Huw Irranca-Davies: What assurances has the First Minister sought from the UK Government regarding the availability of funding to the Welsh Government to respond to public health circumstances related to coronavirus?
Huw Irranca-Davies: Thank you, Llywydd. We have published two reports on the memorandum laid by the Welsh Government on the Subsidy Control Bill, the first in December and the second last week.
Huw Irranca-Davies: Our first report expressed our concerns with the Bill. We consider that the subsidy control proposals could have—and we say this in our report—a pernicious impact on devolution and the exercise of devolved functions, particularly in ways that could limit the ability of the Welsh Government and public organisations to fund necessary projects. The potential impact of this Bill is therefore...
Huw Irranca-Davies: Will the Minister give way?
Huw Irranca-Davies: Thank you for giving way, and I associate myself with the remarks you made in your opening remarks as well, as I'm sure we all do. Would he be interested to know that on 1 March 2016, a Bill was presented on the floor of Parliament by Mark Williams, who was then the MP for Ceredigion? It was called the Devolution (Bank Holidays) (Wales) Bill. I was proud to be one of the co-supporters of...
Huw Irranca-Davies: Could I ask for one statement and one debate? The statement is one I know that the Trefnydd will be familiar with in her departmental role as well. Back in autumn 2019—. Sorry, I do declare my interest as the Atlantic salmon champion for the Senedd. [Laughter.] But in autumn 2019, the salmon and sea trout plan for action was introduced. It had a series of actions that flowed from it. I...
Huw Irranca-Davies: My apologies. I'll wait until next week. [Laughter.]
Huw Irranca-Davies: Diolch, Llywydd, and I'll speak very briefly today. We considered these regulations at our meeting on 28 February, and our report to the Senedd contains just one merits reporting point, which I'll speak to this afternoon. Now, as the Minister has said, these regulations make miscellaneous and consequential amendments to various pieces of legislation that set rules for local elections. We were...
Huw Irranca-Davies: Thanks again, Llywydd. We reported on the original legislative consent memorandum for this Bill last month. With memorandum No. 2 only being laid late last week, my committee was only in a position to note its arrival yesterday, but no more than that.
Huw Irranca-Davies: Llywydd, with your invitation, I've spoken as Chair of the Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee in debates on legislative consent motions in each of the past four weeks. People are getting tired of hearing from me now. Indeed, since the start of the new term in January, I've spoken on such motions during six of the eight Tuesday sittings. The reason I mention that I'm here on...
Huw Irranca-Davies: 6. What discussions has the Minister had with the UK Treasury to ensure that the Welsh Government has the finance it needs to support those facing a cost-of-living crisis? OQ57738
Huw Irranca-Davies: I'm going to—to the disappointment of many, I know—strip out the politics entirely for this. In a mature democracy across the UK, when we are faced with several crises at once—we have the climate change crisis; we have the crisis we see involving now international issues within Ukraine and the humanitarian disaster there; and we have the cost-of-living crisis, which is going to get...
Huw Irranca-Davies: I don't know which screen to look at. You're twice in front of me, Janet. Many thanks for bringing this debate; I think it's a very important one. One of the things I'm not clear on, and I wonder if you can help, or perhaps the Minister can afterwards, is whether we need new legislation or if the existing marine planning and marine and coastal legislation allows us to put a marine plan on a...
Huw Irranca-Davies: The Chancellor, First Minister, had hardly sat back down on the green benches before the criticism tore apart his spring budget statement, and it didn't only come from some backbench Tory MPs; it came from the Institute for Fiscal Studies, from the Resolution Foundation, it came from Martin Lewis, the money saving expert, who looked at the impact of the rising tax burden and the additional...
Huw Irranca-Davies: Recognising that there is an 8 per cent rise in terms of inflation at this moment, it totally wipes it out. Deputy Llywydd, I've said before in this Chamber that sometimes it feels like swimming against the tide of the UK Government. First Minister, how can we help people swim against the tide, keep their heads afloat? Because some people are now drowning, and they're our constituents.
Huw Irranca-Davies: Thank you, acting Presiding Officer, and I do only have one short question. But I just want to reflect—. Jane Dodds will know the Ystradgynlais miners' welfare hall very well. We have a proud tradition in this country of supporting asylum seekers, refugees, over many generations—visiting Syrian families there, celebrating their culture, but celebrating the gift that they brought to us,...
Huw Irranca-Davies: Thank you very much, Llywydd, and thank you, Deputy Minister. We have produced two reports covering four consent memoranda that have been laid by the Minister for Climate Change on this Bill. The first was completed last December, and the second was laid earlier this month. We were grateful to the Minister for responding to both reports. Unfortunately,
Huw Irranca-Davies: however, memorandum No. 5 was only laid last Friday afternoon, meaning it has not been subject to scrutiny by any Senedd committee. This is clearly frustrating, as my colleague John Griffiths, Chair of my fellow committee, has mentioned, and it's regrettable. While our two reports comment on specific provisions in the Bill, this afternoon I will focus on the extensive commentary in our...
Huw Irranca-Davies: Thank you, Llywydd. We issued a report on the legislative consent memorandum on the Elections Bill in December of last year. Although we considered the supplementary memorandum at our meeting yesterday, as it was only laid last Tuesday, we were unable to issue a report in the time allowed to us.
Huw Irranca-Davies: In our report on the memorandum, we expressed serious concern with provisions included within the Bill on its introduction that impacted on devolved areas and on the accountability arrangements for the Electoral Commission's activities in Wales as set out in the Senedd and Elections (Wales) Act 2020. We were equally concerned, at that time, at the apparent lack of engagement between the UK...
