The Constitutional and Legislative Affairs Committee* undertook an inquiry into inter-institutional working in order:

• To produce best practice principles for inter-institutional working for constitutional legislation.
• To reflect and build on the work of other legislatures on inter-institutional working as it relates to broader policy areas.
• To seek, establish and promote opportunities for inter-parliamentary working, including promotion of citizen engagement.

During the course of the inquiry the Committee decided to change the name of the inquiry from “A stronger voice for Wales: engaging with Westminster and the devolved institutions” due to the evolving nature of the its work and the UKs decision to leave the EU. 

The inquiry focused on two strands: 

Strand I: Constitutional matters

To review how inter-institutional relations have influenced development of Welsh devolution since 1998. This included looking at:

• How inter-governmental mechanisms have impacted on the development of the devolution settlement.
• How inter-governmental relations have developed and evolved, what worked well and the impact these relations have had on the devolution settlement.
• How inter-parliamentary relations have evolved, the current state of these relations and how they could be further developed in relation to the development and scrutiny of constitutional legislation.

Strand II: Policy matters

By building on the work previously undertaken across the UK to explore within the Welsh context:

• The nature of relationships between the Welsh and UK Government, how these relationships function and how they can be improved.
• Improving opportunities for improved policy learning between Governments and Parliaments.
• Best practice in inter-institutional relations from across the UK which could be imported into the Welsh context.
• The nature of the relationship between the Welsh and UK legislatures and to identify opportunities for effective inter-parliamentary working.
• To cover any other matters that relate to inter-institutional relationships, including relevant implications of the UK leaving the EU.

Evidence gathering

The Committee launched a public consultation to seek your views on this issue. The deadline for responses was 5 June 2017.

The Committee also wrote to all Committee Chairs in the National Assembly to seek their views on how to improve inter-parliamentary working.

Passage of the Inquiry

The following table sets out the dates and contents of each of the evidence gathering sessions during the inquiry:

The Committee published its report (PDF, 794KB) in February 2018. The report and government response was debated in Plenary on 28 February 2018.