Jeremy Miles: Well, the meeting I had earlier this week with a range of stakeholders around Wales and Home Office officials, included representation from the Welsh Local Government Association. Most recently, we've made funding available to each local authority to support their efforts in addition to the Wales-wide efforts that we are making, so that local authorities have the capacity to do it themselves...
Jeremy Miles: ...help shape negotiations, and, in some cases, as David Rees mentioned in his contribution, including the possibility of the Länder acting collectively to block treaties, all be that through their representation, as David said, in the federal parliaments. Only in Belgium do individual state-level governments have a formal role in ratifying and potentially vetoing international agreements....
Jeremy Miles: ...the two strands of work that we've discussed in this Chamber on a number of occasions. One is the work, again, which is the work of the steering group that Huw Irranca-Davies is chairing, which has representations from across all sectors in Wales. And the second piece of work that is germane to this is the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's review that the First...
Jeremy Miles: ...sorts of issues that she has raised in her question, and, unfortunately, I've not been able to persuade myself that those powers of intervention exist. But we have, as a Government, made reasoned representations on a number of occasions to the UK Government with very, very disappointing responses on each, I think, occasion that we have done so. I share with her the hope that the general...
Jeremy Miles: ...to the impact of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012, in particular, has encompassed the sorts of issues that she is raising today, and we will continue to make those representations on behalf of users of the courts system here in Wales.
Jeremy Miles: ...of all parties involved. Removing the references to 2021-22 is consistent with this approach, and I ask the Assembly to support it. I have brought forward amendments 69, 70, 71 and 72 following representations from the Electoral Commission. The Electoral Commission’s concerns were highlighted in advance of Stage 2 proceedings, and we have been discussing them with the Electoral...
Jeremy Miles: I haven't myself made any representations in relation to that.
Jeremy Miles: I have not made any legal representations on the size of the prison estate in Wales myself.
Jeremy Miles: ...are provided with legal advice and a roof over their heads whilst they look for a sustainable solution in what are obviously extremely difficult circumstances and situations. That may include legal representation, perhaps leading to a fresh claim, or engagement with a voluntary returns process, and we've commissioned some research recently into ways to professionalise and expand the...
Jeremy Miles: I thank the Member for that question. We obviously are considering—or will consider, rather—the evidence that emerges from that process, so that our representations in future are fully evidenced in that regard. She is right to say, of course, that this would be a challenge for any future elections, but she would also recall that a similar problem arose in 2014, when many EU citizens were...
Jeremy Miles: ...s helpfully indicating that she's prepared to do that—so that Members can see fully what correspondence we engaged with on this important matter with the UK Government in the course of making our representations.
Jeremy Miles: ...acknowledge that Dai Lloyd was also at the event on Saturday a few weeks ago. And I can give the Member the reassurance that we will take every step we can within our powers, and continue to make representations on behalf of Welsh women.
Jeremy Miles: ...though I don't see a statutory basis for the Counsel General to intervene in the litigation itself, that does not mean that there isn't a basis on which Welsh Ministers can and can continue to make representations to the UK Government. And, indeed, since the response from Amber Rudd, which the Deputy Minister and Chief Whip has circulated to Members, she has indeed responded to that...
Jeremy Miles: I thank the Member for his question. As he indicates in it, our relationship with the UK Representation to the EU is very good, so we were particularly puzzled and disappointed, if I can put it like that, by the unprecedented decision that the Foreign and Commonwealth Office appear to have taken. I should say, as context, that we have been provided as a Welsh Government with high-quality...
Jeremy Miles: ...Counsel General has under the Government of Wales Act 2006 don't permit intervention in this particular set of circumstances, unfortunately. That's an assessment I've made subsequently, given the representations that the Minister made in the Chamber. However, the Welsh Government has subsequently written to the UK Government to press its concerns in relation to the UK Government's...
Jeremy Miles: ...in other parts of the UK—she mentioned Honda; previously Nissan, of course—the impacts of that can be felt in Wales and indeed in other parts of the UK. We've absolutely, as a Government, made representations to the UK Government in the context of their UK-wide planning to ensure that dimension is not lost in the considerations and that economic decisions taken in England have...
Jeremy Miles: ...and, indeed, I'll be writing shortly more broadly on the question of respecting the devolution settlement in discussions like that. He asked for assurance that the Welsh Government is making representations to ensure that the Welsh voice is heard in the arrangements on monitoring the transition, and I can confirm to him that those discussions are under way. They have been under way for...
Jeremy Miles: ...justice argument. It's incumbent on governments and legislatures to make the law accessible in the lives of citizens, in particular at a time when they find it harder and harder to access legal representation, as we know. He referred to a number of recommendations. Just to address a few points in relation to recommendation 4, there will be a programme of work around accessibility more...
Jeremy Miles: ...the European Union, and, obviously, they are reasonably significant. It's one of the sectors where, in my discussions directly with the chair of the Migration Advisory Committee, and in the formal representations that the Government will be making to the UK Government, we've identified the issue of the social care workforce as one that requires a particular approach in terms of protection...
Jeremy Miles: ...piece of work in relation to the qualifications make-up of the public sector workforce across Wales generally, including in the education sector, and that has been the basis of a lot of the representations we've made in the Brexit context particularly to the UK Government and beyond. But this is an area where work is absolutely under way at the moment. I know the Minister for Education is...
