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 4:53 pm on 14 November 2017.

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Photo of Carwyn Jones Carwyn Jones Labour 4:53, 14 November 2017

It is correct to say, of course, that the Assembly approves the appointment of the Counsel General, who is then appointed by the Queen. In fact, the Counsel General is in a situation where a Counsel General cannot actually be taken from Government by the First Minister. That can only be done by the Queen or via the Counsel General taking that decision for himself or herself. It's hugely important that the Counsel General is somebody who is a lawyer, for obvious reasons. It is right to say, as Mark Reckless has said, that the Counsel General is the chief legal adviser to the Government, not to the Assembly. And so what role the Assembly should play is difficult to envisage. Arguments have been made in this Chamber that there should be pre-appointment hearings for those who are in executive positions or chair positions for Welsh Government sponsored bodies. This is not the same thing: this is somebody who would be a member of Government. And just to deal with the point that Simon Thomas raises about the US, the US is not a Commonwealth country as he said, and secondly there's an entirely different system of government. I do regret the fact that we were given no notice of Plaid Cymru's concern, but we'll deal with it in the Chamber. The reality of it is that, in the US, there is a President who appoints a Cabinet of people, none of whom are elected—none of whom are elected. On that basis, then, the constitution requires that there should be a pre-appointment hearing by the legislature in order to make sure that somebody who isn't elected is the right person for the job within the Government—it's a wholly different scenario. [Interruption.] Yes, yes—[Interruption.] The Member for Ynys Môn was first.