Many people, both inside this Chamber and outside it, have criticised this Act for its lack of enforceability. When a Labour backbencher, our own Counsel General, argued that the Act was far too loose and too woolly when he was debating it in its first reading, can we really tell ourselves here now, can we really tell the people of Wales, that it has become less woolly since? We simply can't. It was true then and subsequent court hearings have shown it to be true now. It was hoped that the Act could be used by local communities within judicial review hearings, yet that has not been the case.

Can we tell the students of Cymer Afan Comprehensive that the future generations Act is watertight and protects their cohesive community? When parents of students at the school tried to implement the Act against the closure of their school back in March 2019, it failed; it failed at the first hurdle. The High Court judge Mrs Justice Lambert argued that the Act could not trigger a judicial review. She went further, and said in her decision that the Act was

'deliberately vague, general and aspirational and which applies to a class rather than individuals.'

As such, she said:

'judicial review is not the appropriate means of enforcing such duties.'

Now, I’m not commenting whether these cases would have succeeded in the judicial review applications, but they should have had the opportunity to put that argument forward, to use the Act to put their argument further. But they couldn’t—it was thrown out at the first hurdle on each and every occasion. This Act has more bark than bite, more rhetoric than reality, and is more aspirational than enforceable.