I welcome this debate today. An inquiry into lobbying was the first piece of substantial work for the Standards of Conduct Committee in the fifth Assembly. As a committee, we believe that discussions on lobbying need to be part of an ongoing dialogue in any engaged and open democracy. Furthermore, our predecessor committee had agreed in an earlier report that it was a subject that should be regularly reviewed.

As a committee, we concluded from the evidence gathered that there's no easy answer to the questions of how to define or share information about lobbying. There was no clear or consistent definition regarding who was a lobbyist or what information needs to be gathered. We heard a lot of concern about the lobbying regime in Westminster, which only focuses on Ministers and senior civil servants, and we also heard concerns about the register that was being introduced in Scotland, and the need to consider the value to the information this would capture. So, as a committee, we concluded that more work needs to be done in this area.

The findings of our report are an interim position. The committee felt it was crucial to learn from experience and gather further evidence of best practice. At the time of our report, the Scottish legislation was in its infancy and we are going to be interested in the review of its legislation in 2020.

During the course of our inquiry, the Welsh Government confirmed that Ministers' diaries would be published on a quarterly basis, from March 2017. This was widely welcomed by those we spoke to as part of our inquiry, and as a committee we agreed to return to this as part of our subsequent work to allow time for the publication of ministerial diaries to be assessed in terms of meaningfulness and value to improving transparency.

The committee was keen to take steps in this interim period to increase transparency and the written statement from the Llywydd today provides an update on progress against our recommendations. In particular, we proposed that a select trial of publishing Assembly Members' diaries was undertaken, which the Commission accepted, and officials have undertaken preparatory work for the form a pilot could take.

The impact of these recommendations are matters that we will no doubt reflect on as a committee when we return to this subject. Furthermore, we're considering commissioning research into how influence is sought and gained over politicians. In our inquiry, it was clear from our work that there was very little work on this area. This will help inform our further work, and we believe that this will enhance our understanding of how lobbyists operate in Wales.

Alongside these interim steps, the committee encouraged the lobbying industry to take the lead during this interim period and demonstrate how a voluntary register could operate and how it could provide the necessary information about influence over elected Members. The committee is looking forward to returning to this subject towards the end of the Assembly and maintaining this discussion and dialogue.