Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. Following our consideration on 18 November of these regulations, you'll see the committee—obviously a very exciting committee—laid a report before the Assembly that identified both the technical and merits points against criteria set out in Standing Orders 21.2 and 21.3. These regulations make reference to various pieces of EU legislation, most of which have been amended, so would operate effectively in UK law after exit day. However, we noted that one council decision from 2002 does not appear to have been amended. In our first reporting point, we therefore requested an explanation from the Welsh Government. In its response, it said that failing to update the EU legislation should not cause confusion and that updating EU legislation in this way usually falls to the UK Government. We were advised that the Welsh Government officials will be raising the matter with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to consider whether any amendments may be needed, and we welcome this course of action.

Under Standing Order 21.3, we identified three points where we considered that further clarification was needed. Our first two merits points relate to references within the regulations being amended. These regulations amend regulations from 2002, and as a result, there are now references to both the National Assembly for Wales and the Welsh Ministers when, in these circumstances, they mean the same thing.

We also noted a mix of the use of 'shall' and 'must' in the 2002 regulations. While we do not believe that this causes the 2002 regulations to be deficient in any way, we do note that, where mixed references remain, the possibility of confusion therefore also remains. We have noted that the Welsh Government's response to the 2019 regulations deal with outdated uses of the National Assembly for Wales and 'shall', where practicable.

On the final point, it noted that the explanatory memorandum included an incorrect definition of exit day. We noted the Welsh Government's response to this point and we acknowledged that the explanatory memorandum has since been relaid. Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd.