Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:17 pm on 3 October 2018.
Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. Just simply to say that, of course, we hope that—. We're very happy to have worked very closely with the committee; we did indeed have a very constructive meeting about a number of these issues. On the one area that remains slightly contentious between us, we are, of course, very happy to provide an explanation to the Assembly as to our reasons, if we should decide not to follow the procedure recommended by the sifting committee. Of course we hope this will not happen. There will be numerous opportunities in the course of the discussion of the SI where an early warning system could possibly be put in place, and I am very happy to say to the Member, and to all of the Members of the Senedd, that we will keep this under close review, and should it prove to be any sort of problem, we will of course work with the committee to review the Standing Orders. But it's very much a stop-gap provision. We hope it will not happen. We consider that the inclusion of the information within the explanatory memorandum when the SI is laid will assist Members. They will have all the information in one place to decide on the response. They will have 40 non-recess days to table and lay an annulment motion, and the early warning system will list forthcoming negative resolution SIs in any event, so the committee will be able to identify those where a sifting recommendation has not been followed, should such a thing happen—which we very seriously hope it will not. So, on that basis, Deputy Presiding Officer, I commend the motion to the house.