I’m formally supporting a number of amendments in this group. The most crucial of those, as we have already gathered now, are amendments 2 and 3, which place a duty on relative bodies to have due regard to the UN conventions on the rights of children and people with disabilities.

Now, as we have already heard, this is a debate that’s been very lively as this Bill has proceeded through the Assembly, but the committee has been clear in its report at the end of Stage 1 on the need to ensure a due regard on public bodies and for that to be placed on the face of the Bill. The children’s commissioner has been very consistent and strong in her evidence on that, and most of the stakeholders who have given us evidence as this Bill has developed have been of a like mind.

We have heard of the precedent set in the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014 and there’s no doubting that, of course. But, the Government has previously expressed concerns about the risk of litigation against relative bodies on the basis of institutional arrangements to demonstrate how they give regard to these conventions. But, as we’ve heard, there have been no similar challenges in the context of the social services and well-being Act. The Cabinet Secretary referred to the risk that teachers would be swamped in bureaucracy. I don’t think people have been swamped in bureaucracy in the context of the social services and well-being Act. So, why should that be the case in this context? As Barnardo’s Cymru reminds us, the Government can’t just select which rights to defend and promote and when they choose to do that. They must consistently be included, and that should be done with equality.

The only question for me here—the broader question—is why we should include these duties in all individual Bills. The previous Minister’s comments referred to why this has to be done slavishly at every turn, and it does identify a weakness in the Rights of Children and Young Persons (Wales) Measure 2011. Although that Measure was an important milestone in implementing the UNCRC, the duty to have due regard to the convention refers directly to Welsh Ministers alone.

It would be timely, in my view—and, indeed, it is about time—for us to have a post-legislative scrutiny process on that Measure, and then, if required through legislation, to put that situation right, so that we don’t have to rehearse these kinds of amendments every time a relevant Bill is brought forward. That’s a debate for another day, perhaps, but I do think it’s important that the point is made.

I won’t be supporting amendments 2G and 3F in the name of the Government because that would exempt governing bodies and FE institutions from giving due regard to the conventions, undermining the intentions of much of the amendments in this group.