The Thomas Commission

Part of 3. Questions to the Counsel General and Minister for European Transition (in respect of his 'law officer' responsibilities – in the Senedd at 12:42 pm on 1 July 2020.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Jeremy Miles Jeremy Miles Labour 12:42, 1 July 2020

I thank Alun Davies for the question. There have been aspects of progress; I want to reassure him in relation to that. So, the Civil Procedure Rule Committee have recently agreed to make it compulsory, for example, for cases against Welsh public bodies to be heard in Wales, where there was challenge to the lawfulness of their decisions. And I was also very pleased to see that the Solicitors Regulation Authority have committed now to make the solicitors qualifying examination qualification available in Welsh. Both of those are recommendations of the Thomas commission. Whilst important, I'm not suggesting they are the central recommendations, obviously, but just to demonstrate that, where progress has been possible, we have been pursuing that, together with our partners.

On the larger point that he makes in relation to what we have perhaps learnt in the last few weeks in particular about the impact of the nature of our devolution settlement in justice on outcomes, which is fundamentally the most important case to make, I think it does demonstrate the shortcomings of the current arrangements. And whereas public bodies in Wales have done their utmost, I think, and their level best, to work together in extraordinarily difficult circumstances, I do think those have been to some extent hampered in this space by the nature of our devolution settlement. And I made that point to the Lord Chancellor in a recent discussion with him; I know he also is focused on outcomes. And some of those practical points around the prison population in particular—that conversation that I had with him, together with the First Minister and the Chief Whip, also explored the establishment of the first residential women's centre in Wales, for example, so, hopefully, again, making practical progress in some of those areas. But I would certainly echo the larger point that he makes about what we've learnt about the devolution settlement in the last few weeks and months.