Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:50 pm on 27 February 2018.
Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. Can I thank the Cabinet Secretary for his statement this afternoon? I'll try and be as brief as possible because I actually have the opportunity to question the Cabinet Secretary next Monday in the committee meeting, and we'll go a bit deeper then. I'll try and focus purely on the JMC today, and not the continuity Bill, although I agree with Simon Thomas and Steffan Lewis on the issues they both raised in relation to that.
In your discussion at the JMC—clearly, you've talked about the EU withdrawal Bill very much, heavily, but it is a question of what discussions you had about the transition period, because that is clearly an important step. All I see at the moment are the delays being enforced by the issues on the withdrawal Bill knocking us back on those discussions, and the ability to actually be partaking in the decision making in the negotiations for phase 2 being delayed. As Steffan Lewis pointed out, last week we saw the Cabinet—or a part of the Cabinet—meeting privately in Chequers, with nobody from the devolved nations representing them. It seems to be another mechanism by which our input is being ignored, effectively. So, can you tell us where you are on that? And have you got guarantees that we will be in the rooms when negotiations on phase 2 take place so that we can actually have our say in the areas that are important?
On the issues of frameworks, you've mentioned 20 deep dives so far—10 more to come next month. You're optimistic; perhaps I'm cynical. Is that another way of simply saying at the end of it, 'Oh, look, we've done so much, we don't actually worry about the powers because it doesn't affect that many areas'? I just think that the UK Government are working away that way. But you talked about the frameworks and who decide on those frameworks, but can you confirm as to what discussions you've had about who will decide upon who will take the actions on the frameworks? Because when it comes to agreeing a framework, where will those actions be taken, and will that be with consent as well?