North Wales MS and Shadow Counsel General, Mark Isherwood, has today called for the Welsh Government’s new Historic Environment Bill to retain and clarify the “often confused, complex and vital Welsh Historic record”.
Responding in the Chamber to the Statement by the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution on the Historic Environment (Wales) Bill, Mr Isherwood said “our current history itself has become a confusing jumble of facts, truths, myths and misconceptions”.
In his Written Statement on the Bill yesterday, the Counsel General stated that he had “identified Wales’ historic environment law as a suitable subject for the first project in an ambitious programme of
legislative consolidation”, bringing the legislation on a topic together.
Questioning the Counsel General on the Bill, Mr Isherwood asked for confirmation ‘that it is only a Consolidation Bill and that the law itself will not be changed or amended to accommodate this’, and, referring to the Counsel General’s Statement yesterday that “our current historic environment legislation has become a confusing jumble of repeatedly amended provisions”, he said:
“Of course, our current history itself has become a confusing jumble of facts, truths, myths and misconceptions.
“Last September, you quoted from the Book of Iorwerth (Llyfr Iorwerth): a text of the Gwynedd - or Venedotian - Code of medieval Welsh law, where the Kingdom of Gwynedd, or Venedotia, was a Roman Empire successor state that emerged in sub-Roman Britain in the 5th century.
Of course, other texts remind us that the goal of the Brythonic people – or Britons – in the West, then and over succeeding centuries, was also to reclaim the lost lands to the East and reunite with their British brethren across our Island.
“Later texts remind us of how Norman invaders brutalised Britons across our Island and established new codes of law.
“How will you ensure that in consolidating Wales’ Historic Environment Legislation, this often confused, complex and vital Historic record is retained and clarified?
Having questioned the Counsel General last September over the cost of this programme of legislative consolidation, Mr Isherwood asked him again what this will be, adding:
“What assurance can you provide that this is not just something that will benefit the legal sector at great cost to the public purse? Finally, what consultation have you had with the Historic Environment sector regarding this Historic Environment (Wales) Bill?”