But I think it's important to recognise that the council tax system and the system that we have of enforcement of debt, particularly, is intended to ensure that there is payment secured from those people with the means to pay. And we do have evidence from committal proceedings that indicated that, in many places, the process previously was being applied inappropriately to people who just simply didn't have the means to pay. And, of course, that, then, is an additional burden on the public purse in terms of imprisoning individuals. It does nothing to address the underlying issues as to why that individual finds themselves unable to pay the debt in the first place. And, of course, in many cases, it just serves to make the situation worse.

In September this year, the Money Advice Trust published a new report called 'Stop The Knock', and many of those recommendations were focused in England, but actually there were several in Wales, which were addressed to the Welsh Government and we've already started to take those things forward. Part of that work is the council tax protocol for Wales, which I mentioned in terms of setting out the way in which local authorities should now deal with those individuals who find themselves unable to pay council tax. And it is about being unable, not unwilling, to pay council tax. And we're working really closely with local government now to ensure that that protocol is very much embedded in the way local authorities work. The early identification of those individuals whose financial circumstances mean that they might struggle to pay council tax is really important in that agenda as well.

Local authorities do have discretionary powers to reduce or exempt individuals from paying their council tax. We had an example earlier of a particular individual who found themselves in a circumstance where they were struggling to pay council tax, so their local authorities are able to offer individuals that benefit, should they decide to do that.

Council tax arrears haven't risen to the extent that's been reported in England, and that's partly due to the fact that our reduction scheme is so successful and that we have managed to retain that support for low-income households. I think it's important to recognise, as well, that council tax collection in Wales, the rates are actually very, very high indeed, and certainly higher than in England and Scotland. Of course, we can't compare to Northern Ireland because they have a different system of tax there. So, I think that, in terms of collection, our rates are very high.

The standardisation of the SMI application form was really important because previous to that, particularly with regard to serious mental impairment, local authorities—the staff themselves—weren't often aware of this particular benefit that was available to people. When they were, they weren't necessarily dealing with those people in a systematic and clear way across Wales. So, that's the reason why we've introduced that particular standardised form, and that was with the support of Money Saving Expert, which recognised, I think, that for these particular individuals, who often are some of the most vulnerable people, there wasn't the level of understanding and that they weren't being treated consistently across Wales.

Now, I think the protocol provides a framework to ensure that other people are treated consistently across Wales with other reasons as to why they should have help with their council tax. And again, the point was made that local taxation has to be seen in the wider contact. So, in terms of local taxes sitting alongside our Welsh taxes and the Welsh rates of income tax, those things together, I think, provide us with a suite of measures. And, of course, we've set out our plans in terms of the additional taxes that we might look to introduce in the future, were we able to get those powers devolved to Wales. So, absolutely, the whole tax picture has to fit as a jigsaw, given the spending commitments that we have and the pressures that we have as a Government.

In terms of the research, by the autumn of 2020, we will have, I think, all of the research reports I've described together, so we'll be able to look at them as a suite and hopefully set out, potentially, the direction as to where we would like to take things next. So, it could be about ruling out some of the ideas for some of the reasons that Mike Hedges highlighted earlier, or it could be a case of having to pinpoint particular areas where we feel that more work may need to be done, and hopefully those reports will help all political parites in their thinking as we head towards the next Assembly elections.