4. Statement by the Counsel General Designate and Brexit Minister: The UK Government's current proposals for EU Withdrawal

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:58 pm on 15 January 2019.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Jeremy Miles Jeremy Miles Labour 3:58, 15 January 2019

I thank the Member for that question. Firstly, with regard to the extension of article 50, I think he's right to say that. I think that finding a resolution to this is going to need an extension to article 50. That's certainly what we've been calling on the Government in Westminster to seek from the other European Union members.

In relation to the work of preparation, he's absolutely right to identify this as a cross-Government responsibility. There isn't really a part of Government that this doesn't touch, and all Members of the Government are responsible for ensuring that we are looking at the various consequences of different scenarios and preparing as best we can for those. Preparedness work comes in four strands, if I can summarise it in this way. Firstly, the sort of work where, as I mentioned in my statement, the UK Government is leading on aspects of it because the levers are in their control, for example, but we have a strong interest in some of those areas and therefore we're participating with them—supplies of medicines and so on would be an example of that. There's the work we've been doing on the legislative programme. We've consented in this place to around half of the volume that will need to be passed through Westminster, and we've begun, over the last few weeks, to lay Welsh-specific regulations here in the Assembly as well, as he knows. Work on that is on track. Obviously there is some work here that is dependent on work that is happening at Westminster, but providing that continues to happen to the current timetable, then we are reasonably well placed to make sure that that's done in time. There is civil contingencies work that he refers to there. Those are very established structures, as he will know, and they engage the UK Government and all devolved administrations and local government and other partners as well. Clearly it's incumbent on all the Governments in the UK to look at different scenarios and to ensure that those civil contingency arrangements, in ways that may be familiar, are able to be activated should they need to happen. Clearly, the objective is that that should never be the case, and the preparedness in other areas means that the risk of those procedures needing to be activated is minimised.

That takes me to the fourth area in which preparedness is under way: projects that are specific to Wales that perhaps reflect characteristics specific to Wales—the nature of our economy, the fact that we have a high number of small and medium-sized enterprises, for example. So, those projects are the sorts of things that have been supported by the Welsh Government through the European Union transition fund, and that's touched all sectors of the economy, private, public and third sector as well. He may have seen the announcement today of further support for police liaison for social services and for the future planning of regional investment, in which he will have an interest given his new responsibilities. We're also discussing with the Welsh Local Government Association what further support we can give to local government, and there'll be announcements about that in due course.