Part of 3. Topical Questions – in the Senedd at 3:33 pm on 1 December 2021.
The First Minister is unable to be with us this afternoon, but I'm here, obviously, to answer on behalf of the Welsh Government, and I'm very pleased to answer your questions. That often happens with topical questions. You asked some very specific questions, which you're absolutely right to do, but I should point out that a lot of the arrangements in relation to the co-operation agreement are the functions of the Government, which clearly is not the responsibility of the Senedd—it is a matter for the Welsh Government to work through.
You ask about Plaid Cymru in relation to Senedd business. Well, that is absolutely a matter for the Llywydd, for the remuneration board, and for the Senedd Commission. You ask what discussions have taken place. You may be aware that the Llywydd has been in correspondence with the First Minister, and they continue to be in correspondence. And I know, prior to the announcement of the co-operation agreement, discussions were certainly undertaken at an official level.
This is not a coalition, it is a co-operation agreement. And if you look back at the last 22 years of the Senedd, and, prior to that, the Assembly, every Assembly since we've had devolution 22 years ago has involved a partnership arrangement of some sort. We haven't had a co-operation agreement before, but we do see many different arrangements, right across the world. This is not novel; it's different to what we've had before, but it's certainly not novel. And we absolutely have a history of working collaboratively, for the benefit of the people of Wales. We're very happy if the Tory party want to enter into informal arrangements with us. You know the First Minister wrote to the leader of the opposition around a clean air Bill, for instance. The trouble is, the Tories aren't interested in working collaboratively, and I think that says more about your party than it does about my party.
You asked around funding for the co-operation agreement unit. Well, as you may have heard the First Minister say, money has been set aside, and that will be part of our draft budget, which we'll be publishing later this month, and, of course, you will be able to scrutinise that.
In relation to your question around the code of conduct for Plaid Cymru designated Members, as you will have seen, that's been put into annex A, which was published as part of the mechanism document of the agreement this morning. But I do reiterate that this is not a coalition; it's an agreement to deliver a shared programme of work through the co-operation agreement for a three-year period.