Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 6:23 pm on 7 January 2020.
Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. We considered these regulations at our meeting on 9 December 2019, and we laid our report on 10 December. Our report identified one merit point for reporting under Standing Order 21.3, which related to a drafting point.
The regulations refer to article 3 of the Immigration (European Economic Area Nationals) (EU Exit) Order 2019, which was made under section 3A of the Immigration Act 1971. We ask why it was necessary in these regulations to cite the enabling power in the Immigration Act 1917 when referring to article 3 of the 2019 Order. The Welsh Government's response cited precedent for the drafting approach that was taken. We did seek further clarification from Government, and we do welcome the Minister for Finance and Trefnydd's recent reply to us, which gave the additional background to the drafting choice that we had requested.
Finally, I would like to note that our report also highlighted implications in the regulations as a result of the UK's exit from the European Union. Diolch, Llywydd.