Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 6:17 pm on 29 March 2022.
Diolch. And thank you for all the contributions. I must say, Llywydd, this is the second time today I've been told off by Janet Finch-Saunders for not paying enough attention to Twitter, but I should inform Members that I'm having a little break from Twitter, which, clearly, some of my colleagues welcome, and I can assure you that the Government press office are delighted by. [Laughter.] So, I'm afraid I didn't see those conversations. But, look, there does seem to be support in the Senedd for the principle of what we're trying to do and the policy intent. There is clear unease about the mechanism by which we are doing it, and I recognise the concerns and I understand the frustrations.
Huw Irranca-Davies conjured up an image of me at night with my head on the pillow, being worried about various things, and secretly agreeing with the points he made. And, of course, I'm a former member of his committee and I completely understand the concerns that Members have. And there is a tension, as Alun Davies rightly identified, between the legislature and the Executive at all times, and that's how it should be. We face pragmatic judgments. Of course we could have brought forward our separate legislation on this, but then we wouldn't have been able to do it in the same timescale. And given the gravity of the issues being faced here, our judgment was it was better to get something that was fit for purpose on the statutory book as soon as we possibly could, to protect the people who are most vulnerable, rather than to wait to get a Welsh Bill. Had we had a Welsh Bill—. It's been noted already by the committee that we have a full legislative programme, so if we were to have a separate Bill on this, that would be at the expense of something else. And as we've just been discussing in the Senedd this afternoon, our legal capacity is still tied up with coronavirus regulations and with the Brexit legacy, and there is a limited amount both our policy officials and legal officials are able to do. So, we have a full and bold legislative programme, and when there are opportunities to use UK legislation to advance our policy aims, we do take a pragmatic view that it is right to do that.