7. Welsh Conservatives debate: Ministerial reshuffle: the Permanent Secretary's report

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:39 pm on 28 February 2018.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Rhun ap Iorwerth Rhun ap Iorwerth Plaid Cymru 4:39, 28 February 2018

I certainly do, and you make the point correctly, of course, that redactions do get around the issue that was raised by the First Minister initially.

I'll conclude. I do hope the Assembly will support this motion today. I'll make an important point—if today's motion is supported, Government should act on the Assembly's will. I remind you of a recent comment from a Welsh Government source,

'Opposition day votes are—in many ways—meaningless. They aren't binding and don't have any bearing on government policy or delivery.'

This is not acceptable on any occasion; it's certainly not acceptable today. As parliamentarians, I hope we all want the fullest possible public explanation for the events that have taken place. We know that the various other inquiries are taking place, including that of the independent adviser into whether the ministerial code was breached and the QC-led inquiry. Those investigations—those questions are not in the remit of today's motion, but I do hope that greater transparency can, somehow, be achieved around all of those events.