The Constitutional Future of Wales

Part of 2. Questions to the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution – in the Senedd at 2:47 pm on 6 July 2022.

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Photo of Mick Antoniw Mick Antoniw Labour 2:47, 6 July 2022

Thank you for the question. Of course, while you were in Wrexham marching, I was at a conference in Cardiff talking about Senedd reform, which will obviously be something that will take up a considerable amount of my time in the not too distant future.

I think the point that the Member makes in terms of the future of Wales—. One of the reasons for setting up an independent commission is actually to engage with the people of Wales and to come up with options and analysis that we can consider and take on board with regard to the direction that we actually take. I think it would be a mistake to pre-judge the outcome of the independent commission. I think it is prudent to wait until we have, certainly, the interim report and then ultimately the further report. They're doing very, very important work, and I think it will be very, very valuable when we come to consider some of these constitutional issues in the future. 

I think the most important point that you actually made is this: people want reform, people want change, communities want empowerment, people want a greater say over their lives. Subsidiarity, which is something we talked a lot about in the 1980s and 1990s, has almost been pushed to one side. The common ground is there is a need for real reform that empowers people and communities so that people actually feel they have a real say in the decisions that impact on their lives. I think that is the common ground. How that takes place in a constitutional structure is obviously a debate that will carry on for some time, but will be influenced, hopefully, by the work of the independent commission that we've set up.