Part of 2. Questions to the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution – in the Senedd at 3:01 pm on 30 June 2021.
Mick Antoniw
Labour
3:01,
30 June 2021
Firstly, thank you for that and also thank you for, obviously, the very significant input you've made into the Thomas commission work and the report. I will just make this comment that that report, as I think I said at the time, is a report in terms of quality of international quality. Perhaps that's nothing less than you would expect from Lord Thomas of Cwmgiedd, but also the rest of the panel of Welsh expertise within the judicial and legal sector that I think contributed to what is a very important analysis of the judicial system and issues around access to justice and administrative law, and that will have an impact for a number of years.
In respect of the law council for Wales, I can tell you that I have been having various discussions around that. Work is ongoing on that. We've had engagement with the Law Society, who've agreed to act as a secretariat for the establishment of a law council for Wales. And I'm hoping that in the not too distant future, there will be a more formal announcement of the establishment of a law council for Wales. The law council for Wales, of course, will be independent of Government; that is extremely important. I can certainly give this assurance, though, to the extent that the law council for Wales, when it is established, will want me engaged, I will give all the support and encouragement to engage with it as they wish, because I see it as a very important development within the justice sector within Wales, and the development of the Welsh judicial system.
Ministers make up the Government and almost all are members of the House of Lords or the House of Commons. There are three main types of Minister. Departmental Ministers are in charge of Government Departments. The Government is divided into different Departments which have responsibilities for different areas. For example the Treasury is in charge of Government spending. Departmental Ministers in the Cabinet are generally called 'Secretary of State' but some have special titles such as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Ministers of State and Junior Ministers assist the ministers in charge of the department. They normally have responsibility for a particular area within the department and are sometimes given a title that reflects this - for example Minister of Transport.