Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. Can I start by commending the practice of the Welsh Government to carry out an interim report? This is an important change in public policy, and it seems to me very good practice indeed to thoroughly review the position and then to ask for ways in which the enforcement of the rolling out of the policy could be improved. So, I really think that that is to be welcomed, and I hope that the other Cabinet Secretaries that will be aware of this practice will follow it.

I would like to focus on the interim report, and it’s quite balanced. There are things that clearly have worked well and there are some areas that need some attention. The interim report does say there has been relatively poor planning. Perhaps part of the problem is your predecessor indicated that the Government did only expect about 20 per cent registration by this stage. Well, you’ve done much better than that, but I don’t think that was very helpful. I think that sent the wrong signal, and you would have been better off saying that you expected people, within that year, to meet their obligations.

I also think that the report’s finding that local authorities are somewhat confused about how enforcement will be taken forward, how they relate to Rent Smart Wales—and you did refer to the enforcement officers who are in Rent Smart Wales and then those who will be in the local authorities. How these will combine, how these teams will operate and ensure that appropriate resources are available for enforcement, I do think is a key matter, and that’s been identified in the report.

The awareness of mandatory registration as a requirement was fairly low amongst landlords, and I think the situation we’re in is that—you know, something over 50 per cent have now registered, but I suspect that those that haven’t are the harder-to-reach group, probably those landlords that have fewer properties, and some of them may also be very casual about their obligations. I think the majority of them probably are just unaware. Now, of course, they are responsible for that lack of awareness, but part of the problem, I think, has been that the promotional strategy has been successful in parts but perhaps not very successful at getting to those. So, I think you need to revamp the promotional strategy. This also leads to my point that, if you are now moving to enforcement rather than extending the deadline, I hope you ensure that we’re proportionate in our response because, at this stage, enforcement could just be ensuring they register, and I don’t think we necessarily need to move quickly to sanctions when people may have been unaware and, once it’s brought to their attention more actively, they then register quickly. That should be the aim so that we ensure that this policy change can work effectively.

I was very encouraged also to read that the training that has been provided does seem to have been very effective. I notice that about half of those that took part said it had led directly to an improvement in their own practice. Now, that is a good outcome but the interim report does say that the training needs to be ramped up. We need more of it, and I think that may be also something you will have to tweak and review as you get to those landlords who are less experienced or less used to—with a smaller property portfolio, and not devoting as much time perhaps to the obligations they have. So, I think there are some clear indications in this report about how you can take this policy forward, but I do accept that it’s been an important advance in public policy, and it’s something now where we’re quite prepared to look at the evidence. If it does produce higher standards for the sector, that’s going to be good for the sector, it’s going to be good for landlords and it will be good for tenants. So, we’ll keep a watching brief on this, but I think I can give two cheers at this stage.