[Continues.]—grave concern for our Welsh educational standards, and underachievement in many other aspects of Welsh Government delivery. The proposals laid out in this piece of proposed legislation seek to rob the Welsh taxpaying public of protection from undemocratic strike action. They seek to undermine the values of transparency, accountability and openness in the public sector, and this will enable mass disruption for the many by the few, whilst preventing the use of agency workers to keep key services running during strikes in certain sectors.

The Welsh Conservatives will not be supporting this Bill. We believe that the UK Government was right to bring forward the Trade Union Act 2016—an Act that rebalances the interests of employers, employees and the public with the freedom of trade unions to strike, and which, contrary to what many others seem to believe, does not propose to stop facility time, but ensures greater transparency by extending the requirement to publish information about the time and money dedicated to this in the public sector.

The UK Act also moves to end check-off, where the cost is simply picked up by the public purse. The fact that the actual cost of this is so much higher than the evidence taken in committee would lead us to believe, gives us clear motivation for improved transparency in this sector—almost £0.5 million per year for the pro rata provision of check-off services across the public sector in Wales. This is not an absolutely minimal amount, and it is not negligible, as we were advised in evidence. This is a significant amount of money that our public services, including local authorities, would do well to be able to invest elsewhere, employing additional social workers or teaching assistants, for example.

Llywydd, the UK Government’s intention for this Act remains unchanged. These new safeguards should apply to protect employers, employees and the public across the United Kingdom. The Wales Bill will clarify that industrial relations are a reserved matter, and the UK Government will act at the earliest possible opportunity, following the commencement of the Wales Act, to ensure legislation properly protects our public services.

I take great pleasure in opposing this Bill.