9. Motion to agree to the First Minister's recommendation to Her Majesty to appoint a Counsel General

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:51 pm on 14 November 2017.

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Photo of Mr Simon Thomas Mr Simon Thomas Plaid Cymru 4:51, 14 November 2017

Well, I think—and I appreciate the Member might not have heard what I said—we have the Welsh constitution, which is that the Counsel General is an appointment of this Assembly. It has to be approved by this Assembly—recommended by the First Minister, appointed by Her Majesty, but approved by this Assembly. Now, you could make a coherent argument—I'm not saying you couldn't make a coherent argument, which you've just done—around the division between law officers and Government, but that isn't what we have in this constitution. It has been changed twice, as I said, in two different Wales Acts. This has not been changed or looked at or sought to be changed. And there are other Commonwealth examples from Canada, the United States, and other parts of the Commonwealth where this is the law and process, where we do have a way of voting on appointments of Government law officers—[Interruption.]

If I can just finish my point, I accept there's been a development of this particular law officer, which started in a corporate environment, if you like, and has now developed to be more of a law officer for the Government, but our constitution has not changed and therefore it's important that we don't become some sort of spoon-fed baby Senedd for the Government to decide who they want to put in place. When it comes to an opportunity where we can influence the Government's appointments, then as a parliament we should do that.