A former minister has accused the Welsh Government of “piling up laws” that are “never delivered”, painting a picture of a “pattern of incompetence” over the past decade.

Labour’s Alun Davies criticised a seven-year delay in introducing an environment bill to plug post-Brexit gaps which left Wales with some of the weakest protections in western Europe, according to environment charities.

Mr Davies said: “We’ve got to do more than pass declaratory legislation… [which] doesn’t have any bite… All-too often the vanity of politicians takes over and we believe we can change things quite fundamental and, usually, outside our control simply by passing laws.”

He added: “I remember when this was important and an emergency back in 2018.”

He accused Huw Irranca-Davies, the deputy first minister, of being able to offer “no credible explanation” of why it has taken seven years to bring forward the environment bill.

Mr Davies stressed the delay was not a one-off, questioning why it took ministers about a decade to implement public health and renting laws too.

Calling for a parliamentary inquiry, he asked: “Why is it we’re asked to vote for this legislation, time and time again, but the government isn’t able to deliver?”

“There are real failures of parliamentary and governmental processes here.”

The backbencher, who has twice been sacked from government, added: “We are creating increasingly bureaucratic and cumbersome new structures, targets, which probably won’t be met and, in fact, if you read the bill, won’t even be set until the end of the next Senedd.”

He made the comments as the environment bill, which would establish a watchdog and set a framework for biodiversity targets, passed the first stage in the Senedd.

Mr Davies told the Senedd: “It’s increasingly worrying to me that what we’re doing is piling up laws… which are never delivered, never implemented.”