5. What legal advice has the Counsel General provided to the Welsh Government regarding the legality of housing asylum seekers in the Penally military base near Tenby? OQ56093

Decisions relating to the asylum system are reserved and so are beyond our direct control. However, given the impact of the decision to utilise Penally on community cohesion and public services, we should have been fully consulted, and we are still unclear about the legal basis under which this development was initiated by the UK Government.

I'm grateful to the Counsel General for his answer. Does he believe that the temporary planning permission that has been granted, which expires in March this year, is actually lawful and will continue to be, and what further steps can he and the Welsh Government take through that legal process in an attempt to ensure that this evidently unsuitable site for these people ceases to be used in this way? It's clear that the COVID crisis has made that particular site even less suitable than it was before for occupancy by these vulnerable individuals. So, is there more that the Counsel General can do, looking at the legality of the planning process, to attempt to influence the return of this property to the Ministry of Defence as soon as possible?

I thank the Member for that supplementary, and she is of course absolutely right to say that this accommodation is inappropriate for the purpose to which it's being put. That is the position of the Welsh Government and we've obviously acted on that basis and made representations in that way to the UK Government. As I mentioned to her, in relation to the underpinning legal infrastructure and framework around the decision that's been taken by the UK Government, we've received no confirmation from them of the legislative basis on which they are themselves basing their decision to use Penally, so it's unclear to us whether the powers they have been using in relation to that have been properly complied with. A range of powers potentially come into play—the Immigration and Asylum Act in particular, but also there'll be requirements in the Equality Act, the public sector equality duty, and the European convention that would require steps to be taken, which, it appears to us, may well not have been taken. Some of those will have involved working with—[Inaudible.]—including the Welsh Government, and certainly that hasn't been complied with. So, there's a range of potential legal issues that might arise. But, as I say, at this point in time we still do not have clarity from the UK Government about the legal basis upon which it's been operating.

I thank the Counsel General.