LJC6-02-23 - Paper 23 - Letter to UK Government Ministers 21 December

With the laying of the Bill before the UK Parliament, and in anticipation of the Welsh Government bringing forward the likely necessary consent memorandum, my Committee agreed to seek the views of stakeholders both in Wales and across the UK on a number of matters including to what extent the Bill might impact Wales’ regulatory landscape; the Welsh Government’s decision not to carry out its own as. [...] In recent months the Welsh Government’s Counsel General, Mick Antoniw MS, has commented on the likelihood of the Bill leading to the Welsh Government’s own legislative programme being almost completely overwhelmed, and the financial and resource implications for the Welsh Government being enormous. [...] The Counsel General again spoke of his concerns that the implementation of the Bill, should it be passed and enacted, has the potential to overwhelm all governments in the UK. [...] While we reserve the right to hold-back our full comments on the Bill, and the Welsh Government’s corresponding legislative consent memorandum, until we are able to issue a comprehensive report in the new year, for reasons of pragmatism we would urge you to listen to stakeholders and reconsider the 31 December 2023 sunset date contained in the Bill. [...] Furthermore, and again while we have yet to fully consider all the implications of the Bill on Welsh devolution and the Senedd, at this time we can see no reason why the power to extend the sunset date, contained in clause 2, should not also be granted to the Welsh Ministers for devolved matters.