5. Statement by the First Minister: The Legislative Programme

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 2:34 pm on 15 July 2020.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Mick Antoniw Mick Antoniw Labour 2:34, 15 July 2020

First Minister, firstly, can I thank you for your statement? Can I also thank, and put my own name on record as thanking, really, all those Welsh Government lawyers in respect of the considerable amount of legislation that they've had to work on? I think it's difficult for people to perhaps appreciate the scale of legislation that has been developed and the skills that go along with that. And equally so because my committee is one that assesses and reviews the probity of a lot of the legislation as it goes through, and scrutinises, and we know that within the pressure, from time to time, mistakes are made, so also the skill and expertise of the Senedd lawyers, who back the committee and identify those, and then the positive relationship that exists in ensuring that we have some of the best and most effective legislation that goes through. Certainly, in our 10 years as a Parliament, as a legislature, we have developed the skill at developing effective and well-drafted legislation. We obviously have more to learn, but it has been a very productive 10 years.

Can I say, first of all, in respect of the comments you made in respect of legislation on residential leasehold and commonhold, there will be whoops of joy going up in my constituency at the possibility that we will legislate to ban the scourge of leasehold properties for the future? Many leasehold issues are, of course, matters that are reserved, so what the Law Commission comes up with will obviously be of importance to us. But there is another aspect to this that it is important that we develop as well, and that is in respect of the management companies, the amount of ancillary property around developments that are also put out to management companies. This may well be something that we could actually stop through the planning process without legislation, but I think it goes hand in hand that, on the one hand, those who purchased leasehold properties end up having to pay leasehold payments, but also then that, often, many of the facilities around and the land around are also subject to further charges that blight the properties, and we would want to see an end to that.

Can I say in respect of the social partnership Bill that I fully understand the delays there and what is important is that we have legislation that is effective? This is legislation that is going to become so important, groundbreaking in the UK, in respect of the post-COVID environment that we live in, where we're looking, really, at the way we use our procurement to establish ethical standards, that we recalibrate the values in terms of some of our employment and social relationships that we actually have. I know from the trade union side that, although there was a hope that this legislation would be on the books before the elections, the preference certainly is to have effective and rigorous legislation prepared for the next Assembly.

I'm very pleased also at the work that is going on with regard to the implementation of section 1 of the Equality Act 2010. This will enable Government to set guidelines in terms of socioeconomic duty. It is legislation that will be very important in respect of women workers, in terms of the equality, the gender pay gap and the general gender discrimination that exists within many of our workplaces and parts of our society. Perhaps you could comment on the issue of guidelines that would need to go along with this in order to implement and make effective this legislation.

The other area, of course, that is very important is the codification of law and access to law and access to justice. I do hope, in terms of one area, that what we do—