1. What are the Counsel General’s priorities for the fifth Assembly? OAQ(5)0001(CG)[W]

Can I firstly thank you for the question—in fact, the two questions that you submitted? I will just make the comment that I noticed that, since I’ve had this appointment, the number of questions has actually halved. I think we spent the past five years thinking of imaginative ways of asking questions of the Counsel General to elicit an answer and I’ll do my best to spend the next five years thinking up imaginative ways of actually answering those questions.

But, in direct response to the question, as the law officer, my priorities are supporting the Government to deliver its programme for government, upholding the rule of law, improving access to the laws of Wales, and ensuring that we can secure the best deal for the people of Wales.

I thank the Counsel General for that response, and I welcome him to his new role, of course, by saying that I’m looking forward to five years of asking questions of him, as I asked of his predecessor.

Among those priorities, how important does the Government of the Counsel General consider the fact that the European convention on human rights is part of Welsh law through Welsh legislation? Of course, there is some mention that the Westminster Government will replace that with some sort of bill of rights that will be a lot more ambiguous. Is it the Government’s intention to defend the fact that the convention is part of the law and is a foundation of how we work here in the Assembly?

Of course, the convention and the Human Rights Act 1998 are rights that we have to incorporate into our own Welsh legislation. In fact, the UK Government has to do the same with its own legislation. Of course, we had the comments today from the Secretary of State for Wales that there was going to be the introduction of a bill of rights. I imagine that you as well, along with many others, met with the original committee that was set up to look at a bill of rights. It actually came to the conclusion that they could not fulfil their function without undermining some of the fundamental rights that were already in place.

I think that the European convention on human rights is one of the great legacies that the United Kingdom has given to Europe. It was drafted by European lawyers; it was drafted and had the involvement of some great and well-established Welsh lawyers—persons who quite often learnt their trade and their understanding of the importance of these principles during the Nuremberg trials. Of course, among them was Lord Elwyn-Jones, and many others from Wales who made that. So, I think the contribution we have made to it—. We have actually set the standards. We have set the legislative framework by it. It was promoted by Winston Churchill, and it is recognised internationally as one of the great contributions to the establishment of standards, of rights, across the world. It would be, in my view, a very serious step indeed to actually do anything that undermined or withdrew from those particular standards.