There was, to suggestions that—[Interruption.] If you'll allow me to finish, and then I'll be happy to take an intervention. There was significant opposition to having these amendments go forward during Stage 1. These amendments were proposed by the children's commissioner and a range of other stakeholders, and there was resistance at that point to allowing any amendments on this to go forward. And the Minister contended, in the same way that the Cabinet Secretary has today, that there was no need to slavishly repeat these duties on the face of the Bill, that, in doing so, it would create these problems to front-line staff and put institutions at risk of litigation. But, of course, those fears are completely unfounded. There has not been a single legal problem as a result of the duties to have due regard to UN conventions being included on the face of the social services and well-being Act, for example—not a single legal case has been brought. Now, while these amendments that I've tabled today fall short of the provisions of those in that Act, I am confident that, if they're allowed to proceed, they will ensure that the rights-based approach that we have rightly adopted here in Wales will be reinforced, and they will also result in changes to practice on the ground, which is why I'm very grateful to the Welsh Government for its belated conversion, if you like, towards the cause of needing to see this legislation amended to embed references to the UN conventions onto the face of the Bill.

That said, I'm concerned, and I'm concerned about two of the Welsh Government's amendments in particular. While most of them seek to make minor drafting amendments to the drafting of amendments 2 and 3, I'm afraid that some of the others are troubling. Amendments 2G and 3F in particular I'm afraid I cannot recommend to this Assembly to support, because they seek to remove the duty to have due regard to the UN conventions from the governing bodies of maintained schools and the governing bodies of further education institutions—two bodies with massively significant roles to play in the delivery of the new additional learning needs system that this Bill seeks to implement. To remove due-regard duties from schools and colleges in this way I think is rather extraordinary. 

Now, the Cabinet Secretary has argued that schools and colleges are not of a sufficient scale and size to ensure that those organisations can be familiar with the UN conventions and have the resources to be able to ensure that they have a due regard to them in the same way that larger organisations like a local education authority or the NHS is able to. But the reality is that schools are already familiar with the rights-based agenda. They're already charged with promoting awareness of children's rights, in particular amongst children and young people in our schools across the country. And in addition to that, our further education colleges are very large, multi-million-pound organisations that are already required to comply with and implement very complex pieces of legislation, and they do so successfully on a daily basis. They've got more than sufficient capacity to ensure that their duties to have due regard to UN conventions are fulfilled.

As I said earlier, the social services and well-being Act already expects and has an expectation that front-line social workers and other individuals who are delivering services on a day-to-day basis have due regard to the UN conventions and principles, so why shouldn't we expect teachers and anybody else delivering some sort of function under this Act, and especially governing bodies of schools and further education colleges, to do likewise?

So, I will be supporting the other amendments that have been tabled in this group by the Minister, including amendments 2E and 3D, which give an opportunity for a proportionate approach to having a due regard for the purposes of this Act. I think that they are sensible, but I am afraid I cannot support the other amendments that have been tabled, amendments 2G and 3F, and I would encourage all Assembly Members to reject them.