Thank you Deputy Presiding Officer. I’m sure it’s a sign of how important public health is that three committees are to report on this Bill as we discuss it this afternoon.

I think it’s important for me to say initially that the committee welcomed the fact that there had been a general improvement in the presentation of this Bill as compared to the previous Bill in terms of the way the cost and benefit figures were presented in the regulatory impact assessment. The committee has reported in the past how important it is that this information is as clear as possible in order to avoid confusion, and it’s good therefore to welcome the fact that this Bill makes that more explicit than the last Bill presented to the Assembly.

We also welcome the Minister’s assurance that the Welsh Government is working with the Wales Audit Office to improve the financial information provided in RIAs. This is an issue we as a committee will continue to monitor as we scrutinise the financial implications of legislation introduced into this Assembly.

The main area of concern, regarding finance in the Bill, highlighted in our report is the fact that a financial burden is placed on public bodies, particularly local authorities, in implementing the provisions of the Bill. We of course realise that the Bill covers a broad range of issues allowing local authorities to raise funds through fees, particularly through nicotine registrations, special procedures licensing applications, and fixed penalty notices. Of course, local authorities in their turn can re-invest those funds in order to deliver their inspection obligations.

However, we were concerned that the up-front investment required from local government to implement the Bill is a disproportionate burden, given that they won’t benefit for some time. So, I do welcome the fact that the Minister, in opening this debate, has said that the Welsh Government is reviewing this aspect and considering how at least the start-up costs of the Bill could be funded and assist public authorities, particularly local authorities, who will have to implement the Bill, if enacted, before they have any means of seeking revenue through the provisions of the Bill.

It does raise a broader question, Deputy Presiding Officer, as to whether the Welsh Government expects local government to shoulder the burden of new responsibilities, and the Finance Committee is very aware that in the past there has been an agreement between the Welsh Government and the WLGA to fund new responsibilities before they are passed to local government in introducing legislation. That might be an issue for the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government to return to.

We also note that the financial information provided doesn’t provide details as to whether the amount of revenue collected from fixed penalty notices would be sufficient to cover the costs borne by local authorities to enforce provisions, particularly relating to the nicotine register. The fact that this information isn’t available is a cause for concern for us, because such details could assist local authorities in assessing the financial implications that could be entailed in enacting this Bill. We think it’s important, therefore, that the Welsh Government commits to publishing how much money is raised by each local authority from fixed penalty notice income to cover their enforcement costs—that is, that we do keep a close eye and monitor this, and the costs borne by local authorities in enforcing these policies in their own communities.

Local authorities would also face costs from producing local toilets strategies for their areas. Whilst these costs shouldn’t be significant, we do question whether the production of strategies alone would lead to improved public access to toilets, and therefore whether the investment would represent value for money. We therefore recommend that the Welsh Government should review the effectiveness of the provisions relating to public toilets—something that was given a fair bit of attention in scrutinising this Bill, I know.

Finally, I would like to re-iterate our recommendations relating to the costs of implementing the secondary legislation provisions. Whilst we realise that RIAs will be produced to show the costs and benefits when the various pieces of subordinate legislation are introduced. However, information of this kind isn’t included in the costs and benefits set out for the Bill. We believe that this information is important to enable the Assembly to fully understand the costs and benefits. We recommend, therefore, that the Welsh Government should develop a more consistent approach across Bills to provide costs associated with secondary legislation to enable better scrutiny of the full costs and benefits of all Bills.