3. What assessment has the Counsel General made of the legal basis of the memorandum of understanding between Welsh Ministers and the Secretary of State for Transport relating to the creation of a Welsh traffic commissioner? OAQ52807

The memorandum of understanding between the Welsh Ministers and the Secretary of State for Transport, which essentially makes arrangements to facilitate the appointment and funding of a Traffic Commissioner for Wales, was finalised in 2016. My officials provided advice as to the legal basis when memorandum of understanding was entered into.

Thank you for that. I now understand that this now comes under our purview, as the Traffic Commissioner for Wales is for Wales. In August of this year, he, or his office, put a notice into the local papers asking for comments from people as to a goods vehicle licensing request that had been made by a superfarm in west Carmarthenshire. And, on behalf of the people of Llanybri, Llanllwch, Llangain, Llansteffan and Alltycnap Road, I wrote back to him raising our objections in the strongest terms. This superfarm has been a long-running sore to their neighbours and there have been many accidents and many problems. To my absolute shock, I got a letter back that said, and I quote,

'As Members of the National Assembly for Wales are not included in the list of statutory objectors'— and we're not always a statutory objector—

'AMs are only able to oppose an application in terms of its impact on them personally if they own or occupy property in the vicinity of the operating centre.'

Now that the traffic commissioner has become a Wales entity, I wondered if you would be able to review this situation. I thought it was probably in your purview rather than that of the Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Transport, because, whether we are statutory objectors or not, we represent an awful lot of constituents, and I was absolutely horrified by this response because there are hundreds of people who have been affected by that, and if they ask me to be their voice, the whole point of me standing here before you today is to be their voice. 

I thank the Member for bringing that matter to my attention. There are, I think, two points to make. The MOU between the Welsh Government in relation to the traffic commissioner effectively provides funding for enhanced services. Since the MOU was entered into, there's been a change in the devolution settlement, and now, bus registration services, which are provided by the transport commissioner, are devolved to this place, and you heard the Cabinet Secretary talk about his plans in relation to those earlier. But the other range of functions, which the Transport Commissioner for Wales exercises, including the one that she's referred to in her question, are, in fact, reserved competencies. They're reserved to the UK Government and Parliament under the settlement. And I can't comment specifically, obviously, on the individual example that she's given because he will be entering into correspondence in his capacity as discharging his statutory functions. But I would be happy to look at the broader point that she raises about consultations and the ability of AMs to perform their functions, even if it's on an informal understanding rather than a statutory basis.