8. What legal advice has the Counsel General provided to the Welsh Government on the implementation of the Environmental Protection (Single-use Plastic Products) (Wales) Bill? OQ58984

Thank you for the question. After Royal Assent, the Act’s provisions will be commenced in stages, the first products being banned potentially in the autumn. We are working closely with those impacted by the Bill to ensure the bans are implemented successfully.

Thank you. Following a request by the Welsh Government, the Business Committee agreed not to refer the Bill to a responsible committee for Stage 1 scrutiny. According to the Business Committee report, one of the reasons why you requested an expedited timetable for Senedd scrutiny was, and I quote, 'due to its intention to use the Bill as a practical example to support its case in relation to the UK internal market Act in the Supreme Court.' After the Welsh Government succeeded to cut our democratic scrutiny short and pass the Bill, you then advised the Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee on 16 January that you've chosen not to use the legislation to challenge the internal market Act. I believe that your Welsh Government has played fast and loose with this Welsh Parliament's powers to use this legislative process to benefit your own legal agenda. Will you now apologise for your Welsh Government's actions and make a commitment on the public record that you acknowledge that the reason for challenging any law is in order to achieve the objective of the legislation and not to armour some politically motivated legal battle? Diolch.

Thank you very much for that politically motivated question. What I can say to the Member is this: I think she may have a misunderstanding of what has happened with the process. It's because we initially started a judicial review process, and the judicial review went to the Court of Appeal, the Court of Appeal basically said that it wouldn't consider it unless there was a particular Bill in front of it, et cetera. We then sought to appeal to the Supreme Court on those issues, but also, it was necessary to have a Bill in preparation, to have a Bill that would be there.

The Bill has two motivations in terms of expedition. One is the one that was put forward by the Minister for Climate Change, and that is they need to get this Bill up and running as quickly as possible, that it was essential that it be in place. For my consideration, really, as the law officer, is the extent to which that Bill would be relevant, to get to be there in time, and be appropriate with regard to any particular reference to court. What changed since then, of course, is that the Supreme Court declined permission to appeal to it. So, the legislation has gone through and, of course, what kicks in then is the constitutional issue of a referral on competence to the Supreme Court. That is a power that lies with me, and it's also a power that lies specifically with the Attorney-General. The Attorney-General has chosen not to refer it. I regard that as a victory. I regard that a victory in the Attorney-General accepting our arguments in terms of our constitutional interpretation of the legal position. I'm prepared to support the Attorney-General in that particular position, and that is why I've chosen myself not to refer this to the Supreme Court. So, we can accept that the position now is the UK Government accepts the Welsh Government's legal analysis in respect of that particular piece of legislation. If the issue is to arise again, it could arise in other circumstances, but I felt it was appropriate that, when the UK Government's Attorney-General basically declined to refer it to the Supreme Court, I could rely on that as setting a precedent in terms of our interpretation of our constitutional position.