Historic first as Presiding Officer welcomes all three of her UK counterparts to Wales for quad-lateral talks

2 March 2012

The National Assembly for Wales’s Presiding Officer, Rosemary Butler AM, today (2 March) welcomed her counterparts from the UK’s other three Parliaments to the Senedd.

Westminster Speaker John Bercow MP, Scottish Parliament Presiding Officer Tricia Marwick MSP, and Northern Ireland Assembly PO William Hay MLA, are in Cardiff for the Presiding Officers’/Speakers’ Quad-lateral meeting.

It is the first time that all four have met face-to-face in Wales to discuss issues of common interest around how Parliamentary business is conducted and the law-making process.

Subjects on the agenda ranged from future budgets in tight financial times, to European issues affecting all four Parliaments, and arrangements for cross-party groups and lobbying.

“It is a great honour for me as Presiding Officer of the National Assembly for Wales to welcome my counterparts from the UK’s other three Parliaments to Wales,” said Mrs Butler.

“Although the whole point of devolution is to find our own solutions to the problems that each individual nation faces, I believe we can still learn from each other and work together in terms of how we approach the law-making process.

“For example, the Westminster Government is currently consulting the devolved Parliaments on setting up a register of Lobbyists.

“My message today is that in Wales we already have robust measures in place to govern the relationships Members have with outside organisations and that we believe the Assembly should be responsible for making any decision on further governance in this area.”

The Presiding Officers’/Speakers Quad-lateral meeting takes place every six months.

Meetings have previously been held in Wales between the different Presiding Officers and Speaker but this is the first time all four have come to Wales at the same time.