3. What legal representations has the Counsel General made on behalf of the Welsh Government in support of the Backto60 appeal about the alleged mishandling of raising the state pension age for women born in the 1950s? OAQ55205

I'm aware, of course, that permission to appeal has been granted by the Court of Appeal itself in relation to the pension challenge, and that the appeal hearing will take place in late July. Whilst the Welsh Government is not a party to that action, we have, of course, written to the UK Government on a number of occasions to express serious concerns that women who've had their state pension age raised without effective or sufficient notification are being prejudiced.

I'm grateful to the Counsel General for his response. Given that we now have a new Government at the other end of the M4, and that that Government talks a lot about levelling up and about fairness, would the Counsel General consider, perhaps with the Deputy Minister with responsibility for equalities, making further representations to the appropriate Minister at Westminster and perhaps looking again at whether or not there may be some contribution that we could make, perhaps by way of evidence, to the appeal that he mentions? It may be that, with a new Minister in place, and with this new emphasis on fairness, and a slightly more relaxed approach to spending, we may get somewhat of a better hearing. I don't think any of us would be sanguine, but I'm sure that the women affected here in Wales would be very grateful if the Welsh Government were prepared to try again.

I know he agrees with me that this is a very profound injustice, that these women were picked on, and we know they were picked on, because the then Chancellor of the Exchequer thought that he could get away with it. He thought that they wouldn't fight back. This may be an opportunity for the Government of Wales, on behalf of this whole Assembly, to make further representations on behalf of our fellow citizens who have been most foully treated.

The Member certainly is not sanguine, nor are we on these benches, as she generously accepts in her question. As she will know from our previous exchanges in the Chamber in relation to this, we have sought every opportunity to put our perspective on behalf of women in Wales to the UK Government and have frequently received responses that we have put in the public domain. She will herself, I'm sure, share our assessment of the gross inadequacy of those responses in tackling the injustice that we seek to represent women in Wales on on that matter.

I have already had reflections on how we can continue to make representations in relation to this new stage of legal proceedings and will be discussing that with the Deputy Minister. We should be absolutely clear that the women who face this injustice have faced a number of other injustices very frequently during their working lives, and the UK Government should do all it can to ensure that, in this respect, at least, it stands on the side of those women who have given so much to society and have found, later on in life, that the Government is not standing on their side.

Thank you very much, Counsel General.