Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:28 pm on 24 April 2018.
Before I speak to the first group of amendments on this Bill, can I firstly reiterate the fact that all of my amendments today, in one form or another, have derived from the recommendations of the sub-committee on this Bill or from the Constitutional and Legislative Affairs Committee's report?
Whilst this Bill's aims are unarguably in the public interest, given the judgment of the Office for National Statistics, we need to still keep in mind that this Bill is a significant act of deregulation within the housing sector and, consequently, it was identified in both of the committees' reports that it would, and I quote,
'require diligent risk management and effective monitoring.'
Given that my amendments have derived from the cross-party committee discussions and from the general principles of this Bill, which, again, have cross-party support, I think it is worth appreciating that no-one here wants to disrupt or slow down the reclassification process. This is about crafting good law. Llywydd, can I say that all the amendments that I have laid have had the full support and drafting skill of the Commission's lawyers, and I would repudiate any deficiencies in those amendments from a legal standpoint?