Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. Last Wednesday, the UK Government published its internal market Bill, only eight weeks after a White Paper purportedly consulting on the proposals contained within it saw the light of day. The UK Government is not publishing the responses to the consultation, and its analysis of them is flimsy, to say the least. But we know it's not just the devolved Governments that question the need for the legislation and the assumptions within the White Paper. Organisations such as NFU Cymru and the Education Workforce Council were among those from Wales that responded critically. A Government sure of its footing in respect of such far-reaching and contentious legislation would surely publish the responses that it has received.

There will be an opposition party debate on the internal market Bill tomorrow, so today I will set out the factual basis for our serious concerns. From the outset, I want to make it clear that we have no issue with the objective of ensuring that a UK internal market can work smoothly after the end of EU transition. Indeed, we were among the first to point out the fact that we would need to develop a new form of joint governance after leaving the European Union in order to manage the intersection between devolved competence and the internal market. 

For three years, we have worked tirelessly on common frameworks in all of the areas set out by the UK Government as identified as those that could place unnecessary barriers to the internal market being erected. This work is now coming to its fruition and there have been no examples of irrevocable breakdown or of one Government blocking progress in any of the 28 frameworks that Wales is involved with. Yet the Bill effectively undermines this work by providing the UK Government with a quick way of hollowing out the rights of this Senedd to regulate within those areas of devolved competence as it sees fit. 

Parts 1 and 2 of the Bill would enforce the principles of mutual recognition and non-discrimination in the case of almost all of the goods and services that originate in, or are legally imported to, any part of the UK, defined in the case of non-discrimination as merely goods that 'pass through'. To give you an example, although we could continue with our intention to ban nine types of single-use plastics in Wales if they were produced or imported into Wales, we could not prevent such products produced or imported into England or Scotland from being sold in Wales if they could be lawfully sold there. It also appears that it would be illegal to insist on them being labelled in a way that highlights their damaging impact on the environment. While this doesn't specifically prevent the Senedd from exercising its powers, it renders them meaningless in the context that the vast majority of goods for sale in Wales come from other parts of the UK or pass through them.