7. When did the First Minister meet with the Secretary of State for Wales to discuss the Wales Bill? OAQ(5)0240(FM)[W]

I have discussed the Wales Bill with the Secretary of State on a number of occasions—the last time over the phone last Friday. It’s very important that the UK Government responds positively to the reports that have been published recently.

Were you any the wiser, First Minister, following your discussions? Because I and the other member of the House of Lords sitting opposite have been in three sittings already discussing the Wales Bill, and have received some positive responses from the Minister, Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth, but it’s clear to me that the Wales Office is nothing more than a bolt-on to the Ministry of Justice, and that the UK Government, in the most unintelligent way, is again trying to draft the Welsh constitution. When will the day arrive when we can write our own constitution here in our own nation?

I sympathise with what the Member says, of course. It’s unfortunate that this Bill won’t be a comprehensive Bill to settle Wales’s constitution for decades. That’s not what this Bill does. There are some positive things in the Bill, and we want to see more positive things added to it. I’ve been discussing this with Lord Bourne, too, in the House of Lords, and as a former Member of this place, he has a deep understanding of the matters that are vitally important here. To me, what’s important is that we have a Bill that is moved forward—it doesn’t move us far enough forward, considering the opinion of the majority of the members of this place, but there is work to do to ensure that the Bill is something that we can consider and support ultimately. So, we look forward to seeing what the response of the UK Government is to some of the matters that haven’t been solved yet.

First Minister, as you say, there has been progress made, and aside from some of the constitutional issues that Dafydd Elis-Thomas referred to, this Bill will give power to the Assembly over such things as the name and electoral arrangements. So, progress has been made there.

Can I ask you, First Minister, tax devolution is part of and is indeed running in tandem with the Wales Bill—what progress is being made in the development on the fiscal framework, so important to ensure that Wales receives its fair share of funding when the block grant reduces to make way for Welsh tax revenues?

Good progress is being made in discussions between the Cabinet Secretary and the Chief Secretary to the Treasury. We are hopeful that there will be a settlement that will be acceptable to all and is good for Wales. There are other areas, of course, that remain outstanding and we hope to see a positive response from the UK Government in those areas.

Nathan—Steffan Lewis. Apologies. Steffan Lewis.

Diolch, Lywydd, I think. [Laughter.] The existing constitutional arrangements cast doubts on the ability of the Assembly to defend its areas of competence in the context of Brexit, but what assessment has the Welsh Government made of the current incarnation of the Wales Bill in terms of the Assembly’s ability to defend its areas of competence? And will the First Minister, in light of the current incarnation of the Wales Bill, give serious consideration to introducing a great continuity Bill in this Assembly to affirm the Assembly’s competence on matters that may be transferred from the European Union to Wales and the United Kingdom?

Two points: first of all, the Wales Bill itself will not be a comprehensive solution to Wales’s constitution. We’ll still have anomalies where this Assembly will make the law in terms of most public order, but the agencies that enforce public order law will not be answerable to the Assembly or the Government. It would be possible, under the current arrangements, for somebody to be arrested in this city for an offence that is not an offence in Wales but is in England. It would be possible for somebody to serve a sentence in England for an offence that is an offence in Wales but not in England. These are the anomalies that are thrown up with the settlement. So, there’s much to do in making that more coherent, although it will not be as coherent as I would have hoped.

The Bill he makes mention of—really, we must see what’s in the so-called great repeal Bill. If all it does—this is the way it’s being presented—if all it does is simply enshrine existing EU law in all jurisdictions and countries of the UK, then I can understand the sense in that, and we will look at the situation afresh to see whether there’s any need to proceed along the lines that he suggested once the detail of that Bill becomes clear. But the principle will be, of course, that no power should be lost to the people of Wales and that any powers that transfer from Brussels in devolved areas come straight here—they pass ‘go’, but unfortunately do not collect money on the way.

Question 8, Nathan Gill.