Part of 2. Questions to the Counsel General and Minister for European Transition (in respect of his European Transition responsibilities) – in the Senedd at 3:19 pm on 27 January 2021.
As you will remember, the EU withdrawal Bill, which received legislative consent from this Senedd, agreed that UK-wide frameworks to replace the EU rulebook will be freely negotiated between the four UK Governments in many areas, some of which you mentioned, and also including, for example, food, animal welfare and the environment. As your colleague the Minister for environment and rural affairs said in her statement on the inter-ministerial group for environment, food and rural affairs last autumn,
'I insisted frameworks had been designed to help understand and manage divergence between the four administrations'.
Indeed, the inter-ministerial group at this meeting agreed a refreshed approach to the finalisation of frameworks to ensure all reached a provisional and usable level by the end of 2020. Last month, in a positive response to the House of Lords, UK Ministers unveiled new amendments to the UK internal market Bill that will protect the common frameworks agreed with Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, preventing barriers to internal trade within the UK that would disadvantage Welsh consumers and businesses. Why, therefore, are you using public resources to take legal action against the UK Government when these agreed frameworks enable current levels of flexibility to be maintained within agreed common approaches?