I welcome this landmark ruling of the Supreme Court which confirms the Assembly’s competence to pass this Bill and also provides extremely significant, and much-needed, clarification of the Welsh devolution settlement.
It also confirms the authoritative legal advice given to me and demonstrates that the Assembly is a mature institution that has the right procedures and staff in place to interpret and implement the devolution settlement.
However, the fact that three Assembly Bills have been referred to the Supreme Court in the last two years shows how difficult that settlement has been to operate. We still await the judgment for the Recovery of Medical Costs of Asbestos Diseases (Wales) Bill, which will examine other tests for legislative competence. When we have both judgments, I will need time to review the position with my lawyers and senior officials. We welcome the greater clarity that the Supreme Court has already provided, but the Supreme Court can only throw light on the issues that come before it. We will need to review whether we still need to seek the UK Government’s, and Parliament’s, co-operation to simplify the devolution settlement in a systematic way. As I have said before, a lack of clarity of what is within competence and what is not is an issue of democracy, because it makes it difficult for the public in Wales to understand the constitution of their country.