6. What legal advice has the Counsel General provided to the Welsh Government on the impact of the UK Government's Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Bill on the devolution settlement? OQ58999

This Bill is unnecessary and it is ill-conceived. It cuts across devolution and attempts to undermine our social partnership approach here in Wales. 

Yet again, Counsel General, another example of aggressive legislation from the UK Tories, one that seeks to divide working people. It seeks to cover for the 12 years of Tory failure by blaming key workers. They are the very workers they clapped for during the pandemic. Counsel General, the right to strike is a basic right, and leaders across the United Kingdom should always seek to negotiate, not threaten key workers by removing their rights. Next week, I’ll be standing in solidarity with the Wales TUC at their national rally to defend working people’s freedoms. This is an incredibly important matter for working people and their families across Wales. As this aggressive piece of legislation proceeds through the House of Commons, will you come back to this Chamber and update Members of the Senedd on the steps the Welsh Government can take to mitigate its impact in Wales? 

Thank you, again, for raising an incredibly important civil rights issue and something that also affects devolution. It’s worth saying, isn’t it, that when this issue first arose on minimum service levels, it was with regard to transport, and was of course a Bill that was laid, I think, in November last year. What was interesting in that Bill was that, at the very least, unnecessary though it was, the Bill contained a requirement to seek a voluntary agreement with trade unions over minimum service levels and it provided a mechanism for arbitration where that couldn't be achieved. Not only has this Bill now been extended to almost a complete range of public services, those requirements to seek agreement with the trade unions have been taken out of it. What has also been taken out of it is, of course, the system of arbitration. So, what does it do? It actually creates a wholly arbitrary power, a Henry VIII power of the worst scale, for the Secretary of State. So, you could have, for example, a Secretary of State sitting in his office in London deciding what the appropriate minimum service levels were for the ambulance service in south Glamorgan. It is an absolute nonsense and it is irrational. I think it has a number of other implications as well. I think it significantly challenges the International Labour Organization conventions on freedom of association. I believe it may well compete with or create an undermining of the trade and co-operation agreement, which requires us to comply with international agreements, and I think there may even be significant human rights issues that are within this.

This is a piece of legislation that is not necessary. We do not need this legislation in Wales and, as I said last week—I think in response to your urgent question on this issue—trade unions have always established minimum service levels. We have seen that up and down Wales and we've seen it throughout the UK. This is solely legislation that is an attempt to distract from the case that's being put by the trade unions in terms of public sector pay and terms and conditions, and it's an attempt to try and demonise workers in our public sector. It is a complete about-turn from those commitments that this Government gave that, after COVID, we would look after our public service workers differently. I can say that the Welsh Government is totally opposed to this legislation and we will not recommend consent to this legislation, and we will seek every lawful means that we have in terms of opposing it and its implementation.