Mick Antoniw: The Member will know that this question, again, engages the established law officers’ convention. Nevertheless, I can assure the Member that the Welsh Government will work tirelessly to ensure that Wales’s position is protected, and that will, of course, involve very careful consideration of the likely impact of the UK Government’s Great Repeal Bill on Welsh legislation, and whether...
Mick Antoniw: Well, the Member will probably be aware that there’s extensive work under way, across the Welsh Government, to ensure that we maximise our influence in the discussions with the UK and, in turn, in formal EU negotiations, and thereby to secure the best possible outcome for Wales. The Cabinet sub-committee on European transition is providing strategic direction to the Welsh Government’s...
Mick Antoniw: Thank you for that question. And, again, I suppose I ought to repeat that, although meetings with law officers do take place, the subject of those meetings, for obvious reasons, remains confidential, other than, obviously, there are matters of mutual interest to discuss. He raises, certainly, a point that is raised in the Law Commission’s report, which very much deals with issues around...
Mick Antoniw: The Member raises an extremely important point, and I probably have to concede that, at this stage, we are not going to get the establishment of the distinct Welsh jurisdiction that I’ve always thought was a reasonable transitional process. It was very interesting hearing the Lord Chief Justice’s evidence to the Justice Committee in Parliament, where he was asked about this issue. And,...
Mick Antoniw: The Member knows that this answer is subject to the established law officers’ convention. The Welsh Government is pressing for improvements to the Bill as it progresses in the House of Lords. You will understand the reasons behind the law officers’ convention, and, whereas the nature and content of such discussions remain confidential, I can inform the Member that I have visited Scotland...
Mick Antoniw: The Member seems to be saying different things. On the one hand, he says there’s been a referendum, and that authorises the Prime Minister to proceed and totally to bypass Parliament, and then, on the other one, he says it is about empowering Parliament. But the position is very clear: we have a constitution, we have arrangements between the devolved Governments that are set, and...
Mick Antoniw: Well, I can’t say that I’m perplexed. The UK Government has obviously decided on its own course of action, which is to lodge an appeal against the decision of the High Court. The submission that I filed on behalf of the Welsh Government, as Counsel General, sets out very clearly the view that we have, which actually supports that decision that the prerogative is not the appropriate...
Mick Antoniw: Thank you for the question. I’d refer the Member to the written statement published last Friday. This case raises profound issues about the United Kingdom’s constitutional arrangements and the framework for devolution, and it’s right that Wales should be heard on those issues, and we will be putting our case at next week’s hearing. Because this is a matter of considerable public...
Mick Antoniw: Well, unlike the Member, I'm not in a position to show complete contempt for our constitution and for the rule of law. It seems to me that we have a legal system that has well-established principles. Some of these are before the highest court of the land at the moment, and we should actually give due recognition to the fact that that court will be exercising its jurisdiction and giving a...
Mick Antoniw: Well, thank you very much for that. You’ve raised the valid counterpart of the argument that has been put as the reason why a judicial review pre-action protocol letter has actually been sent to the UK Government. So, the first thing we need to know is what the actual UK Government’s response is to that. As I understand the chronology of events, we left EFTA in 1973, when we joined the...
Mick Antoniw: Well, thank you. You’ve asked a number of questions, I think, that raise complex, specific and highly technical legal questions, which the Welsh Government will want to consider carefully and thoroughly in due course. With regard to the triggering of article 127, I think some of those issues may well be determined on the matter of principle in the article 50 case that’s being heard in the...
Mick Antoniw: Well, we also have, as you know, the hearing starting in a week’s time, on 5 December, at which the Welsh Government will be represented, which is going to certainly determine the mechanism for constitutional change. What I can say is that I think the litigation exposes, even now, the UK Government’s total lack of planning, strategy and preparedness for Brexit, and there appears to be a...
Mick Antoniw: Well, thank you for that urgent question. I can tell you that my assessment is, indeed, at a very preliminary stage. I think we were all made aware of this issue in an article that appeared over the weekend, which was the first announcement that there might be legal action. The British Influence think tank plan to write to the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, to ask him to...
Mick Antoniw: Can I thank the Member again for his thoughtful comments, because these are deep and fundamentally important issues for our constitutional settlement and for the constitutional arrangements for the UK for the future? He’s correct that I can’t give a full answer to that. There is actually a very interesting publication that came out recently, ‘Brexit and Beyond’, where I noticed this...
Mick Antoniw: I will do my best to at least set some parameters in an environment where we don’t quite know what all the parts of the jigsaw are, so we won’t see the complete picture for some time yet. But you raise issues about what the legal consequences are of withdrawal and the role of legislative consent. The legislative competence of the Assembly and the powers of the Welsh Ministers are both...
Mick Antoniw: Okay. If I deal first of all with the legislative consent motion point, again, which I think the Member Jeremy Miles has raised as well. I recall now I didn’t actually answer that specifically. I think it depends very much what is in the great repeal Bill. We won’t know that until there is much more substance to that. There’s a broad range of additional issues, and that, of course,...
Mick Antoniw: Thank you for those questions. The nature of the laws to which the Crown is subject is the very essence, I think, of what has emerged from my statement and emerged from the judgment of the High Court, and is going to be the prime matter that is going to be considered by the Supreme Court. If we really want to put this in a historical perspective, it is a principle that has led to two monarchs...
Mick Antoniw: Thank you for those questions and suggestions, some of which, I have to say, were contradictory—and some were confusing. But, just dealing initially with the issue of the independence of the judiciary—which, I’m glad to say, I think the Member was saying he does support—it is a good idea, since the Constitutional Reform Act 2005, for example, states very clearly that ‘the Lord...
Mick Antoniw: Again, thank you very much for those thoughtful questions, some of which I will be able to comment on to some degree, but not able to give you a full answer on, because there are many unknowns. The nature of the intervention is really as I have set out. On what will be my intentions in the intervention, it will be to make representations about the role of Parliament in determining any changes...
Mick Antoniw: Thank you for that large number of very complex and very detailed questions. I hope you wrote them all yourself. They do raise a whole series of important points, though. The first one, with regard to the sovereignty of Parliament—that is exactly what this case is about. The sovereignty of Parliament and the rule of law is important not just to the United Kingdom Parliament, but also to...
