Questions Without Notice from Party Spokespeople

Part of 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Finance – in the Senedd at 1:51 pm on 20 June 2018.

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Photo of Mr Simon Thomas Mr Simon Thomas Plaid Cymru 1:51, 20 June 2018

I thank the Cabinet Secretary for his reply. The difficulty, I think, is that I can see this as part of a pattern of behaviour by several Conservative Ministers now, which, I'm afraid, I think that the Welsh Government is facilitating rather than preventing—inadvertently, perhaps.

I'll give you another example of this that's emerged in the last couple of weeks. As you know, you have an inter-governmental agreement on the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill, and that makes it very clear that the UK Government will commit not to bring forward legislation that would alter areas of policy insofar as the devolved legislatures are prevented from doing so by virtue of the clause 11 regulations. So, what you've told this Assembly is a double deal, if you like, on that.

However, there is the amendment passed in the Lords—the Letwin amendment, as it's called—that requires the Secretary of State to publish a draft Bill containing environmental regulations in England, but doesn't specifically say only for the public authorities in England. And, of course, environmental regulations are one of the 24 policy areas that make up your inter-governmental agreement.

Already this inter-governmental agreement has been described by Tim Lang from City, University of London, as showing that Wales is steamrollable by Whitehall. Are you still convinced that the agreement is robust enough to protect the interests of Wales? And are you still convinced that the Letwin amendment, and the response of the UK Government to that, does not in fact show that the agreement that the ink is barely dry on is already being undermined by the Westminster Government?