If I may welcome the statement by the Cabinet Secretary today in saying that I am a little disappointed, of course, that he hasn’t selected the single-use plastics tax, but I do welcome the fact that he will use this new process to test a new tax—we can call it 'taxco' to correspond with the LCO, perhaps. But we, here, do support the fact that this process is to be tested. As he said in his statement, we are not going to commit irrevocably to this vacant land tax. We will want to see how it is developed and what exactly the purpose and use of the tax will be, and the range of the tax here in Wales. But, we certainly support the principle of using that process of drawing up new taxes.

One specific question on the vacant land tax that I can ask now, I believe, is: to whom will this tax apply? The statement talks about land developers, people who hold—and you can think about supermarkets, who are famous for sitting on land for long periods of time. But, the fact is that much of the land in Wales is owned by the public sector—by the Government itself, local authorities and the public sector more broadly, such as universities, colleges and housing associations, who are still in the public sector, unless we pass the legislation that is discussed later today. So, I do want to fully understand: would such a tax apply to the public sector where they hold vacant land? It's slightly strange for one Government to tax another part of Government, and I'm not sure what the purpose of that would be. The Government does have other policy tools to address the problem, other than taxation. That's the question that I have at the moment.

If I could turn to the broader statement, and if I could also say that the oral statement today accords with the written statement and a lengthy policy statement on taxation for 2018 that the Cabinet Secretary has set out. It's far too long to discuss that today, but there are a few things emerging from that that I would like to ask about today. Now, in the taxation policy that you published today, one of the things that you state as one of the objectives of your policy is to use taxation in order to influence behaviour—not only to raise funds but to influence behaviours. In that context, of course, the single-use plastics tax seemed very attractive. I hear what you say about developments at a UK level, but can you tell us a little more now about the involvement and the engagement that you will have with the Westminster Government on the development of a disposable plastics tax? You talk about being part of the evidence-gathering process, but are you also going to be forming policy, influencing policy and ensuring that, if there is a disposable plastics tax, that should be appropriate?

One of the questions that has been raised a number of times in this Assembly as we’ve discussed this issue is that it has to go hand in hand with the high rates of recycling that we have in Wales, and there are different rates of recycling in other parts of the UK. Now, not all taxes are going to be appropriate for us. One of the obvious things emerging, then, is that if there is a disposable plastics tax emerging from Westminster, we—or the Government here—should have some sort of influence on the levy or the level of that tax, or you can't apply the tax to the situation that exists here.

Two questions to close, just arising from the broader context that has been set out today. In the taxation policy, you talk about local taxation and the principle in terms of how these could work. I understand that you are reviewing business rates. We are facing council tax with some very high increases possible this year. You have core funding from central Government that is provided to local authorities, which is also reducing. In England, it is now clear that it is the intention of the Government in England to significantly reduce the funds provided form central sources and to encourage council tax and business rates to be increased in order to make up that deficit. Now, I don't see any statement of intent or policy statement from the current Welsh Government in response to that. So, can you give us some idea as to where you see local taxation going over the next few years?

Finally, of course, we've seen the devolution of income tax, which is on the horizon. You've said in the past that it isn't the policy of this Government to change income tax rates in Wales during this Assembly term. Can you restate in the Assembly today that that remains your policy?