The Welsh Government’s chief legal adviser flatly denied reports a separate Welsh legal jurisdiction is off the agenda, telling the Senedd: “I said no such thing.”
Julie James, who is counsel general, said a legal jurisdiction for Wales is inevitably developing and “at some point in the future somebody’s going to have to acknowledge that it exists – but it exists whether you acknowledge it or not”.
Adam Price, Plaid Cymru’s shadow counsel general, had expressed concerns about any prospect of a separate Welsh legal jurisdiction being “kicked firmly into touch”.
Ms James gave a speech at a conference in Bangor and a Law Society Gazette report suggested she was “unequivocal” in stating separation was off the agenda.
Mr Price asked: “Do you take the opportunity now to confirm that the Welsh Government does remain, unequivocally, in favour of establishing a separate Welsh legal jurisdiction?”
‘Don’t believe the headlines’
Ms James replied: “It’s another good example of you shouldn’t believe what you read in the headlines. I said no such thing… A separate Welsh legal jurisdiction is inevitably developing.
“The more laws we make in this place, the more separate they become from the England jurisdiction and, regardless of whether you view it as a separate jurisdiction, a separate body of law is growing up in Wales and lawyers need to be cognisant of that.”
Mr Price echoed concerns from Baroness Carr, the lady chief justice of Wales and England, about the Welsh Government shelving plans to reform the Welsh tribunal system.
Conservative Janet Finch-Saunders questioned why it has taken more than two years after a 2023 paper described Welsh tribunals as “outdated, inflexible and lacking coherence”.
Ms James blamed a legislative logjam in the fifth and final year of the Senedd term, saying a draft tribunal will be published for consideration by the next Welsh Government.
‘Historically low’
During today’s (November 11) counsel general questions, Rhys ab Owen, who sits as an independent, raised plans to expand the Senedd from 60 to 96 members at May’s election.
Mr ab Owen said one of the main arguments to enlarge the Senedd was to have better scrutiny, improving the lives of the people of Wales.
He told the Senedd: “It’s probably fair to say that maybe that argument hasn’t cut through to the general public yet, but… the Senedd has historically passed a low number of pieces of legislation compared with other legislatures such as Scotland and Northern Ireland.”
The former barrister highlighted that 22 laws were passed in the fifth Senedd – between 2016 and 2021 – compared with 76 in Scotland and 46 in Northern Ireland.
He said: “In the past, that may have been explained by lack of capacity in this place but that’s not going to be the case after next year’s election.”
‘Financial constraints’
Ms James replied: “It’s an interesting assumption that more legislation equals good and less legislation equals bad. I don’t necessarily hold to that. I think we should make laws that are required and not laws for the sake of it… to show some kind of league table position.”
She added: “In the past, the Senedd has passed a small number of bills but they tend to be very big bills and the previous first minister [Mark Drakeford] characterised it to me… as ‘if the bus only goes past occasionally, then everybody crams on’.”
Mr ab Owen also called for the roll-out of family drug and alcohol courts across Wales.
Ms James pointed to challenges including inconsistent service availability, geographic barriers in rural Wales as well as financial constraints “at multiple levels”.
The former solicitor told the debating chamber or Siambr: “Frankly, if we can’t solve the financial issues, then we won’t be able to solve it at all.
“Whilst the court is a very effective court, I think, and solves a number of problems from a judicial point of view – it’s entirely paid for out of the devolved service budget, so we do need to sort that out as well.”