Diolch, Ddirprwy Lywydd. As we celebrate our national day, St David’s Day, it’s an ideal opportunity for me to speak on behalf of the committee to outline our current inquiry on Wales’s devolution journey. While looking back, we will also examine how the National Assembly and the Welsh Government, now and in future, can work with counterparts across the UK to further improve the lives of citizens across our country.

The National Assembly for Wales is still a very young democratic institution. Less than two decades old, and yet firmly established as a part of Wales’s civic and constitutional life; it is as if it has always been there to new generations of young people. Yet the process of devolution is just that: a process. It has often been remarked that devolution is a journey, not a destination. For some that is a worry, and for others an opportunity. But whichever view you have, it is certainly a reality. Including the Act of Parliament that established the first Welsh Government and National Assembly for Wales, there have now been five—yes, five—substantive pieces of Westminster law that have helped take us along the journey. Each has, to varying degrees, been controversial or contested. Each has taken us a step forward, though, arguably, with an occasional step sideways or backwards.

Meanwhile, with increasing powers in many areas, we have made our own laws in devolved areas, building up a new body of ‘made in Wales’ legislation. We know that on this journey there have been many bumps in the road, and sometimes those bumps are due to difficult negotiations—politically and in policy terms—between Whitehall departments and Welsh Government on the latest transfer of powers. Or those bumps can be the week-by-week departmental issues of diverging policies on the economy, health or education, and so on. So our committee has decided to reflect on the journey so far, finding out what has worked well, and what has been less effective. Our intention is threefold: to produce best practice principles for inter-institutional working for constitutional legislation; to reflect and build on the work of other legislatures on inter-institutional working as it relates to broader policy areas; and, thirdly, to seek, establish and promote opportunities for inter-parliamentary working, including the promotion of citizen engagement.

Our recent experience in scrutinising what has now become the Wales Act 2017 will help inform our work, and help us identify how interrelationships can be built on and improved. As a committee, we have already sought to learn lessons: we’ve recognised the benefits of working collaboratively with the House of Lords Constitution Committee to influence the UK Government, where a National Assembly for Wales committee, working on its own, may not be able to do so. This has highlighted to us the need for effective inter-institutional relations, and it’s one of the drivers for taking a closer look at these issues at a parliamentary level.

Our inquiry is split into two strands. The first will look at how inter-governmental and inter-parliamentary relations have evolved and impacted on the development of the devolution settlement. And to help us examine the journey we have taken, we’ve secured what I think is quite an impressive line-up of those who’ve been at the sharp end of shaping and working with devolution over the past 18 years. I think they will help us understand why sometimes devolution runs very smoothly, and at other times it runs into potholes—sometimes very publicly. We will look at the people and the personalities, yes, but also the mechanisms that are meant to oil the machine and keep the relationships between these institutions running smoothly. Indeed, we’ve already taken evidence from Lord Murphy. He spoke about the importance of building personal relationships and the challenge of changing mindsets in Whitehall, where that needs to happen, amongst other things.

However, it is not just about reflecting on the past. We must also gain a full understanding of how the existing structures and policies operate in practice. To this end, the second strand will explore the nature of relationships between the Welsh and UK Governments, how these relationships function and how they can be improved. It will look at improving opportunities for improved policy learning between Governments and Parliaments; at best practice in inter-institutional relations from across the UK that could be imported into the Welsh context; and at the nature of the relationships between the Welsh and UK legislatures and identify opportunities for effective inter-parliamentary working.

It is not our intention to produce just another report that will sit on a shelf and gather dust. The committee wants to make a real and direct impact on inter-institutional working by producing best practice principles and leading from the front in building those relationships. Other countries are managing this relationship successfully and we believe that there is plenty we can learn and adapt from good practice elsewhere.

Assembly Members are seeing the impact of inter-institutional working, both positive and negative, every day in relation to cross-border issues where the devolution lines can sometimes be blurred. That is why it is so important to engage with the public to understand the impact these relationships can have on our citizens. To this end we have trialled a small citizen panel—it’s an Assembly first—to help understand the perceptions of a cross-section of the public. We will also work hard to talk to organisations who do not usually engage with the Assembly and to find out why that is.

The importance of this work is also heightened by the constitutional implications for the devolution settlement of exiting the European Union. It is vital that the inter-institutional working needed to facilitate the smooth transition across the nations that make up the UK is fit for purpose. In doing so we need to ensure that we do not lose powers and competence that currently rest in Wales as we exit the EU. We hope that our inquiry will contribute to ensuring that is the case.

Devolution—moving power closer to the people we serve—is here to stay. As such, for Wales and the devolved nations and regions, but also for the good of the United Kingdom, we need to make sure it works effectively for all of our citizens. This inquiry will go to the very heart of those inter-institutional relationships, and point the way forward for improved working in the future.

This inquiry will take up much of our time in the months ahead. Alongside it, we also intend looking at the codification of Welsh law. As an initial step, we look forward to welcoming the Counsel General to a committee later in the spring to discuss his ideas in this area and decide how to take this work forward. And of course we will also undertake our core role: the scrutiny of all subordinate legislation made by the Welsh Government and any Bill introduced to the National Assembly. And in that latter role, we will continue to look at the quality of the legislation, particularly against the conclusions and the recommendations of our predecessor committee’s report, ‘Making Laws in Wales’.

We will continually ask: are we making good law and how can it be improved? As part of that, we will look at the balance of the legislation and how much policy is being left to be introduced by subordinate legislation, which of course cannot be amended and is therefore subject to less scrutiny. We will also monitor the use and extent of Henry VIII powers being sought by Ministers, the use of consequential provisions and, related to both, the procedures attached to the making of all subordinate legislation.

So, on this day we remember St David, who told us that the little things matter. Our committee will continue to look after the little but important things of our law and constitution, and by doing so, we might also glimpse the greater things that lie ahead of us as a democratic institution and as a nation.