Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. These regulations have been developed to mitigate the effects of the coronavirus on adult social care in three main ways. Firstly, they address the potential need for expansion of the sector by allowing the speedy establishment of emergency provision under the aegis of statutory commissioners of social care in a variety of settings. Secondly, they address the potential need to ease the recruitment of staff by relaxing some of the evidence-holding requirements currently on providers. And thirdly, they permit care homes, with the approval of the regulator, to bring currently unoccupied rooms into use as shared bedrooms.

The changes apply to adult residential settings and adult domiciliary support services only. To deliver the first purpose, certain services, created specifically to respond to COVID-19, are exempted from registration with Care Inspectorate Wales. They may be established more quickly and in a wider range of premises than would be possible for a regulated service. As they will not have a regulator's oversight, only services delivered by or on behalf of commissioners of care and support, local authorities and local health boards, with providers who are already registered with Care Inspectorate Wales or the Care Quality Commission, are eligible. Commissioners will be responsible for the quality of care and support provided and can be inspected in this regard by the regulator, Care Inspectorate Wales or Healthcare Inspectorate Wales. This is an important safeguard for anyone cared for on a temporary basis by these services.

The second purpose relates to holding of evidence about new staff members. Presently, regulations contain detailed requirements regarding evidence on matters such as qualifications. As the circumstances of the pandemic may make it difficult to source the full range of evidence, the amendment allows these requirements to be discharged by providing as much evidence as is reasonably practicable. The requirement to make checks remains unaltered, and the evidence must still be made available to the regulator as normal. The changes do not affect the requirements around holding evidence from the Disclosure and Barring Service checks.

Finally, the third purpose relates to the sharing of rooms. Current residents should never feel pressured to share a room, so the amendment only allows a care home to bring rooms that are currently unoccupied into use as additional shared rooms. Approval will rest with Care Inspectorate Wales and will always be considered with regard to the best interests of the residents.

These changes are short term, responsive to the current emergency and will be reversed in a measured way that gives the sector time to adjust as soon as it is responsible to do so. So, I ask Members to support the motion.