I certainly welcome the increased powers of the public services ombudsman under this Bill and the inclusion of the Assembly in the appointments process. I was very supportive of this when it came before committee last term and I look forward to scrutiny in our committee when it comes forward.

We firmly believe that the ombudsman should be accountable to the National Assembly for Wales, not just the Welsh Government, so the Welsh Conservatives are pleased to note that the nomination for this role will be here through the Assembly. However, I’d like some further clarification as regards how Members of the National Assembly for Wales will feed into all levels of the nomination process for the ombudsman and not just the final stages of appointment.

In terms of accessibility, we do welcome proposals to remove the requirement to make a complaint in writing and for the ombudsman still to be able to initiate investigations. Only five other members of the Council of Europe have ombudsmen without this power, so this is, in fact, long overdue in terms of bringing Wales in line with the rest of the UK and Europe. In ensuring objectivity with regard to this power, how will the provisions in this Bill draw a clear dividing line between the ombudsman’s commitment to representation and the Welsh Government’s priorities? And how will this Bill ensure greater Welsh Government and public service acceptance of investigatory outcomes?

The current model complaint policy in Wales is voluntary and the Finance Committee previously noted that adoption across the public sector is not consistent. So, firstly, what consideration might be made for the statutory basis of guidance issued by the ombudsman to apply to private health services as well? Following on from the open day debate last week, this particular new power will mean that we will be able to collate regular, reliable and comparable data on complaints across the public sector. Secondly, then, how will this data be collected to ensure a concerted drive in accountability and transparency in public services, empowering the scrutiny process?

And, finally, how will best practice going forward be determined? Will we be able to scrutinise best practice examples from around the UK and further afield to ensure that public service complaints are efficient and effective as a result of this Bill? Will this be reviewed as part of the five-year review by this Assembly?

I thank the committee and the Chairman of the Finance Committee, and I thank the Cabinet Secretary for receiving this in good spirit. I look forward to working with everybody, in my part, on the committee, and when it comes to scrutiny here, to ensure that we get this right. Thank you.