6. 4. Legislative Consent Motion on the Wales Bill

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:06 pm on 17 January 2017.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Carwyn Jones Carwyn Jones Labour 4:06, 17 January 2017

If you look at agriculture, we take the decisions on agriculture. If you look at fisheries, we take decisions on fisheries. There is no question of there being some kind of UK-wide agricultural policy that’s not devolved on the basis of what the Prime Minister said. That is quite clear to me. The point that I have made on many, many occasions is that it is hugely important that, where we do need to have common frameworks across the UK—and there are arguments for those common frameworks in some areas—that it’s done by agreement, not by imposition from Whitehall. Replacing Brussels bureaucrats with Whitehall bureaucrats is not what the people of Wales voted for, and we need to have a proper mechanism in the UK to achieve agreement on common issues, rather than it being seen as an imposition.

On that basis, then, I do recommend, as you might expect, that today the Assembly votes for this legislative consent motion, but that it does so noting strong reservations, it does so with some reluctance, and it does so knowing that this is another step on the journey of devolution in Wales, but understanding that in the future there will be more steps to come. Thank you.