I thank Mike Hedges not only for his comments today but for the work he’s done on the Finance Committee previously, and of course very much support what he said about Jocelyn Davies. I hope I can continue—. I think Jocelyn had an approach where she wanted to work with all parties here, and I hope that—. Certainly, taking through a Bill, I need to do that, and I’m very much aware that I need to build support for this Bill on behalf of the committee.

I just want to say, before answering specifically the question, to really just support what Mike Hedges was saying about the need for oral complaints, we’ve all sat down in surgeries and in our offices with people who are very prepared to tell us their story but will not sign the piece of paper or will say they didn’t have their glasses, and, you know, we have to navigate our way through this. But, looking into this Bill, I was struck by the figures for, in effect, functional illiteracy in Wales. It is as high as 25 per cent of the adult population, and is higher in Wales than in other parts of the United Kingdom. So, I think there’s a real need for us to open the doors for the ombudsman to accept those oral complaints.

Of course, there has to be some kind of verification process and we’d have to ensure that the ombudsman was able to ensure the complaints were fully taken forward. But the potential increase in complaints could then be offset, as Mike Hedges said, by a better understanding of the pattern of complaints in a particular sector, which might lead to an own-initiative investigation, and, in turn, as well, by the standardisation part of this Bill, which, certainly in the Scottish ombudsman’s case, has actually led to fewer complaints progressing beyond the first stage. In other words, things get resolved earlier and there are some savings within the system due to that.

Specifically to reply to Mike Hedges, I assure him and the whole Assembly that the Bill only builds on the current Bills; it doesn’t take away any powers. As well as the oral complaints powers, it will enable, as I said, having those own-initiative powers. I think it’s important that we put on record that we’re not writing a blank cheque for the ombudsman to just go off and do own-initiative investigations. It’s on the face of the Bill how those investigations have to relate to his work and to the wider needs of the citizen. I hope, as the Bill gets scrutinised, that the needs of the citizen are recognised as being central to this Bill, and, of course, there may be ideas that come in through the security process that will only assist and help us achieve that aim.