Thank you, Llywydd. In just over a month’s time, as Members will be very aware, the first Welsh taxes in hundreds of years will start to be collected, as land transaction tax and landfill disposals tax are switched on. However, tax devolution must not only simply be about replacing one tax system with another. We have a responsibility to think more innovatively about tax, about how taxes operate, about their impact on people, businesses and communities, and how they interact with our wider policy objectives.

The tax policy work plan for 2018, which I published today, sets out the Welsh Government's priorities for this year. It contains a variety of short and long-term priorities in the following areas: tax rates, tax policy, local taxation improvements, tax administration and long-term research. As part of last year's work plan, I set out the Government’s intention to test the Wales Act 2014 powers. The Act enables Wales to propose new taxes in areas of devolved responsibility.

Llywydd, I published a shortlist of four tax ideas in October: a vacant land tax, a disposable plastics tax, a social care levy, and a tourism tax. Over the past six months, we have been working with stakeholders to examine the case for each of these four ideas more fully, including their impact on Wales. The Welsh Government also carried out an informal online opinion poll, via social media, to raise awareness of these tax ideas and to gauge public support for each of the ideas. I published the outcome of that poll earlier today.

Members will be aware that the process set out in the Wales Act and its accompanying documentation was basic. I've been very pleased to have the opportunity to discuss this with the Chief Secretary to the Treasury and to agree a process for devolving new tax powers to the National Assembly. This will involve two distinct stages. The first will be for the Houses of Parliament and the National Assembly to agree the devolution of competence, and secondly, the Welsh Government will bring forward the policy and legislative proposals to the National Assembly. An account of that process was published on our website earlier today.

Llywydd, I've concluded that each of the shortlisted ideas have important merits. It's my judgment that, in testing the machinery for the first time, it will be important to simplify matters by proposing only one tax in the first instance. That does not mean, however, that work will not continue on each of the shortlisted ideas. Let me be clear, too, about what all of this means. The tax proposals with which I intend to test the Wales Act 2014 have the potential to help achieve our policy agenda here in Wales. It does not mean that we are irrevocably committed to introducing such a tax. However, if the power to introduce a specific tax to Wales only is added to the devolved responsibilities of the National Assembly for Wales, then detailed policy work and engagement with stakeholders will follow. If legislation is proposed, it will be subject to all the normal scrutiny arrangements of this legislature.

I now turn to look at each idea in turn.