6. What assessment has the Counsel General made of the cumulative impact of the Nationality and Borders Bill, the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill, and the Bill of Rights on access to justice in Wales? OQ58293

The UK Government regularly fails to consult adequately with us before introducing new legislation, the Bill of Rights Bill being the most recent example. We have not yet undertaken a specific assessment of the cumulative impacts of these latest examples of how the UK Government is restricting access to justice and undermining the rule of law. 

I think the cumulative impact, Counsel General, is very important. There's been much attention to the Bill of Rights Bill and the impact here today in the Senedd, quite rightly, yet this raft of UK legislation, worryingly rushed and lacking effective scrutiny at the moment, could further impact on individual citizens of Wales's access to justice by diminishing or denying that justice to the vulnerable or the poor, to those who dissent from establishment views and who seek the right to protest and to speak out, those who are fleeing persecution and war and arrive here in Wales, and others whose voices are already weak. So, I would ask you, Counsel General, together with the Minister for Social Justice, to make a clear assessment of the cumulative impact of this raft of UK legislation, strident UK legislation, and then make the strongest representations to the UK Government, both in your meetings and in your public pronouncements, too. 

I thank you for those supplementary points, and, of course, at every opportunity we do actually raise these issues, and we have made them at the inter-ministerial meetings as well. The point you raise, in fact, about the various legislation that's been passed, of course, has been something we've discussed on a number of occasions. You'll recall, of course, the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act. There were a number of elements to that that we opposed, that we refused legislative consent to. Some of those were overturned. But, of course, the House of Lords also removed elements to it, and it's very disappointing that, within the legislative programme of the UK Government, there is to be a protest Bill that brings back all of those areas that were of real concern to us, which are restrictions on civil liberties and freedom of speech. 

There was a very important article, I think, that has just appeared in the Constitution Unit blog, and it raised four points that I think are really significant in understanding what is happening. They're talking about the eroding of democracy constitutionally, and they call it 'democratic backsliding'. It said that it starts off with four things, and I will just perhaps mention these because perhaps Members would want to judge whether they think they apply to the situation at the moment. They said the first one is a breakdown in the norms of political behaviour and standards. I don't think we need to look very far to see that item. Secondly, there's the disempowerment of the legislature, the courts and independent regulators. Well, we see that in the bill of rights, the attempt to achieve that, and indeed in other legislation. Third is a reduction of civil liberties and press freedoms, and we've already seen the actual restrictions in civil liberties that have already been introduced in items of legislation. And fourthly, harm to the integrity of the electoral system, and we've seen that already within the elections Bill. I think that those four points all have credit to them and are something that should cause us considerable concern in the direction of the UK Government at this moment in time.