Thank you, acting Deputy Presiding Officer. 

Standing Order 25 was established to deal with section 109 Orders, as they existed under the pre-2011 devolution settlement—the old legislative competence Orders or LCOs of the third Assembly. Section 116C Orders, whilst relating to devolving new tax-making powers to the Assembly, are different from LCOs; they will only come forward after a period of negotiation and consultation and on the basis of consensus between the Welsh and UK Governments. The two-step process of the LCO, where proposed and draft Orders are scrutinised, is not appropriate in this situation. The Government has given a number of commitments regarding the information that will be provided to the Assembly during the negotiating phase in advance of a section 116C being brought forward. These are set out in the Business Committee's report.

A section 116C Order is an item of subordinate legislation subject to the affirmative procedure. The existing Standing Order 27 already provides for most of the procedure necessary to scrutinise 116C Orders. We consider incorporating the procedure in Standing Order 27 would see a consolidation of Standing Orders for subordinate legislation. This approach avoids duplication of procedures in different Standing Orders, thus helping with accessibility and transparency. Last week, the Assembly agreed the same approach to Standing Order 27 for statutory instruments made by Welsh Ministers relating to EU exit. 

The issue has also been raised about the proposal to provide a briefing to the Chair, as a representative of the committee, to ensure the committee could be updated on the progress of negotiations in a timely fashion. As you can appreciate, this will be in the context of inter-governmental confidentiality and relationships, but in the light of comments from the various members of the Business Committee, I am absolutely certain the Cabinet Secretary would be more than happy to consider other options to keep the committee updated as a whole, if they would find that helpful. 

There are ongoing discussions between our respective officials about future arrangements for keeping the Assembly committees informed about the operation of the inter-governmental relations machinery. The Government is very open to establishing appropriate arrangements. We can address the issues around the Joint Exchequer Committee, for example, in that context. As Dai Lloyd said, in his closing remarks, the process as established by section 116C of the Government of Wales Act is new. The Government is more than happy to review its commitments and the changes to Standing Orders, if they are agreed today, in the light of experience of actually operating them. Diolch.