Inter-parliamentary Reforms

Part of 2. Questions to the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution – in the Senedd at 2:56 pm on 9 February 2022.

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Photo of Huw Irranca-Davies Huw Irranca-Davies Labour 2:56, 9 February 2022

The inter-governmental reforms do hold out some positive news, I think. If they can be made to be embedded in both the tone of respect but also the machinery of Government that they genuinely are meaningful between Governments, then they hold out some real hope for the future. But what we do know, of course, is that that strengthening of the inter-governmental machinery means that there is a need to have greater scrutiny of what's going on at that level. So, I wonder—and I do accept entirely what the Counsel General says, that this is a matter for Parliaments—would he personally, with his experience, support the concept that there now needs to be an equal focus on inter-parliamentary reform so that the scrutiny is up to the job of the inter-governmental reform? And that could be taken forward by intra-committee work across the nations, by the intra-parliamentary fora that we are reconstituting or, indeed—and with great respect to my colleague sitting opposite—by the Speakers' convention as well if they wanted to turn their attention to inter-parliamentary reform.