5. Motion to alter the name and remit of the Constitutional and Legislative Affairs Committee

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:52 pm on 29 January 2020.

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Photo of Mark Reckless Mark Reckless Conservative 3:52, 29 January 2020

Diolch, Llywydd, much appreciated. I'm not sure what happened there. 

I object to the motion for two reasons. One is simply in terms of timing. Welsh Government has for some time trailed a debate on the justice commission report, and I think the first thing this morning we had an e-mail announcing the motion under that would be Tuesday of next week. I think it would be better for consideration of renaming this committee to include 'justice' to follow that debate, rather than precede it.

Also, although there are areas of Welsh Government responsibility that are tangential and touch on the justice area, overall this would be fulfilling a recommendation of the justice commission, and that is based on devolving justice to Wales. Justice is not currently devolved to Wales. We complain about how many committees we have to serve on and the amount of work involved. I would question whether it is sensible to add to the workload of a committee an area—justice—that is not currently devolved. I recognise that some Members—perhaps a majority of Members—wish that to be the case, but I believe we should structure our committees around our responsibilities as they are, rather than as some Members might like them to be.