8. What discussions has the Counsel General had with other UK law officers in respect of the UK Government's review of EU retained law? OQ57407

Thank you for your question. The UK Government has informed Welsh Government that it intends to fully engage with the devolved Governments in conducting its review of retained EU law. I await further information with regard to that review and how the UK Government intends to engage with Welsh Government.

A simple supplementary, Counsel General. In awaiting the future response from the UK Government, I wonder on what basis does he expect engagement between the UK Government and Welsh Government Ministers such as himself, the Counsel General, to be conducted. Should it be on the basis of respect and understanding of the competences of devolved administrations? Does he have any other thoughts on the way he would like this to proceed in a constructive and positive way?

Can I first of all say that this was raised by Lord Frost, who has since resigned from Government? We had been informed at official level that the UK Government intended to fully engage with the devolved Governments in conducting their review of retained EU law. We received a letter from Lord Frost, drawing our attention to a written statement setting that out and that it would be discussed at a future meeting of the UK-EU inter-ministerial group. We have no details of the policy proposals; what information we have is extremely limited. My policy officials are pressing for clarity in this and we've asked for meetings later this month for a further update on the UK Government's plans. But in the absence of more detail, it's difficult to assess the impact on the Welsh Government and indeed on the Senedd. But I have to say there is considerable potential for significant impact on Welsh Government with legislative consent motions being required for much of the legislation being brought forward, but also this has the potential to significantly intrude in terms of devolved areas of responsibility.

My immediate concern was the impression appeared to be that we were going to be consulted over this in the same way as any other stakeholder. We're not any other stakeholder within this process; we are one of a number of UK Parliaments and Governments that have to be properly engaged with in that context, because of the impact this may have on our legislative capacity, on the devolution settlement and, indeed, on all those policies we have about standards and economic and social justice.

I thank the Counsel General.