Janet:
Will the Counsel General make a statement on the accessibility of devolved legislation to the public?
Counsel General:
The Legislation (Wales) Bill commits future Governments to keep the accessibility of the law under review and to take action to make it more accessible to all. We intend to develop consolidated codes of Welsh law as well as improving the way that legislation is published.
Janet:
You may have answered my question there. But, in this Chamber, we have the honour of creating legislation that impacts significantly on the everyday lives of people across Wales. Sadly, however, whilst Acts can be easily accessed online, it is true that many of the constituents that I meet are unaware of all that we do here in terms of the laws that we pass. Last term, of course, there were 25 separate Bills created here. Now, as you might be aware, there has been very good publicity around the Human Transplantation (Wales) Act 2013, and the impact of that has seen significant promotion by the Welsh Government. So, what steps could you take, perhaps, Counsel General, to actually run a campaign or build greater public awareness of each piece of legislation that has passed here in Wales?
Counsel General:
Well, I thank the Member for that supplementary. I hope I can count on her support for each stage of the Legislation (Wales) Bill as it passes through the Assembly because it's partly intended to tackle the sorts of issues—the important issues—that she has highlighted in her supplementary question.
Our devolution settlement is complex. It has a particular impact on how we legislate as a result. Despite 20 years of devolution, much of our legislation—most of it, in fact—is still based on Acts of the UK Parliament—most of our law—and so there's a task to rationalise that. But she identifies a particular supplementary but important issue: having done that, how do you then communicate that to the public? And that is at the heart of what that legislation is intended to achieve. Yes, the consolidation, yes, the codification, but then how is it published online in a way that is current, authoritative, bilingual and easily accessible? Can we organise it in a way that makes it easier to find, not just by the date of the law but by subject matter? We're working on that quite separately, in fact, from the proposals in the Bill. So, I hope, as the Bill comes through the Assembly, we can discuss those issues further.
