2. Business Statement and Announcement

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 2:31 pm on 27 November 2018.

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Photo of Mick Antoniw Mick Antoniw Labour 2:31, 27 November 2018

Leader of the house, I call for a statement on two matters. The first one is: you'll be aware of the Musicians' Union report, which raises the issue of the lack of access to music now for whole sections of communities, and individuals, particularly from more deprived backgrounds. It would be very helpful to have a statement that actually analysed that report and identified whether those conclusions actually apply to Wales as well.

And the second one I'd like to ask for is a statement on the discussions that Welsh Government has had with the UK Government in respect of the provision of information to Members of Parliament and to Assembly Members from differing Parliaments. The reason being this: we are all parliamentary representatives; we raise matters on behalf of our constituents. I have matters I've had to raise with the Home Office. The Home Office refused to reply to Members of the National Assembly for Wales. If we were to adopt the tit-for-tat approach in respect of devolved responsibilities between the respective Parliaments, then business would break down, constituents would have a bad deal in terms of representation. And it seems to me that this is a major issue, that the Home Office has adopted the position of basically completely refusing to engage with Members of the Assembly for Wales. If we adopted that in other areas, we'd have very significant consequences. We obviously don't want to have that. It seems to me it's a matter that needs to be resolved at Government to Government level.