Thank you, Deputy Llywydd. We considered these regulations at our meeting on 25 March and reported on 28 March, and we considered the Government’s response yesterday. Our draft report has one merits point, which questions the use of supplementary powers to make changes to the appointment process that applies to the president of the education tribunal for Wales.

The Additional Learning Needs and Education Tribunal (Wales) Act 2018 sets out the procedure for the appointment of the president of the education tribunal for Wales, which involves both the Lord Chancellor and the Lord Chief Justice. The regulations amend the appointment process in the 2018 Act so as to remove the role of the Lord Chief Justice. Our report explains the background to the amending of the appointment process and notes that the process, as set out in the 2018 Act, is legally sound and works as it is currently drafted.

In our report, we did ask the Welsh Government to expand on the use of supplementary powers to reverse provision in an Assembly Act and to clarify which element of section 97(1) of the 2018 Act is being relied upon in order to make these regulations, given that the appointment process in the 2018 Act is not defective. The Government response addresses these points.

We note that during Stage 4 proceedings on the 2018 Act, the Minister for Education referred to

'a very recent development that will require a minor amendment to the Bill when it becomes an Act.'

We do accept that the Assembly was given notice of the change that is being proposed by these regulations, and we accept that the Assembly voted in favour of the Additional Learning Needs and Education Tribunal (Wales) Bill at Stage 4 by 50 votes to zero.

However, we do not believe that Stage 4 is the proper way to announce intentions to make changes to important parts of Assembly Acts, especially changes that arise as a result of a last-minute agreement reached between the Welsh Government and the UK Government. We asked the Welsh Government to clarify why the proposed changes could not have been properly debated during an additional Report Stage. The Government's response says that it considered a number of options and that the Assembly passed the Bill on the basis of the Minister's comments.