7. 7. Statement: The Legislative Programme

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:32 pm on 28 June 2016.

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Photo of Carwyn Jones Carwyn Jones Labour 4:32, 28 June 2016

Could I thank the leader of the Welsh Conservatives for his comments? Yes, there are some areas where we’ll not agree. With the right to buy—and I’m sure we’ll have this debate again in the future—there are parts of Wales where the housing stock is half of the level that it was 30 years ago, and trying to make that up is hugely difficult. But, that’s perhaps for another day.

Yes, on the public health Bill, as I said earlier on, it will be a replica of what was in place at Stage 3. Of course, consideration will be given to amendments as they appear to see what can be done in terms of amendments that might improve the legislation.

He is right to say that a lot of legislation went through the Assembly in the last term. I anticipate fewer Bills coming from Government this time around. I think that will ease the pressure, certainly, that many felt on Bill committees, especially in the last two years of the last Assembly, but also it gives more time and opportunity, potentially, for private Members’ Bills to be considered as well. We are very much aware of the fact that much, well, all of our resource, pretty much, went into Government Bills in the last Assembly, and it’s important that there is the availability, within reason, of resource for good private Members’ Bills and time allocated to them. What we’re doing in terms of the amount of legislation will facilitate that.

To come back to the point about the environment, the difficulty we have with environmental legislation is that much of it is trascribed from the European directions. A lot of it is England-and-Wales legislation, especially the more humdrum areas, if I could put it that way. We just did it that way because it was more convenient. That will need to change. What happens to England-and-Wales regulations in the future? And there are a number of issues that I raised earlier on in terms of when will the law fall—will it continue or will it fall as soon as we leave the EU? These are matters to consider. Is there then scope at some point in the future for a consolidating environment Bill, looked at by the Law Commission? That’s possible, but clearly not, I suspect, for some years, given the complexity of that process.

With the ALN Bill, he will be aware that a draft Bill was consulted on in the second half of last year. Feedback has been received on that, and a summary of responses to that consultation will be published imminently so that Members are aware of what the proposed Bill will actually look like and what it will do, and the responses will be then made available.

With regard to the land transaction tax Bill, even though it’s a highly complex Bill in terms of its technical complexity, it’s designed to be as user-friendly as possible. Quite often, of course, the complexity has to be dealt with within a Bill in order to provide clarity further on down the line from people who are looking to see how the tax operates. Any tax legislation is necessarily complicated, but it needs to be as understandable as possible, particularly for the general public.

Otherwise, I noted the comments that he made on some of the Bills that he indicated in principle he might be in a position to support. I won’t hold him to that; I know that these things have to be taken through, and those areas, of course, where there will be difference between us.