8. What is the Welsh Government doing to ensure constitutional arrangements reflect the new political architecture of the UK? OQ56887

Thank you, John Griffiths, for that question. The constitution has undergone considerable change in recent years, with devolution coming under attack from an increasingly assertive UK Government. That is why we are establishing a constitutional commission, which will be reaching out into civic society and the public to find a consensus on devolution and the wider constitution.

I very much welcome that constitutional convention, and look forward to its work and findings, Counsel General, but I think there is widespread recognition of a lack of useful UK arrangements and mechanisms to reflect this new UK that we have following devolution in 1999 and then the other developments, including elected mayors. There's a real gap at a UK level, which I think is very frustrating, because it would be useful to bring levels of government together, to discuss ways forward, to prevent and deal with disputes, and recognise the new UK that we have in Government, and what should be constitutional to it. So, given that we've just had a reshuffle of the UK Government, Counsel General, I just wonder whether you see any hope of an end to the frustrating period we've had, where the UK Government has simply failed to properly embrace this agenda and take steps that would benefit the whole of the UK.

I think that goes to the core of the challenge that we actually have. The proposals that we put forward through 'Reforming our Union' and through other mechanisms, whether it be on individual legislation or in terms of inter-governmental relations, is an effort to resolve the constitutional dysfunction that exists, but in order for that to happen, there has to be common agreement.

It has been extremely challenging, extremely difficult, and I think there are many hurdles. Many of the things we do—. When you live in a combination of four nations, where effectively the constitution is largely unwritten, the issue of goodwill and trust is absolutely fundamental to making that work. My view is that we actually need to move to a position where we actually have a written constitution, but in terms of what can be done in the interim—. I suppose what I should say is: despite all the difficulty and challenges, and I don't want to rehearse and go through them as we've done quite a bit of that already this afternoon, I do think that the considerable skilled work that Welsh officials and Ministers have been carrying out with regard to inter-governmental relations—and I'd say that across all four nations of the UK—is at least encouraging in developing what may be an interim way of resolving some of those dysfunctions, and addressing some of the concerns we have. The key challenge is going to be that the devil is always in the detail, and as I've said earlier, there are some grounds to be a bit more optimistic, but we've been down this road before and we have to tread cautiously.

Thank you, Counsel General.