I thank the Member for those questions. To address the last one first, ‘waste tourism’ is an inelegant phrase. It’s used to cover the circumstances that Mike Hedges referred to. The research shows that people taking waste to landfill are relatively sensitive to relatively small changes in the rate of tax to be paid. What I’m keen to avoid is waste being taken on long journeys to more distant places than it otherwise would have been by creating disincentives in the tax system, or incentives in the tax system. So, my aim will be not to introduce a new factor into the calculations that people currently make as to where they dispose of landfill waste. I would not want to see our tax system creating a whole different set of environmental difficulties, and we’ll be very alert to that.

The Member asked what the key policy drivers behind the Bill turn out to be. Although this is a diminishing tax as far as the Bill is concerned, it still was intended to raise £40 million in a year, and, as finance Minister, I haven’t got £40 million to fill the hole that would be left if we didn’t take action to raise that money here in Wales. So, there is an important purpose behind the Bill in securing revenue for public services in Wales, but there is at the same time that very important alignment with environmental policy, where our policy is, as quickly as we are able to do it, to reduce and then eliminate the use of landfill for waste disposal.

Finally, the question that the Member asked about unauthorised disposals, and the balance of proof that will be used in this area. The WRA already will have civil powers of investigation as part of any tax inquiry , but I signalled in my statement my intention to consult in the spring on the criminal powers of investigation that the Tax Collection and Management (Wales) Act 2016 enables Welsh Ministers to confer on the Welsh Revenue Authority. This is to be done through secondary legislation. I think we need to take a proportionate approach in that, but it will be my intention to bring proposals in front of the National Assembly for scrutiny.