2. Will the Counsel General make a statement on the Law Commission’s report, which recommends the codification of Welsh law? OAQ(5)0006(CG)

I welcome the Law Commission report, and, together with the First Minister, am carefully considering the recommendations and implications. I will provide an interim response to the commission before the end of the year, and will make this available to Members.

Can the Counsel General set out the route-map for the codification process, and indicate the benefits and potential risks that could arise from codification?

Well, I was very pleased to receive the report. As I took up my position as Counsel General, improving accessibility to the laws of Wales is not only of great interest to me, but it’s also very important to Wales as a legislature, and, of course, follows on very much from the excellent report from the Constitutional and Legislative Affairs Committee, which, I think, made many of these points—considerable work, and a report that has been referred to in many subsequent reports as being fairly authoritative on this issue.

The codification report sets out many of the benefits that could follow from codifying Welsh law, estimating, for example, that, in addition to unquantifiable social benefits, there might be efficiency gains of around £24 million a year, were we to bring order to the law in this way. I’d rather sort of present that argument as I think there are considerable advantages to businesses, to investors, within Wales, to actually know what the law is, to know where it is, and to know it is simple, clarified and consolidated.

Of course, putting this into practice is complex. It will require consistency over a long period of time—over more than one Assembly. We are, effectively, establishing a Welsh legal statue book—that would be the objective. So, those are the recommendations. You’ll be aware of the recommendations that have been made by the Law Commission, which are very, very detailed. They are being given a lot of thought in terms of how we might implement it, what would be the particular legislative, Standing Order requirements, and so on, and what would be the particular cost and the resource implications, which, again, are significant.

But I can say that I’m of the view that the status quo is no longer an option, that we need to tackle the issues over accessibility of legislation, because, as a Government, we have a responsibility for ensuring that the law is well promulgated, but also that it is accessible—accessible not only to lawyers, judges, and businesses, but to the citizens of Wales as well. And I think it’s something I’d consider fundamental to both our political and legal systems, and is an issue of some importance to all sectors, as I’ve mentioned with the business community. So, I will be making an interim report. Under the protocol that exists with the Law Commission, there will be a final report, a final response, before the end of June 2017.