3. What analysis has the Counsel General made of the impact on Welsh law of a no-deal outcome of the Brexit negotiations? OAQ52641

I thank the Member for that question. As a responsible Government, we are planning for all Brexit scenarios, including a ‘no deal’. As part of these plans, work has been ongoing and has now intensified on the subordinate legislation programme to ensure that all of the corrections that are needed to Welsh legislation can be made in advance of exit day.

Thank you for those answers. I think it's very important that we are in a position to understand the implications upon Welsh law of an occasion where we have a 'no deal' and we are literally leaving the EU on 30 March 2019 without any protections, in one sense, and we've lost a lot of the protections the EU gave us. Therefore, can you confirm that you are in discussions with the UK Government as to how those protections can be put into place, particularly for workers' rights and our citizens' protections, to ensure that we can continue without the loss of that protection? And, at the same time, are you also looking at the situation where we in Wales also have the ability to look at UK law? I'm particularly concerned about the trade deal agreements and the trade deals that might happen, and how they may actually impose upon devolved competencies if a trade deal is done with our nation, and what rights we have as a consequence of an agreement made, which may impact upon devolved areas. 

Well, I can confirm that we have been planning on a 'no deal' scenario basis, as one of the exit scenarios, and ensuring that we have identified all Welsh law that needs to be preserved following exit day, and taking steps to ensure, if a 'no deal' situation comes to pass, that we have legislation in place to preserve the current situation to ensure legal continuity and certainty of the law following exit. 

We have a timetable for introducing those revised statutory instruments to the Assembly. We've identified around 400 statutory instruments that require correction to deal with that outcome. That will lead to probably around 50 statutory instruments being brought before the Assembly. The exact timing and sequencing and content of some of those depend on discussions with the UK Government, because in some of those areas it makes sense for the UK Government to make those changes with our agreement here. And that will affect the sequencing and the exact number of statutory instruments that need to be brought forward to the Assembly.  

I should just make it clear that this is an unprecedented programme, really, of activity, in the scale required to address that 'no deal' outcome. It does require a shared approach with the UK Government. There is sharing of information that is happening across the board. There are certainly some areas where that needs to be improved upon, but we are taking advantage of shared information and shared drafting, to facilitate that process across the piece.

In relation to the question that he raises about trade deals, it is a concern that negotiation of trade deals, given the breadth and depth and reach of them into some of the aspects of devolved law, is a concern. He will be aware of the observations that the First Minister made in his recent speech to the Institute for Government about how that should look going forward in the future, and that trade deals should involve devolved administrations in working out negotiation strategies, so that we are able to observe the devolution settlement here in Wales, as in other parts of the UK.