Now, the future liability scheme is operated by the NHS Wales Shared Services Partnership's legal and risk services—and I'll now refer to them as NHS Wales SSP for brevity. But appointing NHS Wales SSP builds on their existing experience of dealing with NHS Wales's secondary care indemnity and it has the support of GPs across Wales. The future liability scheme has bedded in well since its introduction. NHS Wales SSP is fully committed to providing GPs in Wales with a high-quality service, commensurate with the level of services GPs have become accustomed to when dealing with the three medical defence organisations. And to this end, NHS Wales SSP has held a number of workshops for local health boards and GP practice managers. This proactive and collaborative approach has enabled GPs to better understand the role of NHS Wales SSP and the interface between them and the continuing role of medical defence organisations. NHS Wales SSP recognises the importance of robustly defending claims where appropriate, and of protecting GPs, their staff and reputations. NHS Wales SSP is also committed to resolving any claim for compensation brought by a patient in relation to the clinical care under the NHS as fairly and as quickly as possible. I'm confident that GPs will continue to receive a high-quality holistic service as a result.

I am pleased to say that existing liability scheme arrangements have been agreed with the Medical Protection Society. This arrangement will help to strengthen the sustainability of general medical services, and discussions with Medical and Dental Defence Union of Scotland are at an advanced stage. My commitment in November last year to expand the state-backed indemnity scheme to cover existing liabilities was made subject to the completion of legal and financial due diligence and satisfactory negotiations with the three medical defence organisations. Discussions with the Medical Defence Union have progressed more slowly than with the other two medical defence organisations. They also still have ongoing judicial review proceedings against both the UK Secretary of State for health and the Welsh Ministers. I can, however, assure Assembly Members that the Welsh Government is continuing our discussions with the Medical Defence Union. We're committed to progressing existing liability scheme arrangements as swiftly and as positively as possible, just as we have done and continue to do with the other two medical defence organisations.

I want to turn, now, to the recommendations from the Constitutional and Legislative Affairs Committee. In response to recommendation 1, in May 2018 I indicated that a state-backed future liability scheme for clinical negligence would be introduced from 1 April 2019. In November 2018 I confirmed that the state-backed provision of indemnity will be extended to cover clinical negligence claims arising before 1 April 2019—that is the existing liability scheme. Following consultation with the medical defence organisations, discussions on the commercial terms of the existing liability scheme commenced in January 2019, and those discussions confirmed in March 2019 that an element of the proposed existing liability scheme agreements was a requirement to underpin the scheme with regulations. Having acted swiftly, confirmation was received in July 2019 that the GP indemnity Bill that we're discussing today at Stage 1 would be included in the First Minister's legislative programme for the current Assembly to give Ministers the powers to make those regulations.

In response to recommendation 2, I would point out that the new subsection 10 does not confer any powers on the Welsh Ministers. The purpose of the new subsection 10 is to clarify that nothing in section 30 limits or affects the Welsh Ministers' general powers in any other legislation. And the new subsection 10 makes clear that the amendments made by the Bill do not limit any powers that already exist. I do, however, disagree with recommendation 3 to apply the affirmative procedure to the first regulations made under the new subsection 38 and then to revert to the negative procedure.

The Bill has had a full, albeit short, Stage 1 scrutiny period, with stakeholders able to provide evidence to committee, either in person or in writing. The Bill's regulatory impact assessment identifies what and who is covered by the existing liability scheme regulations, as does the statement of policy intent. The existing power of Welsh Ministers to make regulations indemnifying health bodies under section 30 is already subject to the negative procedure. This power has already been used to establish the future liability scheme by regulations. The Bill, therefore, maintains a status quo already set by the National Health Service (Wales) Act 2006 for regulations made pursuant to section 30.

In relation to the recommendations made by Finance Committee, I accept recommendation 1. Once all of the ELS arrangements have been agreed, the information will be disclosed, in accordance with commercial confidentiality and audit and reporting requirements. I also accept recommendation 2. The cost of NHS Wales Shared Services Partnership in relation to overseeing ELS claims from April 2021 will not be greater than the cost of MDO-managed claims. The regulatory impact assessment will be amended to reflect this. I welcome Members' comments and I hope for continued support for this necessary Bill.