Part of 1. 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:15 pm on 20 September 2016.
I agree entirely. One thing that I can say to him is that the Secretary of State for Wales knows and understands that any support for the Wales Bill will depend on a fiscal framework being in place. There’s no good having that and then having the fiscal framework. Scotland was given that courtesy. There’s no reason why Wales shouldn’t have the same level of courtesy. And he’s right, of course: at the moment, the dispute resolutions process within the JMC is such that, if there is a dispute with the Treasury, then the dispute rolls on until it is eventually decided by the Treasury. So, there is no third party involved. I made arguments at the time that there should be an independent panel of arbitrators. That’s not something that the UK Government at the time were prepared to accept. There are, of course, models elsewhere. In Australia, there is a grants commission that acts independently in order to arbitrate between states and between states and the federal Government. There is no reason why this can’t happen here. We just need to make sure that the Treasury understands that it can’t be judge and jury on everything.