8. How is the Welsh Government implementing the recommendations of the Independent Commission on the Constitutional Future of Wales? OQ61268

Having endorsed the commission's recommendations in full, we allocated additional resources to this important agenda in the 2024-25 budget. Preparatory work is well under way, and I will keep the Senedd updated on key developments.

Cabinet Secretary, it's been five months now since the Independent Commission on the Constitutional Future of Wales published its final report, and it's been more than three months since the Welsh Government published its response to the commission's report, accepting all of its recommendations, both individually and as a package. Now, the commission was quite clear on the urgency with which these recommendations need to be implemented, but we've heard nothing further from you on this for weeks now, so I'm concerned that you may be failing to take the action needed at the pace required. Now, we know, of course, that senior members of your party have consistently and explicitly ruled out delivering against the commission's recommendations, including on devolving policing and justice, railways and the Crown Estate, and on fairer funding for Wales. So, given that your party bosses in London are so openly hostile to them, will you outline, please, precisely how the Welsh Government is working to implement the constitutional commission's recommendations on strengthening our democracy, protecting devolution and securing further powers for Wales, and the timelines you're working to?

To just begin by reassuring my colleague that I am absolutely giving this the priority it deserves within my portfolio, one of the first things that I did was to seek those meetings with the former co-chairs of the commission, Professor Laura McAllister and Bishop Rowan Williams, to discuss the issues arising from their report. I've also met with Gareth Williams, who chaired the commission's expert panel, and also with Dr Anwen Elias, who was a member of the commission and has specific expertise on issues of democratic engagement, and also with Philip Rycroft, a former commissioner who's got expertise in inter-governmental relations.

I've been looking particularly at the first recommendations, which were specifically for the Welsh Government. The first, of course, was around democratic innovation, and the recommendation there was that we should draw on an expert advisory panel, so I'm currently making some final choices, if you like, in respect of that panel, which will help us move forward in relation to the space of democratic innovation. That really is about inclusive engagement and community work here in Wales, which is why the meeting I had with Dr Anwen Elias was so important in helping shape my thoughts as to how that particular recommendation might be met in future, because it does call for a new strategy specific to education to be a priority for the work. And I will obviously have to work very closely with my colleague the Minister for housing and local government, who has a specific and particular interest in diversity and democracy. All of these pieces of work do come together.

I've had some good discussions about constitutional principles, exploring what other countries have done in terms of their approach to constitution and governance principles in their nations, to understand what we might be able to learn here in Wales and what might be appropriate for us here in Wales. And, of course, a third recommendation for us as a Senedd was very much about Senedd reform and we've absolutely been making some good progress on that, as well. So, there is definitely progress happening, but I will seek to provide a further update to colleagues once I've finalised my thoughts around that advisory group, which was a key recommendation from the commission.

I thank the Cabinet Secretary.