The amendment places a duty on Welsh Ministers to make regulations to require the citizen voice body to hold indemnity cover for the benefit of staff and volunteers. I agree that the citizen voice body should decide and plan how to organise its indemnity cover, as should any public body. However, a provision of the type that is suggested is not, in my view, appropriate, and I cannot therefore support it.

I reported to the Stage 2 committee proceedings that it will be for the citizen voice body to decide how best to indemnify staff and volunteers. And I made reference to the 'Managing Welsh Public Money' guidance, which is clear that public sector organisations do not, as a general rule, purchase commercial insurance, except where there is a legal obligation to do so. However, it does also allow accounting officers, as part of a risk management strategy, to choose to purchase commercial insurance in certain circumstances. And it is true that the citizen voice body, just as the current community health councils do, will rely on volunteers in a very different way to other public bodies. Such decisions on a risk management strategy should always be made after a cost-benefit analysis, in order to secure value for money. It will therefore be for the chief executive of the new body to decide whether to provide indemnity by bearing the risk or through the purchase of commercial cover. And I have tabled a revised regulatory impact assessment setting that out. I have given the committee the written assurance that the appropriate mechanism for providing indemnity will be determined during the implementation phase of the citizen voice body, including carrying out a cost-benefit analysis. Requiring the body in regulations to obtain indemnity cover would therefore not be appropriate, and would not reflect the principles of 'Managing Welsh Public Money'.