Mick Antoniw: Turning to Bills, as the First Minister set out in his latest statement on the legislative programme on 5 July, we are moving forward with an ambitious programme of primary legislation. We have introduced the first six Bills of this Senedd term and the committee has played a significant and fundamental role in those to date. I'd like to thank the committee and the Chair for their work on the...
Mick Antoniw: I welcome the committee’s conclusions on improvement to the legislative consent processes and hope we can continue to work collaboratively to further strengthen the Senedd’s ability to scrutinise legislation and collectively defend the devolution settlement. The UK Government’s repeated breaches of the Sewel convention are unacceptable and they display, I think, a lack of respect for...
Mick Antoniw: Thank you, Presiding Officer. I move the motion. It is a huge concern and disappointment to have to address this Bill. Despite the myriad of changes in the UK Government over recent months, little has changed. Little progress appears to have been made, and we remain with the prospect of this ill-judged and irresponsible Bill becoming law. The UK's international reputation has already been...
Mick Antoniw: We have brought forward this motion so that the Senedd can consider issues around the Bill and to decide on whether to give consent. Members will see that we, in the memorandum, state that the reasons for refusing consent are good reasons in terms of both the law and constitution. Members will also see that the Welsh Government believes that the Senedd's consent is required for the Bill. This...
Mick Antoniw: Brexit was always going to require a border somewhere between the EU single market and the UK internal market, yet successive UK Governments that supported Brexit have naively and stubbornly refused to acknowledge this point. I of course accept that any agreement can be the subject of technical review and, indeed, the UK and the EU have entered into formal and informal discussions on...
Mick Antoniw: Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. Thank you to all the Members who've raised points in this debate. I know there clearly is a stark difference and disagreement over this. I think what we all do recognise, though, nevertheless, is the fundamental importance of this issue to peace in Northern Ireland, and also to economic and trade well-being. If I could just address a couple of the points that have been...
Mick Antoniw: Yes, I will.
Mick Antoniw: Well, first of all, I wouldn't have introduced the Bill, because the Bill drives a coach and horses through the whole concept of international and legal obligation. Secondly, if it was really so desperate that you had to do something, it would have been to invoke article 16, as the Chair of the Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee said, because this would enable safeguarding...
Mick Antoniw: The judgment was handed down this morning. I will take time to study the judgment carefully.
Mick Antoniw: Thank you for the question. Of course, yes, last night, I thought it was a very impressive presentation by Professor Ciaran Martin, following on from the previous presentation by Sir David Lidington. I think these are very important contributions to our understanding of the constitutional issues that clearly do face us. I think it's worth just being clear about, firstly, what the judgment...
Mick Antoniw: Thank you for the question. The judgment is very clear about the competence issue, and that is, really, the only issue that the Supreme Court has dealt with. It is clear and final in that respect. In terms of the Welsh position, well, what we do have is a recognition within Wales, from the various manifestos, that there is a need for constitutional reform. There is a need for engagement...
Mick Antoniw: The published arrangements agreed as part of the Review set out clear structures for intergovernmental working, supporting scrutiny by the respective legislatures in turn. All governments must continue to embed these arrangements not just in words, but also in practice.
Mick Antoniw: The Co-operation Agreement is a political agreement. As set out in the Mechanisms document, while Welsh Ministers and Plaid Cymru’s designated members will, at the political level, jointly agree matters within scope of the Agreement, the formal and legal responsibility for those decisions rests with Welsh Ministers.
Mick Antoniw: Clearly, we need to work through all of the content of this 300-page response. However, the fact that the Law Society is now warning prospective new entrants that they will be unable to make a reasonable living from criminal defence work is a damning indictment of the state we are in.
Mick Antoniw: Thank you very much for the question.
Mick Antoniw: My ministerial colleagues and I have made the Welsh Government's position on the devolution of justice very clear to this Lord Chancellor, his predecessors and many other UK Ministers, and most recently Lord Bellamy, the Under-Secretary for justice, this Monday. It does remain deeply disappointing that the UK Government will not seriously engage with this question.
Mick Antoniw: Well, what I can say is that the position of the Welsh Government remains the same. We support the recommendations of the Thomas commission, and we also support, specifically within that, the devolution of justice and the devolution, in particular, of criminal justice. What I can say is that the devolution of youth justice and probation will be very significant steps forward. I think you have...
Mick Antoniw: Well, thank you for those comments, and I don't disagree with the points that you've made. Many of them are points that we've made very much within our 'Delivering Justice for Wales' paper, and of course the recent research by Cardiff University, the publication, The Welsh Criminal Justice System: On the Jagged Edge, I think is really important. What is important in terms of the engagement...
Mick Antoniw: Thank you for the question. I wrote to the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice, Lord Bellamy, in August of this year, to call for full disclosure from public bodies during public inquiries or criminal proceedings. I believe that a Hillsborough law would benefit the demand for a public inquiry into events at Orgreave.
Mick Antoniw: I thank you very much for that and for raising that. I don't know whether you're aware; I was of course one of the lawyers in the Orgreave trial and riot cases, in which we actually obtained an absolute non-committal, a 'not guilty', in respect of all 90 of the cases of persons that I was involved in, and we then actually took civil action against the police for malicious prosecution and...
