This Bill is not, of course, a Government Bill. It has been introduced to the Assembly by the Finance Committee, and the recommendations produced by the two committees will be for the Member in charge of the Bill to take forward. However, I would like to take this opportunity to set out the Government's position, particularly in light of the evidence taken by the Equality, Local Government and Communities Committee. The Bill proposes new powers in four distinct areas for the ombudsman, and I will take each in turn.

The Government supports the proposal that the ombudsman should be able to accept oral complaints. We also support the Equality, Local Government and Communities Committee's recommendation, as John Griffiths pointed out, for the ombudsman to maintain a register of all complaints received. This has the potential to yield more valuable information about the quality of public services in Wales. The Government also supports the proposal for a power to investigate private healthcare providers where a complaint concerns both NHS and private healthcare. Again, we agree with the Equality, Local Government and Communities Committee's recommendations that the Finance Committee must do more work to improve the Bill's regulatory impact assessment, particularly in respect of the costs to private healthcare providers. This section is currently uncosted in the Bill's RIA.

I turn next to the proposal to enable the Ombudsman to conduct own-initiative investigations. The Government has followed the evidence carefully in relation to this section of the Bill, and accepts the argument that the Ombudsman will be in a position to react to emerging themes and issues across the public sector. However, we share some of the concerns raised by stakeholders about the potential for the ombudsman to duplicate investigatory work already being carried out by other regulators and inspectors. The Equality, Local Government and Communities Committee has recommended that an amendment should be brought forward at Stage 2 to require the ombudsman to consult with other regulators and commissioners before embarking on an own-initiative investigation. We support this as it would go some way to reduce the risk of overlap, confusion and duplication.

Dirprwy Lywydd, I now turn to the final proposal in the Bill: the power for the ombudsman to set common complaints standards for the public sector. The Government has paid close attention to the evidence given during the Stage 1 process, including the analysis of the regulatory impact assessment by the independent expert in relation to common complaints standards. We have concerns that we mirrored in the evidence taken by the committee about whether the power to set common complaints standards could cut across existing statutory complaints procedures, many of which have been agreed and passed by this National Assembly. We believe it could be helpful for the ombudsman to publish principles and model complaints-handling procedures to provide consistency for service users and public services generally. But these should not undermine existing statutory complaints procedures, such as 'Putting Things Right', already referred to in this debate. This could create uncertainty for individual organisations and for the ombudsman and complainants. We could support this part of the Bill if the Member in charge brought forward amendments to ensure existing statutory complaints processes are respected. I'm pleased to note that the Member in charge has accepted this in his response to the committee's report.

Dirprwy Lywydd, the Welsh Government also has some concerns about section 71 of the Bill, which, as we've heard, contains provisions requiring the ombudsman to have a Welsh language strategy. This was raised during scrutiny by the Welsh Language Commissioner and by Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg. The Equality, Local Government and Communities Committee has said that this section of the Bill needs strengthening, and we would be very happy to work with the Member in charge to bring forward an amendment to ensure the ombudsman is subject to the Welsh language standards requirements. With that said, the Government will today support the general principles of the Public Services Ombudsman (Wales) Bill.

Dirprwy Lywydd, I would like to say a few words about the next steps and the development of the Bill. The Equality, Local Government and Communities Committee has set out in its report a very clear recommendation that further work must be carried out on the Bill's financial costings and to the RIA. As they are currently presented, and as the Member in charge noted in his opening speech, there are a number of gaps in the costings and a number of areas where the financial evidence needs to be developed, including the robustness of the ombudsman's running costs and the costs to private healthcare providers. Until this work is carried out, the Government will not be tabling a financial resolution for this Bill. This will give the Finance Committee time to further consider the RIA and to undertake the work in line with the committee's recommendations. Any extra costs for providing the ombudsman with additional powers will be met from the Welsh consolidated fund. Put bluntly, more money spent on the ombudsman will mean less for front-line public services at a time of ongoing austerity. It's essential, therefore, that we have a robust analysis of the costs.

Finally, Dirprwy Lywydd, my colleague the Cabinet Secretary for Finance has met the Member in charge of the Bill and shared a legal analysis of the Bill identifying a number of areas where changes need to be made to ensure that it functions correctly, if enacted, to meet the stated policy intent. I should stress that these are essential requirements for efficacy, rather than discretionary improvements and enhancements. The Government is keen to work with the Member in charge as the Bill progresses to remedy the issues highlighted.