7. Reply Submissions by Mr Poole

Mr Poole: My Lady, you will be pleased to know I have very little to add and seek only to make four short points.

The first is to reiterate the thanks I extended earlier to all of those who have participated so actively in and around this preliminary hearing. The submissions that we have heard this morning, from our point of view, have all been incredibly helpful and constructive and we look forward to receiving, in particular, the letter from John’s Campaign and Relatives & Residents Association, setting out their further thoughts on potential Rule 9 recipients.

The second point concerns what has been said about the length of our substantive public hearing. As outlined earlier, we are loath to request more time because of the knock-on effect that that will have to the rest of the Inquiry. The best way, in our view, to try and deal with the situation is early Core Participant engagement, as I outlined earlier in my submissions, about the various ways we intend to ensure this is done and that this is done effectively.

The third point concerns the Rule 9 process. We have heard what has been said, that some of the national organisations who have been contacted may or may not be able to provide adequate information about Wales or information specific enough for certain at-risk groups for our purposes. As I explained in my earlier submissions, the Rule 9 process is an iterative process, as we receive Rule 9 responses, these will be analysed and, at that stage, a decision taken as to whether further and/or additional evidence is required and if so whether that should be from more Welsh-specific organisations.

The fourth point concerns what was described by Mr Jacobs on behalf of the TUC as “strand tying”, namely considering comparing and contrasting the key decision making in the four nations of the UK.

As to this, I would simply like to acknowledge that this is a matter of considerable importance. This Inquiry is uniquely placed to be able to derive information, reach conclusions and make recommendations based on the different approaches taken by the four nations of the UK. Precisely how we go about this is the subject of active consideration by the Inquiry teams for modules 2, 2A, 2B and 2C and, in the usual way, we will report progress in this regard through our monthly updates.

My Lady, those are the only points I wish to raise by way of reply submissions and that concludes everything that the advocates this morning wish to put forward.

Baroness Hallett: Thank you very much, Mr Poole.

As I said earlier, I’m very grateful to everyone for their help and for their offers of continued help in the future. We are going to need that help if we are, as I said earlier, to meet the ambitious timetable but having seen such a constructive approach adopted by all the Core Participants in their written and their oral submissions, I remain optimistic that we can conduct both a thorough and a timely investigation of the issues that are of significance for the people of Wales. So thank you everybody for attending, making submissions or indeed just watching online.

Thank you.

(12.05 pm)

(The preliminary hearing for Module 2B concluded)