Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer, and thank you to the Member in charge for his statement and for the conversations we have had over a period of time leading up to today. The Welsh Government remains committed to supporting and improving the range of services available for children and adults with autistic spectrum disorder, their families and carers. Whilst Wales has led the way in the UK in developing policies to support people with autism and their families and carers, I remain acutely aware of the challenges that people do face in accessing high-quality care and support. I see these challenges not only as a constituency Member and as a Minister, but in some of my own personal contacts, and no-one can doubt the courage and the fortitude that people with autistic spectrum disorder and their families and carers show every single day. To witness it and the efforts that families make to making sure that people in their families continue to have a service and an opportunity is really humbling, and it's natural that everyone in this Chamber would want to do everything in their power to support them. So, I do congratulate the Member on the work he has undertaken over recent months and in bringing the Bill to this stage in the Assembly.

There are, of course, a number of questions that we'll need to ask ourselves over the coming months, and in particular whether this legislation at this time will further improve services and outcomes and experience for people. There is, of course, the alternative question of whether this legislation will have a minimal or potentially negative impact if it does take away the focus on service improvement measures that have been put in place in this Assembly term and we remain committed to.

As I set out in my oral statement last month, the Welsh Government can demonstrate practical steps that we have taken on improving autism services, backed by over £13 million of new investment, creating an integrated autism service across Wales. The situation, of course, is not perfect, but real progress is being made, and there is a risk to disrupting it. The annual report on the delivery of the ASD strategic action plan sets out the progress that we are making. To cement our future commitment, we will shortly publish a consultation on a code of practice on the delivery of autism services. We've had an autism strategy in place for over 10 years and there is absolutely no reason to believe that it will not continue.

I would ask the Member in charge of the Bill and Members scrutinising to consider some of the following points over the coming months: to consider how this Bill will add value to the commitments already being delivered through the existing strategy; what the response is to the concerns that have been raised by number of people through the consultation on the draft Bill that the legislation may privilege one condition over and above others; and to ask that the Bill proposes increasing expectations on our stretched statutory services by introducing waiting-time targets for assessment of 13 weeks—not only the evidence base behind that, but the balance of that risk against other aspects of the service, and whether they'll suffer, as resources would, understandably, be directed to assessment. Members of our ASD advisory group, the ASD diagnostic community of practice and regional integrated autism services have already raised their own concerns about this.

Is legislating for what is still a relatively narrow range of medical data an appropriate use of legislation? It seems unavoidable to me that that would, potentially, lock us into an approach that may need change as medical knowledge of care and treatment changes. I've heard what the Member had to say in his opening statement, but I think there's still a real risk of us, nevertheless, being locked into an approach we would want to change. Critically, why would the legislation enhance our ability to better tackle the core problem of growing or recruiting suitably qualified clinicians? And there are, of course, the costs of this legislation and how they're paid. Now, Members will also have received a joint briefing from the NHS Confederation and I believe four different royal colleges, setting out a range of questions to be asked during the course of the Bill as well.

To sum up, people with autistic spectrum disorder, their families and carers do deserve better services on a more consistent basis, and they deserve our support for them. In the Welsh Government, we believe we have a clear plan of action to do so, with the commitment and, indeed, financial resources to achieve that. There is, of course, a case, which Members will want to consider, for letting the new measures that have been put in place to take hold and to review progress rather than to legislate now. That is a choice for Members to make. But the Welsh Government will continue to engage constructively in the passage of the Bill and through the Assembly process. Our key question, though, is whether this Bill will improve experiences and outcomes, and that will guide our approach to the next stage. We look forward to hearing the evidence, seeing it tested and taking part in the scrutiny.