Thank you, Dirprwy Lywyd. I’m pleased to contribute to this debate. As this Chamber will recall, of course, we discussed the general principles of the Bill on 10 July, and the Counsel General agreed to the request from the Finance Committee not to seek the Assembly’s approval of the financial resolution until the Finance Committee had had an opportunity to consider the draft amendments and their cost implications in relation to the Electoral Commission’s arrangements.

On 25 September, we took evidence from the Counsel General and the Llywydd, as Member in charge of the Bill, of course, to discuss the draft amendments in relation to funding and accountability of the Electoral Commission.

The fact that the the draft amendments were not accompanied by detailed financial information was a source of disappointment to us, specifically relating to the cost impact of the amendments. And it was earlier this afternoon, of course, that I received a letter from the Counsel General providing further information on the amendments. Whilst I thank the Counsel General for his letter, it is unfortunate that it was not made available a little bit earlier to allow for fuller consideration before this debate.

Now, during evidence, the Counsel General confirmed that the majority of costs in relation to the amendments to fund and hold the Electoral Commission to account would fall to the Assembly Commission, and that that would be approximately £39,000 over five years for scrutiny. The Counsel General’s letter now confirms this and, as a result, the committee is broadly content with the financial implications of the Bill.

We also heard from the Counsel General that discussions were ongoing with Her Majesty's Treasury regarding the transfer of funding for the Electoral Commission in relation to devolved Welsh elections and referenda. The committee is concerned that Wales may lose out on funding and this will need to be met by existing Welsh resources. So, we recommend that the Counsel General gives a commitment to ensuring the mechanism for determining the value of transfer to be made into the Welsh consolidated fund to cover these costs will not lead to insufficient funds being transferred to Wales. I note the Counsel General’s response to this recommendation that the funding transfer is dependent, of course, on inter-governmental negotiations that are not within the Welsh Government’s control. However, I am pleased that he has given a commitment that the Welsh Government will pursue this as its policy aim. It is extremely important that Wales does not lose out on funding.

The committee has some concerns about the Counsel General’s preferred approach to fund the Electoral Commission’s budget via the Assembly Commission’s budget, in relation to timing and practical issues in particular. In your response, you say, of course, that we can overcome this—well, the evidence that we have received suggests that that may not be easily done. We are also concerned that, under this option, the chief executive of the Assembly Commission would become the accounting officer for the proportion of the Electoral Commission’s budget relating to Wales. The committee considers that this approach does not provide for clear lines of accountability. As I said, the Counsel General says that these issues can be addressed through procedural and process changes outside of the legislative provisions, and I’m sure that Members will be looking at this in greater detail during the Stage 2 proceedings next week.

As the committee would have preferred the Counsel General to present a joint proposal agreed with the Llywydd, I am pleased that he has given his assurance to continue discussions with the Llywydd on whether such an agreement can be reached. Indeed, I very much hope that that’s possible. Thank you very much.