7. Statement by the Counsel General and Brexit Minister: Brexit Update

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:14 pm on 17 September 2019.

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Photo of David Rees David Rees Labour 5:14, 17 September 2019

Can I thank the Minister for his statement? I also thank the Welsh Government for their action plan that was published yesterday. At least we here in the Assembly have an opportunity to actually scrutinise the Government on its action plan, unlike our colleagues in Westminster who've been blocked from scrutinising the work on Yellowhammer.

Minister, it's all well and good saying—. You know, we've had speeches from various Members. This is not about speeches; it's about asking you questions. So, I'll try and focus on questions, because what you are saying is what we all think. Now, the point is—. A couple of points. I would've hoped that we'd have had—[Interruption.] If the Member would give me a chance to ask some questions. Thank you. Minister, we haven't had an update on the common frameworks, which I would've hoped for in this speech, because it is important we know where we are in those common frameworks. Because if we do leave without a deal on 31 October, it will be nice to know exactly how progress is being made on those common frameworks so that we can ensure that things are progressing as well. But also, perhaps you could comment upon the differences you are experiencing as a consequence of the new Government, because I know with the previous Government we seemed to be progressing, where we had the report—we published that as part of our papers yesterday in the committee—and three of the members involved in that report are no longer in Government, so it is interesting to see whether the new Government is actually taking the progress on common frameworks seriously or not.

Can you also tell us about any future legislative needs for Wales? Again, are there any SIs outstanding that need to be put into place prior to 31 October? Are there any SIs in England or Westminster that we still need to be aware of that need still to go through for us to be able to be in a position where the legislation is in place for a 'no deal' Brexit on 1 November? Also, again, have you assessed the actual specific needs in Wales? We know that proroguing Parliament—we've discussed this, and the First Minister has mentioned it quite clearly. The decision to prorogue Parliament meant all those Bills that are not completed and did not have an Order placed upon them—and none of them did—to actually be allowed to continue are dead, and anything has to be started all over again. There are several Bills that have huge consequences if we don't have a transition period following departure.

Have you also done any further analysis, following the work done by Cardiff University's business school, which you published before, because that was a few months or a while back? Where are we today in your analysis of the economic impact? Because you, I'm assuming—and it's been mentioned by Delyth Jewell—have based your analysis and your action plans upon the data you receive from the UK Government as part of Yellowhammer. Have you done any other analysis yourselves or sought any analysis on the follow-up from the Cardiff business school work?

We haven't discussed this today, but the shared prosperity fund—where are we on that? What discussions have you had in relation to that? The First Minister's already highlighted that that would actually be more than the £600 million being offered to us in an agreement that hasn't yet been passed by Parliament. So, where are we on that, and how does that have implications for the actions you will be taking and these action plans following on, because, as you highlighted in that action plan, some of them are short term and there are other, longer term implications to these? Again, one of the things in the action plan highlighted to me was where you say

'the Bank of England has estimated households are £1,000 worse off every year'.

Now I know, whatever Darren Millar said earlier, constituents in my constituency did not vote to make themselves or their neighbours £1,000 a year worse off. So, we need to look at exactly what the implications are for those.

Can I ask one thing? We've seen the Prime Minister go to Europe eventually and try to persuade Europe that his ideas are actually working and have meaningful content—questionable, but he's tried. But, yesterday, he actually didn't even turn up for a press conference with the Luxembourg Prime Minister. He decided to get himself out of it. Now, that doesn't help relationships with our EU partners. So, what is the Welsh Government doing to ensure we strengthen those partnerships and those relationships in a situation where we might see an acrimonious departure because of the way the UK Government is behaving? Because, for Wales, the continuation of strong relationships with the EU nations and the regions within the EU are going to be crucial for our continuing business needs.