It seems to me that, on a quiet Tuesday on the run up to Christmas at around 5.05 p.m., the Counsel General stood up in the Chamber in a very measured and calm way and said something that was quite a landmark moment in terms of legislatures within the UK and internationally, and I commend him for doing so. He has put his comments forward in a very measured way, in a very calm way, and reassured this Parliament that he will take this forward, he will ‘tread cautiously’ I think were his words, on a very long journey and this might take very many years. But I wonder, on this quiet afternoon, if he were successful, the repercussions of the journey that he’s just set out on might not only be long lasting, but extremely influential as well, across other legislatures. What he has, in effect, said is that he’s going to approach the issues of clarity, simplicity, transparency and accessibility of the law, not only to those who make law, but to the members of the public who need to understand the law—the citizens of this country—in a very different way.

We look across the plethora of legislation that has accumulated, not simply over years and decades, but over centuries, and the complex jungle of legislation that that has built that underpins our current legislation, and how difficult that is, then, to navigate the way through that. So, in setting out on what he has described very moderately, in very moderate terms this afternoon, I think he has picked up already the appetite from members of the Constitutional and Legislative Affairs Committee, a desire to wish him well in the hope that he succeeds as he takes these steps forward.

I pay tribute, by the way, to predecessor committees as well—the Constitutional and Legislative Affairs committee under the stewardship of previous Chairmen, including David Melding himself, who put some of the underpinning thought to this, alongside the work of others, such as the Law Commission. As Members will be aware, our predecessor committee published a very comprehensive and wide-ranging report, ‘Making Laws in Wales’, in October 2015, and in that report it was noted that the Law Commission was keen to develop closer links with the committee and provide regular updates of its work every six months. Well, the first of those meetings, I can report to the Assembly, took place at the start of December, when we received a briefing on the Law Commission’s ‘Form and Accessibility of the Law Applicable in Wales’ report, and we discussed its findings at length. Clearly, both our reports covered very similar ground. At the heart of each is a desire to ensure that law made in Wales by this Assembly is accessible to all our citizens. It’s a fundamental pillar of our democracy.

The ‘Making Laws in Wales’ report recommended,

‘that the Welsh Government, in collaboration with the Law Commission, develops a long-term plan for consolidating law in Wales.’

So, it’s pleasing, therefore, for the Counsel General and the Welsh Government to indicate support for the development of procedures for consolidating the Bill, which was also a recommendation of our predecessor committee.

That committee didn’t look at the issue of codification. I’m sure we’ll want to look at this issue further, bearing in mind the statement today, but I think he can pick up already, from the comments of committee members, that there’s a clear interest and, in some ways, an excitement around the potential of this proposal. I believe, as a committee, we are well placed to explore how we can take forward the delivery of more accessible law to our citizens.

So, we wish him very well on this journey, beginning with a few small steps, looking at piloting this within certain areas. David Melding has already commented that there may be areas that we could look at within this session of this Assembly that we could actually bring forward and see codified law, if that is the way forward. I can’t compete with Hywel Dda or Aristotle, but it is probably pertinent to use that line from that old joke, which is, ‘You wouldn’t want start from here.’ This is going to be quite a journey. The complexity of what has been inherited could be quite overwhelming, but our advantage is that we are a young and dynamic institution. If anybody can do this, we can. In that regard, it is very exciting indeed. So, good luck to the Counsel General. Good luck to us in taking this forward as well. We are pioneering, and that’s what this place should do.