid before the Senedd last November, summarised our consideration of the Welsh Government's original memorandum on the Bill, as well as memorandum No. 2. Now, in that report, we arrived at a number of conclusions that informed the recommendations that we subsequently made to the Minister. To date, we're still awaiting a formal response to that report from the...
Huw Irranca-Davies: Thank you once again, Llywydd. We have produced two reports covering the three legislative consent memoranda brought forward by the Welsh Government on this Bill. I hope that they have proved helpful to both the Minister as he has continued to navigate inter-governmental negotiations on the Bill, as well as to Members participating in this afternoon's debate.
Huw Irranca-Davies: Minister, I thank you very much for that assurance. I'm not speaking as Chair of the committee here, I'm just speaking as a humble backbencher, but many of us are union members and have been since our earliest days there. I welcome the reassurances that she's just given in response to the question by Rhun about discussions, but also the focus on employers here, which I think is important. And...
Huw Irranca-Davies: 'summary impact assessments have been published previously which include impacts relating to face coverings.' However, no reference is made to equality impact assessments relating to regulation changes that exclude natural immunity as a way of demonstrating COVID-19 status for the purposes of the COVID pass. Now, the Welsh Government has now confirmed that an updated impact assessment will...
Huw Irranca-Davies: Thank you, Llywydd, and thank you, Minister. We considered these regulations at our meeting yesterday, and our reports to the Senedd containing merits reporting points on each of these regulations were laid immediately afterwards.
Huw Irranca-Davies: Now, sometimes, I'm aware that colleagues occasionally find our observations a little dry as we try to shed light, rather than heat, but bear with us, as we hope that our comments will help this Senedd in its job of scrutiny and help the Government by improving the legislation and the regulations and the explanations it brings forward. Now, our reports on these regulations raise what Members...
Huw Irranca-Davies: First Minister, thank you for that answer. You will know that this was one of the headline pledges in the Welsh Labour manifesto, which won such strong support from the people of Wales last year. It included a fair deal for care, with the real living wage for carers; a greener country, including a national forest for Wales; safer communities, with 500 more PCSOs, and far more. But in respect...
