Resolving Disputes between the Governments of the UK

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:05 pm on 12 February 2019.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 2:05, 12 February 2019

Well, I thank the Member for what he said and I don't disagree with him that negotiation is always going to be the main way in which disputes are resolved. What we are talking about in this question, in the way that the former First Minister put it, is what happens when negotiation runs out of road. And you do have to have a set of arrangements in place in order to deal with the point at which attempts to resolve disputes—by avoiding them, by resolving them, by negotiating them—don't get you to the end point. And as Carwyn Jones said, we cannot have is a system in which the body that is responsible for resolving the dispute is a party to that dispute. That's what happens at the moment. It's not acceptable now, it's certainly not acceptable in the long run. When negotiation runs out, then you have to have a mechanism that is genuinely independent and commands the confidence of all the players involved in it.