Meeting Venue:
Presiding Officer’s office, 4th floor - Tŷ Hywel
Meeting date: 27 November 2018
Meeting time: 08.30 - 08.56
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Category |
Names |
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Committee Members: |
Elin Jones AM (Chair) Julie James AM Darren Millar AM Rhun ap Iorwerth AM Neil Hamilton AM |
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Committee Staff: |
Aled Elwyn Jones (Clerk) |
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Others in attendance |
Ann Jones AM, Deputy Presiding Officer Manon Antoniazzi, Chief Executive & Clerk of the Assembly Siân Wilkins, Head of Chamber and Committee Service Gwion Evans, Head of the Llywydd's Private Office Elin Roberts, Policy Adviser to the Llywydd Helen Carey, Welsh Government |
The minutes for the meeting were agreed by the Committee for publication.
Tuesday
· The Leader of the House will be answering FMQs on behalf of the First Minister today in his absence
· The Llywydd raised the issue of Ministers making overly long statements in Plenary which can take up over a third of the allocated time for that item. The Llywydd reminded the Leader of the House of the convention that Ministers statements be no longer than 10 minutes.
· Voting Time will take place after the last item of business
Wednesday
· Voting Time will take place before the short debate.
The Leader of the House explained that the Government are still not in a position to schedule M4 debate as yet. It is still possible it could be scheduled before Christmas.
Business Committee noted the 3 Week Timetable of Government Business.
Business Committee determined the organisation of Assembly business and agreed to schedule the following items of business:
Wednesday 5 December 2018 -
· Debate on the Standards of Conduct Committee's Report 03-18 to the Assembly under Standing Order 22.9 (15 mins)
Wednesday 9 January 2019 –
· Debate on the Finance Committee report: The Cost of Caring for an Ageing Population (60 mins)
· Debate on the Economy, Infrastructure and Skills Committee report: State of the Roads in Wales (60 mins)
·
Time allocated to the Welsh Conservatives (60 mins)
Business Managers confirmed their in principle decision of 13 November to refer the Legislation (Wales) Bill to the Constitutional and Legislative Affairs Committee for Stage 1 consideration, and agreed the deadline for the Stage 1 Committee to report by as 22 March 2019 and the deadline for the completion of Stage 2 Committee proceedings as 24 May 2019.
Business Managers also agreed that the committee could be flexible in when it meets during the period of the Bill’s consideration.
There was general support among Business Managers for Leaders and Spokespeople to keep their questions short, but less so for setting a specific time limit to ask their three questions. There was also support among Business Managers for reminding Spokespeople that the purpose of having three questions is that they develop a theme, rather than asking three different questions.
Business Managers stated that they would support the Llywydd in taking steps to keep questions short. The Llywydd will consider options and bring forward a note at start of the next term.
LCM on the Fisheries Bill
Business Managers confirmed their in principle decision of 20 November to refer the LCM on the Fisheries Bill to the Climate Change, Environment and Rural Affairs Committee, the External Affairs and Additional Legislation Committee and the Constitutional and Legislative Affairs Committee. Business Managers agreed a reporting deadline of 12 February 2019.
Committee Membership
Business Managers noted that the anticipated membership change to the Equality, Local Government and Communities Committee to replace a Plaid Cymru member with a Conservative one had not yet happened, as the Conservative group has not decided on a nominee.