Part of 2. Questions to the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution – in the Senedd at 2:37 pm on 12 January 2022.
Well can I say firstly, if you haven't had the letter from me, then apologies for that. Of course, you have the information from the budget, and, of course, I think in previous answers I did refer to the forthcoming budget. In terms of the cost of operating a commission that is going to engage with the people of Wales, over a period of several years, on an issue that is fundamentally important to the future of Wales and the future of the UK, it seems to me absolutely right that there should be sufficient funding to enable it to do that work and to engage with the people of Wales. The engagement part of the commission's work is clearly something that is exceptionally additional to the work of some previous commissions, and is a fundamental part of actually building that consensus that I have described previously.
In respect of the actual breakdown, I suspect the problem with the breakdown at the moment is that the commission is, at the moment, in the process of developing its own strategy and its work programme and the costings of that. And I'm sure further information can be made available in due course, when we have further information about those details. But for now, the important part is ensuring that the commission is able and capable of doing work that is so fundamental to the future of Wales and the future of the UK.