Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. We laid our report on the Welsh Government's memorandum in respect of this Northern Ireland Protocol Bill on 9 November, and my thanks to our clerking team and also Members for their consideration and diligence.  

Our report expressed our concern with the Bill, for many reasons. Firstly, on introducing the Bill, the UK Government said it envisages the non-performance of its international obligations. We are therefore concerned with the Bill's potential to break international law, as the Minister has indeed said. The UK Government is relying on the doctrine of necessity to justify its approach. The Welsh Government has stated that it believes that this is a 'very controversial' way of escaping international obligations, as noted by the Minister in the memorandum. Many legal commentators also point out that invoking the doctrine of necessity in these circumstances is a weak defence that is unlikely to succeed.

As the lead committee for international agreements, we believe that adherence to them is of paramount importance. We also agree with the Counsel General that the potential breach of international law by the Bill creates a constitutional problem for this Senedd, because we are being asked to consent to something that effectively legitimises unlawfulness.

As the Senedd will know, my committee does not normally make a recommendation as to whether the Senedd should give its consent to provisions within UK Bills. However, due to the profound constitutional implications of this Bill, we believed it was right to do so in this instance. All of our members except for one believed that the Senedd should withhold its consent to the Bill. We come to that conclusion because a decision by the Senedd to consent to this Bill could contribute to a breach of international law, and would mean the Senedd acting incompatibly with its international obligations. This would, without doubt, go against the spirit of the devolution settlement.

We also share the Minister's concerns that recommending consent to the Bill would call into question Welsh Ministers' adherence to the ministerial code, which includes a specific duty on Ministers to comply with international law and with treaty obligations. If Welsh Ministers are expected to exercise the regulation-making powers under the Bill, doing so could amount to repeated breaches of that code.

Turning to those regulation-making powers in particular, we noted that the House of Lords Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee called all the powers in the Bill, in quotes, 'super Henry VIII powers'—a striking observation. They gave them this name as the powers within the Bill allow Ministers to make any provision that could be made by an Act of Parliament, including modifying the Bill by regulations after it is enacted. So, we agree with them; the extremely wide delegated powers in this Bill are concerning. They would allow UK Ministers to effectively make any changes they wish to the Bill in the future—including retrospectively—without any role or involvement for Welsh Ministers or indeed for this Senedd.

Our concerns in relation to the wide delegated powers in the Bill remain the same regardless of whether those powers are exercised by UK Ministers or subsequently in the future by Welsh Ministers. Of further concern to us is the fact that it is not yet known which new delegated powers for the Welsh Ministers may be created as a consequence of the Bill, or which procedures may be applied to those powers, and that UK Ministers will make all those decisions.

It is also unclear to us, frankly, why all this is necessary, since the withdrawal agreement's own mechanisms have not yet been fully explored, and that includes article 16 of the Northern Ireland protocol, which allows the UK and EU to take temporary safeguarding measures if the protocol leads to certain difficulties or to trade diversions. We are concerned, as has been expressed by the Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee, that the UK Government's approach is likely to have a negative impact on the UK's relations with the EU.

Turning to specific clauses within the memorandum, we agree with the Minister that the clauses listed in the memorandum fall within a purpose within the legislative competence of the Senedd. However, we also believe that clauses 6, 7, 11, 18 and 24 of the Bill fall into that category too. The memorandum states that clauses 2 to 4 and 13 to 15 of the Bill modify the legislative competence of the Senedd. We agree with that assessment, but we also believe that clauses 8 and 20 modify legislative competence as well. We do not believe that clause 12 requires the Senedd's consent, and I know that's a view that's not shared by the Minister, so we'd welcome any observations on that, Minister.

Before I bring my remarks to a close, I would like to raise the committee’s disappointment once again with the UK Government’s poor engagement with the Welsh Government ahead of the introduction of legislation that affects areas of devolved competence. We recognise that this was one of the reasons why the memorandum was laid 15 weeks after the Bill’s introduction. However, we also nevertheless believe that the Welsh Government could itself have acted sooner to allow for more sufficient scrutiny by Senedd committees, especially considering the Bill’s international and constitutional implications, picked up by my fellow Chair. Diolch yn fawr iawn.