I’d like to first of all acknowledge the work that was done within the committee by my colleagues. We put in a great deal of effort, but I’d like to highlight Huw Irranca-Davies and just congratulate him on the chairmanship of this committee and the work that he’s done—very professional, and I’m very impressed with it. Thank you, Huw.

As you mentioned, this is the fourth Bill in 20 years, and the question that I think we’re all asking is: will this be the last? Certainly, Simon Thomas and David Melding have pointed out that there’s going to be a fifth Bill. Well, actually, I think that’s a reality; that’s something we can all see. Now, my reasoning behind that is something that maybe hasn’t been touched on, but, of course, we all acknowledge what happened on 23 June and the fact that Wales voted for us to leave the EU, and I’m sure that you’re all groaning about the fact I’m bringing that up again, but the reality is that this Bill does not really acknowledge that fact. Nowhere in it is there an acknowledgement of the fact that we’re going to get some of the areas that are devolved to Wales, hopefully, coming back to us, whether it be fisheries, farming or food production. One of the things that we need to do, certainly, is: as a legislature, we need to be looking at those areas and deciding how we want to move forward with them, what areas we want to change and what EU legislation we wish to, through the great repeal Act, see got rid of and use this as an opportunity for change for all of us for the positive.

The committee report acknowledges the decision taken on the twenty-third, and the First Minister yesterday, in a response to a question that I gave him, said about the fisheries policy that there is a need for Wales to develop its own fisheries policy when the UK leaves the EU to safeguard the future prosperity of Wales’s fishing industry and our coastal communities. Now, we’re leaving the EU, and this is a golden opportunity for us to develop our own policies and laws and to pursue Welsh interests and Welsh prosperity. So, really, as far as I can see, and I think most of us acknowledge, this Bill will need to be amended within a matter of months, really, in order for us to start, once article 50 is invoked.

There is one other area that I myself, personally, have a bit of a beef about, and I’d like to quote from Hansard, from Lord Hain, who, when he was talking about the Bill, said:

‘Meanwhile, my other major objection is that Clause 17 of this Bill removes sections of the Wales Act 2014—just two years ago—that retain the requirement which has existed since 1997 that a referendum will be required to implement the powers to vary income tax under that Act.’

And then he goes on to say that there was no second question in the referendum as to whether or not people wanted income tax devolved. He further goes on to say that

‘to devolve income tax powers to Wales would therefore need another referendum like Scotland had on income tax.’

I wholeheartedly agree with Peter Hain in his assessment of that. Thank you.