Diolch, Llywydd. I really welcome this statement this afternoon, and also the debate that has ensued and the comments, because it shows that, far from being a dry and arcane piece of Tuesday afternoon business here, it actually goes to the heart of trying to make law accessible and understandable, not only for professionals, as has been mentioned, but for the public as well, and that goes to the core of our legal system, and our justiciable elements of our legal system as well. So, it is vitally important. It's been quite wide ranging. I've been slightly overawed as well, I have to say, not only having the legal expertise in front of us here within this Chamber, but also the historic allusions as well, to Hywel Dda, the Book of Iorwerth, Roman law, statue law and so on. But, listen, I'll do my best, in my role as the Chair of the Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee, to respond with a few remarks, and in so doing, I look fondly on my colleague on the frontbench in front of me, not just as the Counsel General but as I like to remember him, as the former Chair of the Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee.

The Counsel General, in his new role, will know that our predecessor committee began considering the Welsh Government's plans for the consolidation of Welsh law back in 2017, and in fact, that committee then subsequently scrutinised the Legislation (Wales) Bill prior to it being passed by the Senedd in July 2019. Given that his committee welcomed the new duty on the Counsel General and the Welsh Ministers at that time to prepare at least one programme for each Senedd to improve the accessibility of Welsh law, the Counsel General, in his new role, will know the strength of feeling that is still within the Senedd to see this work getting up and running. And the approach to this is important. Not trying to do too much at once, but doing it in bite-sized chunks, is important. We will not get there overnight and it's not, I think, appropriate to run at this in terms of resources and so on. But it's the old adage: doing this in bite-sized chunks, how do you eat an elephant? You do it in bite-sized pieces, steadily and slowly and looking for the right opportunities to come along.

The Counsel General gave evidence to our committee yesterday afternoon and we briefly discussed his priorities regarding the accessibility of Welsh law, one of which is to consolidate the Welsh statute book. As you mentioned, in March of this year, the previous Senedd agreed to new Standing Order procedures that will facilitate the introduction and the scrutiny of consolidation Bills, which will play a significant part in improving the accessibility of Welsh law. The Welsh Government's legislative programme statement in July this year stated that legislation relating to the historic environment will be the subject of the first consolidation Bill, and I note that the Counsel General has confirmed that this afternoon. We look forward, in our committee, to taking on this new scrutiny role.

If I can also turn to some other aspects of the statement this afternoon, we very much commend the approach that the Counsel General says: that in future, users will be able to turn to one piece of primary legislation for the law on the management and protection of the historic environment, and that law will be made for Wales alone and will be fully bilingual, a point that was touched on by colleagues in the Chamber a moment ago—the principle that we hold to on that. But also that the programme identifies further areas of the law, where you will be assessing the value and potential for consolidation with a view to bringing forward another two Bills before the end of this Senedd term. We welcome that as well.

The Counsel General will also be aware that stakeholders have said that the ambitious task of making Welsh law more accessible will require sufficient resourcing by the Welsh Government and that legislative measures alone, such as consolidating legislation, will not be enough to make Welsh law truly accessible. In this respect, I do welcome in the statement the references there to seeking to expand and develop the Cyfraith Cymru/Law Wales website, providing the explanatory material and guidance about Welsh law. We welcome as well, as you referred to at the beginning, the long-overdue task of making the Welsh language text of legislation available in up-to-date form, and also your reference to working to improve the functionality of legislation.gov.uk to enable Welsh users to search Welsh law by any subject. And finally, just to remark, we do also welcome your ambitions to complete the long-term project to standardise the hundreds of terms and publish them on the Byd Term Cymru portal, also.

I'd like to conclude my contribution today, Llywydd, by welcoming this programme and the opportunities it brings for making law more accessible to our citizens. That is what it is all fundamentally about. Our committee intends to monitor, now, the implementation of this programme and we look forward to discussing these matters with the Counsel General on a regular basis. Diolch yn fawr iawn, Llywydd.