7. What assessment has the Minister made of the impact of the UK Government's proposed Bill of Rights on the legislative and policy framework in Wales? OQ58292

Thank you, Huw Irranca-Davies. The Welsh Government did not see the bill before it was introduced. It requires and is now receiving careful consideration, and we certainly continue to hold fundamental concerns about its potential regressive impact on human rights in the UK and on our positive agenda in Wales.

So, Minister, thank you for the answer, and apologies for a slight diversion into history, but we know that it was in the shadow of world war two that Churchill and Mitterrand and others backed a convention, supported by 100 parliamentarians from the 12 member states of the Council of Europe, to draft this charter of human rights and establish a court to enforce it. The British MP and lawyer Sir David Maxwell Fyfe was one of the leading members who guided the drafting of the convention, but, as a prosecutor at the Nuremberg trials, he had first-hand knowledge of how international justice could be applied effectively.

The UK Government has now decided, in its wisdom, it can do the job better. We will see. But the European Court of Human Rights have made it clear that the competence of Welsh institutions could be changed, depending on the scope of this brave new bill of rights, and this might materially affect the breadth and nature of our devolved competences. Our recent experience with the UK Government in this respect has not been good, so do you have confidence, Minister, that the views of Wales and the rights of people in Wales will be protected in the drafting of this UK bill of rights?

Well, thank you for that supplementary question. We made clear our fundamental opposition to the proposals in the Bill of Rights Bill during consultation at the start of the year, and you know the Counsel General and I issued a written statement on 22 June, reinforcing our concerns. Last week, we had an excellent cross-party group, chaired by Sioned Williams, on human rights. The voice from civil society was so strong, as well as cross-party representation, making clear their concerns about the Bill, and, of course, that spreads well beyond Government—absolute rejection of all the consultation responses that came out against the so-called bill of rights. We also now are setting up a human rights advisory group. It's meeting later this month; we'll be discussing the Bill. We want to take forward a positive and progressive plan of action to strengthen and advance equality and human rights for all the people of Wales. The situation now in terms of the UK Government: let's call on them again today to change direction while it's still possible to do so. Perhaps some of those who resigned might join us in that call today.