Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:24 pm on 23 November 2022.
Thank you for the question. The judgment is very clear about the competence issue, and that is, really, the only issue that the Supreme Court has dealt with. It is clear and final in that respect.
In terms of the Welsh position, well, what we do have is a recognition within Wales, from the various manifestos, that there is a need for constitutional reform. There is a need for engagement within that, and the Government has made the case very strongly for the need for a constitutional convention. I've set out the position that we have from the reforming the UK decision there, but, of course, the one thing that we do look forward to—and I think that it's important not to, I suppose, presume what the conclusions will be, or the direction that will be taken of the independent commission that we have established, which will give us guidance and information with which to take this constitutional reform issue further.
Now, we are expecting, in due course, an interim report from the independent constitutional convention. And I think when that comes, that will be the appropriate time for us to have a more detailed, more thorough and, I think, informed debate on some of the constitutional options. Of course, the independent commission's report will be an interim one; there will also be a report coming out in due course from Gordon Brown on the Labour Party position on—or, certainly, the report that he has been instructed to prepare on constitutional reform. So, the one thing that we can say is that there is a deep recognition of the need for constitutional reform—that we have a dysfunction within our constitution, and that change needs to occur. The question is what that change is and how it should actually be achieved. This is a debate that isn't going to go away, and I look forward to the receipt of the interim report and any further reports, and to further discussions of this.
The reason that these constitutional issues are important is not because it is some sort of technical debate; the constitution is about how power operates, how it is shared, how it is distributed, how it is exercised. So, these are matters that are fundamentally important to the people of Wales and, indeed, to the people of the UK. But, as far as the decision of the Supreme Court is concerned, I think that that is particularly clear.