National Assembly for Wales

Good afternoon. Can I welcome Members to this afternoon's session of the External Affairs and Additional Legislation Committee? Before we commence our business today, can I remind everyone to switch their mobile phones either to silent or off, please, so that it doesn't interfere with the equipment? If we require simultaneous translation from Welsh to English, that's available on the headphones via channel 1. If we require amplification, that's available on the headphones via channel 0. No scheduled fire alarms this afternoon, so if one does occur please follow the directions of the ushers. We've not received apologies, though I'm aware of the conditions and, as such, I think Mark Isherwood may have some trouble getting down from north Wales today—and Suzy has given us apologies, sorry. Yes, Suzy Davies has given apologies as well, but there are no substitutes for either. 

We move on then now to the business today. Item 2 is papers to note. We have four papers we wish to note for the record, the first one being the letter from the Treasury regarding the customs policy post Brexit, which we inquired. Are Members happy to note that?

The second one is from the First Minister regarding our request regarding access to the sectoral reports that have been published by the UK Government and had been made visible to the Welsh Government. Again, you will note that they were made visible on the basis of confidentiality and therefore the Welsh Government could not release them without permission from the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union. Are Members happy to note that? 

Could I suggest that we write to ask them—?

We have written to David Davis, yes, as well. 

We have already, fine. 

We wrote to several—

I'm sure you have. 

—but as it now appears there may be no sectoral reports to—.

Yes, it does sound like that. They've got another title, what is it—? Analysis or something.

But, having said that, there are 800-odd pages that have been made public to that committee, and therefore we have asked permission to see those.

The third one is from the Cabinet Secretary for Finance regarding the deep dives—and his interpretation of deep dives—and you, again, note from that that three deep dives have been undertaken in November. So, that was interesting information. Are Members happy to note that at this point in time? Because I will confirm some in a minute. Yes.

The fourth one is a letter from Robin Walker, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Department for Exiting the European Union, and it's following his appearance here at the committee on 6 November. You will note he has given us quite a long response. Some of it is repetitious during the response, but he has given us that. And he's also obviously offered himself to come back to the committee again. At this point, are Members happy to note that? But we may well be discussing some of the issues later, because, clearly, it relates to progress on the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill. Are Members happy to note? 

Yes. I mean, there are quite a few questions to perhaps come out of this, just reading it, but we could—

Yes, I think that we will need to discuss this again because of the progress of the European withdrawal Bill and the responses to some of the questions we raised, and perhaps the differences in opinion between ourselves and the UK Government's interpretation of some of the points, which will be discussed in our other business this afternoon. So, are Members happy to note the letter at this point? Thank you for that. 

Then we move on to the next item, which is actually to resolve to exclude the public for the remainder of this meeting under Standing Order 17.42(vi). Are Members content to move into private session? I see they are, so we move into private session.