Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 2:39 pm on 15 July 2020.
Gadeirydd, thank you very much, and thank you to Mick. Mick Antoniw began by pointing to the astonishing demands that have been made on Government lawyers in the COVID context. Over 60 items of subordinate legislation have been made by Welsh Ministers since early February. Members here will expect, of course, that those powers have been used in relation to the health and social care systems, but they've also had to deal with planning, business tenancies, carrier bag charges, bathing water, education and local government. It's been an enormous effort, and the scrutiny provided through Mick Antoniw's committee, with the help of lawyers on the Commission side, has been invaluable given the speed at which all of this has had to be done.
I look forward, too, to leasehold and commonhold reform. We've already, in this Senedd term, Dirprwy Lywydd dros dro, made a decision that no Help to Buy properties can be leasehold if they're to get support through the Welsh Government, and the management company issues affect freehold sales as well as leasehold sales. I can see that there are other Members around the Chamber here who've had to deal with the results of people having bought a house finding themselves caught up in management fees for freehold properties over which they appear to have very little control or redress.
On the social partnership Bill, I'm grateful to trade union colleagues for their understanding about why we're not able to proceed with it, and I've said to my officials that I want us to use this period to make it an even more effective and important Bill when we're able to publish it in draft. The socioeconomic duty has survived some very tough meetings where we have had to cull our secondary legislative programme to the bone, but the Minister responsible for it is Deputy Minister Jane Hutt, and I can tell you that the tenacity with which Jane has ensured that that piece of secondary legislation remains alive has been everything you would have expected of her.
I referred to codification in my opening statement. Dirprwy Lywydd, we have moved ahead with codification in relation to the historic environment and in the field of planning, and the next Government, of whatever colour, will be under an obligation passed by this Senedd to come forward with further codification and consolidation measures.