May I thank the Cabinet Secretary for his statement and say that I agree with him that the fiscal framework, as agreed, does provide sufficient foundations to take these taxation powers and to see them transferred, not only those over income tax but the other two taxes that are now being considered by the Finance Committee. There’s another political decision to be made about the Wales Bill, but, in terms of the fiscal framework, I would like to thank the Government for the work that they have done because I do think that this is of great assistance to the Assembly in coming to decisions.

I have two issues that I would like to raise. First of all, one of the things that is perhaps lost in all of this, although the Cabinet Secretary has mentioned it, is the fact that there is quite a fundamental review of the Barnett formula here, and that is something that we have been calling for for some years. This process started, of course, with the establishment of the One Wales Government and the decision to establish between Labour and Plaid Cymru a joint commission to look into the Barnett formula in relation to Wales’s needs, very skilfully chaired by Gerry Holtham. That report has provided a foundation for this work, and it highlights to me the importance of independent advice and an independent source of information and evidence in order to make your case against the Treasury and the UK Government. So, I do think it’s important that we should actually trace this back to the days of Holtham—it has taken almost a decade to get to this point.

And, in that context regarding an independent process, there is recognition within the framework of the fact that the Government can establish and turn to and rely upon an independent source for review and for information. The Finance Committee in the past has recommended that a fiscal commission should be established to carry out that work—that’s what they have in Scotland. Now, perhaps there isn’t enough work for a full commission at the moment, but what you don’t want to do is turn to one source one year and another the next and take independent advice from another at another point. We need to build some kind of corporate memory, as it were, of fiscal issues and the devolution of fiscal matters to Wales.

So, I would like to hear more from the Cabinet Secretary as to how he is going to seek that independent advice, and what he expects to establish, in terms of a body or a process, in order to ensure that the independent evidence and information is available to the Welsh Government.