6. What legal advice has the Counsel General provided to the Welsh Government on the potential of sharing decision making with the UK Government on EU replacement funds? OQ61324

Thank you for your question. Post-Brexit funding has been a disjointed and a cynical exercise in cutting Welsh budgets and centralising devolved responsibilities. It must be for the Welsh Government, the Senedd and our partners to determine and deliver the next phase of regional investment in Wales, and we will discuss this with the incoming UK Government.

Well, thank you very much to the Counsel General for that response. Of course, this Labour Government have been very ready with criticism of the Conservatives in Westminster, as they excluded the Welsh Government from decisions here. But, over the past few weeks, we have heard that this is the intention of the prospective Labour Government in Westminster, following the announcement by Jo Stevens on the television a few weeks ago. How will that work, and does the Counsel General believe that this is satisfactory? 

Well, can I say that I think that's not an accurate representation, I think, of the situation that existed before, and the situation that will actually be restored when we do have a Labour Government? In the past, of course, the EU Commission would set a framework in terms of regional structural investment and social investment. That framework would be there, and then a UK Government, and we would work with the UK Government in order to develop the specific UK part of that particular programme. Then, we would actually develop the programmes that would be within those frameworks that would be applicable to Wales. We would then engage specifically and directly with the EU in respect of those particular programmes. We can't escape the fact that, unfortunately, we are out of the EU, certainly, at the moment, and certainly out of the single market. But the idea, in terms of the fact that there should be a UK-wide, at least, framework, is really just restoring the position that existed previously.

What the Conservative Government did through the internal market Act and other measures was to actually completely bypass the Welsh Government and the devolved responsibilities that Welsh Government have. Those specific responsibilities are now actually being restored. So, this is a very significant restoration of responsibilities, and a very significant restoration of funding that will come to Wales, which will be decided within Wales, and, of course, beneficially to us, because there is no disadvantage to doing this—to be able to engage on a broader UK-wide framework in terms of investment, in terms of regional investment. So, I'm very confident that the restoration of those responsibilities will be a very significant improvement, and it's a very important restoration of devolved functions.