National Assembly for Wales

Prynhawn da. Croeso, bawb. Welcome to the virtual meeting of the Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee. This meeting is being broadcast live on Senedd.tv and the Record of Proceedings will be published as usual. And apart from the usual procedural adaptations for conducting these proceedings remotely, all other Standing Order requirements remain in place. We have no apologies received for today's meeting; we have a full complement—full strength—today as we go into our business for the afternoon. As per normal, we have translation in English and Welsh available during this afternoon's meeting, making sure that we have all our mobile devices switched to silent, and we don't need to mute and unmute our electronic devices, it'll be done for you. 

So, with that, we'll move straight to item No. 2, which, as per normal, is instruments that raise no reporting issues under Standing Orders 21.2 and 21.3. We have under paper No. 1, a made negative resolution instrument, SL(6)127, the Education (Arrangements for Assessing in the Curriculum for Wales) Regulations 2022. Our lawyers haven't identified any points for reporting on this item, so it simply leaves me to ask Members if you're happy with the draft report. And we are. Okay, thank you very much. 

That takes us on, then, to item No. 3, instruments that do raise issues to be reported to the Senedd under Standing Orders 21.2 and 21.3. And we have a made negative resolution instrument, SL(6)135, the Health Protection (Coronavirus Restrictions) (No. 5) (Wales) (Amendment) Regulations 2022. These are very familiar to us as a committee and to anybody who follows our proceedings. Now, Gareth, you've identified four merits points for reporting. I'm guessing they are going to be the regular ones.

Diolch. Yes. One of the merits points notes a breach of the 21-day rule. Usually there is a breach of this rule because of an urgent need to impose restrictions. Here, the Welsh Government is making these regulations urgently to remove restrictions, so the urgency works both ways. 

There is also a merits point regarding publication of equality impact assessments. The committee has written separately to the Welsh Government on this issue. I don't think the Welsh Government has responded to that letter yet. And just to note that another set of regulations came into force on Friday that further eased the restrictions, and those regulations will be before the committee next week.

Thank you, Gareth. So, colleagues, on the impact assessments, this is something we've already taken up with Welsh Government, so we're awaiting the response, and, on the changes brought in by these regulations, in principle it's the same merits point that Gareth is raising, except of course now we're lifting measures as opposed to the other way round where, recently, we've been imposing measures or scrutinising the imposition of measures. On that basis, are we happy with the reporting points? Yes. Okay, thank you very much. Thanks, Gareth. That's fairly short work this week, compared to some of the weeks that we have on the regulations.

It brings us to item No. 4 quite quickly, which is our scrutiny of common frameworks. We have, under this item, first of all, item 4.1, common frameworks, the provisional public health protection and health security common framework. We've had—. I invite you to note the letter from the Minister for Health and Social Services in response to the letter from the Health and Social Care Committee. Are we happy to note that, and we can return to it subsequently? We are.

Next we have, under item 4.2, the provisional blood safety and quality common framework and the provisional organs, tissues and cells (apart from embryos and gametes) common framework. Again, I'd invite colleagues to note the letter from the Minister for Health and Social Services in response to the letter from the Health and Social Care Committee. I assume we're happy to note that. Okay, thank you very much.

And then we will go to item 5, in respect of inter-institutional relations agreements. We have a written statement by the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution in respect of the Social Security (Scotland) Act 2018 (Disability Assistance and Information Sharing) (Consequential Provision and Modifications) Order 2022. And the written statement notifies the Senedd that the Welsh Government has given consent to the UK Government to make the social security et cetera Order 2022. And if you recall, we considered a letter from the Counsel General at last week's meeting regarding the intention to consent. So, Gareth and Gareth, there's nothing to add here in terms of reporting points, is there? No. Okay. Colleagues, are we happy to note that? We are. Thank you very much.

Then we have a letter from the Minister for Finance and Local Government regarding an urgent meeting of the finance Ministers' quadrilateral, which took place on 12 January. Happy to note? We are.

And then we have a letter from the Minister for Economy in respect of the ministerial forum for trade, which is scheduled to take place on 26 January. And again, are you happy to note that? We are. All of these, we can of course return to if we need to in private session later.

Which brings us, then, to item 6, papers to note. First of all, amongst these, we have correspondence from the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution, providing additional information on the codes of Welsh law programme and the proposals for the accessibility of Welsh law, which we requested as a committee, following the evidence session with the Counsel General on 29 November. So, if you're happy to note that, we can defer any discussion on that to the private session, not least discussion on the draft letter to the Welsh Government on the draft budget as well. But for this moment, though, if you're happy to note, we can put it back to private. Okay. Thank you very much.

Next I'll ask you to note the correspondence from the Minister for Education and Welsh Language on the committee reports we put forward on the legislative consent memoranda on the Skills and Post-16 Education Bill. Are we happy to note that? We are.

Then, item 6.3, again to note the correspondence from the Minister for Social Justice on our report on the supplementary legislative consent memoranda, Nos. 3 and 4, on the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill, which was circulated to Members in advance of last week's debate on the consent motion, which as you know, we considered on the floor of the Senedd. Happy to note that? We are.

And then, item 6.4, the final piece of correspondence here, to note this from the First Minister in response to the committee's request for further information in relation to the trade and co-operation agreement. If you're happy to note it for now, again, we can return to it in private. We are.

We have scooted through business there, some of which we will return to in private, but can I simply ask colleagues for their consent now under Standing Order 17.42 to resolve to exclude the public for the remainder of the meeting so we can move into private? We have consent, so we will do that. I'll just wait for the all-clear from the committee clerking team that we are in private session.