Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. It's a great pleasure to be introducing the Legislation (Wales) Bill for the National Assembly for Wales’s consideration. This is a significant moment in the evolution of our legislature because, for the first time, we are introducing legislation that relates to the law itself.

The purpose of the Bill is to make Welsh law more accessible, more clear and more straightforward to use. The nature of the Bill is such that I as Counsel General am introducing it—something that has not happened before. This is an opportune moment, therefore, for me to pay tribute to two of my predecessors, Theodore Huckle QC and Mick Antoniw AM, who both played an important part in the development of the Bill. I would also like to thank the many others who have contributed to the process so far, by responding to the two consultations that we have held as a Government or by making submissions to the Law Commission. The Law Commission’s report, 'Form and Accessibility of the Law Applicable in Wales', provides the rationale for one part of the Bill and, again, I am grateful to them for their work.

Part 1 of the Bill is novel. It seeks to put in place a system that will commit future Governments to keep the accessibility of the law under review and to take action to make it more accessible. Concerns have been raised for many years about the complexity of the law in the United Kingdom and the disorganised state of our vast and sprawling statute book. Much of the complexity derives from the proliferation of legislation made over recent decades within the UK. As a result, the UK statute book is now vast and unmanageable. This in turn means that that part of the statute book that we have inherited is equally inaccessible, perhaps even more so given that Acts of the UK Parliament are being regularly amended to make different provisions for Wales and for England. This problem becomes even more acute set against the wider context of a highly complex and incoherent devolution settlement, the unorthodox arrangement under which Wales and England share a legal jurisdiction, and our responsibility to make laws in both of our languages.

The long-term aim is to create a well-organised Welsh statute book that will categorise the law by codes on specific subjects, rather than simply by reference to when acts and statutory instruments are made. The Bill, therefore, places duties on Government because the scale and nature of the task is such that this must be done systematically and over the long term. This means that the consolidation of the law and the other related initiatives in making the law more accessible have to be a priority for all governments. 

Reaching the goal of a fully codified statute book will take a generation and more. So, before starting that journey, we must understand the purpose of the journey. As a result, also, today, we are publishing a draft taxonomy for codes of Welsh law, and this is to illustrate how the statute book may look in future. Although this is a working document, I nonetheless hope that it will provide Members with a helpful insight into our initial thinking.

We will also be working with the national archives to improve the way existing legislation is published, most notably by organising what we already have by reference to its subject area. This will help pave the way for the consolidation process that is required, while being a useful tool for the users of legislation in the meantime. Once complete, this service will be available through the Law Wales website, a website that we will be improved as another part of the work of making the law more accessible.