I welcome the chairman’s statement this afternoon. This is something that we had in our manifesto at the Assembly election last year—rejected by the people of Wales, hence the Government’s sitting on this bench here. But I do think there’s a wider issue here that, with the increasing number of appointments and the stature that has been highlighted previously by the Plaid Cymru speaker of the increased powers and responsibilities of this institution, a good way for people to actually understand how much of the actions are taken on their behalf—pre-legislative scrutiny and pre-appointment scrutiny are a vital part of the way that the public get informed about the roles people are undertaking on their behalf. You’re quite right, Chair, to point out that, in many legislatures around the globe, this is common practice, and surely we should embrace that and welcome that. In your statement you did touch on the tax authority’s, the revenue authority’s, appointment of a chair and how the individual came before you. Surely, that is something that is welcomed and, ultimately, should be expanded across the areas of public appointments so that Members in this institution and the public at large can really understand what these roles entail, how they’re undertaken, and, ultimately, drive another level of accountability through. That, ultimately, has to be good for public service delivery. So, from these benches, we certainly will be supporting any increase in the ability to bring appointments forward.

It was many years ago when the commissioners—the children’s commissioner and the older people’s commissioner—were appointed and we believed that those shouldn’t be a Government appointment, they should be an Assembly appointment. Surely, that is good practice and, sadly, that hasn’t come to fruition, albeit I do welcome the moves from the Government when they do include other parties in that appointment process. But, surely, we should formalise that more so that it is the institution that makes that appointment. So, I welcome your statement this afternoon, chairman of the Finance Committee, but I do hope that, through your experiences and the points that you make in your statement, they can be taken forward now to expand the opportunity for scrutiny committees in this Assembly to actually—I was going to use the word ‘interrogate’ but that sounds more frightening—scrutinise chairmen and, in my view, special advisers as well, on their appointments because, equally, in the modern Government—and this is not just in this Government here; it’s Governments across the United Kingdom—the role of special advisers is an increasingly important role and has an important bearing on the way Government works, yet how many people actually understand or know the names of those individuals and, surely, that’s an important part of Government and an important part of scrutiny that should come into the public domain as well then. So, I Invite your comments on that particular aspect as well.