Thank you, acting Presiding Officer. Speaking on behalf of the Climate Change, Environment and Rural Affairs Committee, which has published three reports on four legislative consent memorandums since the first version of the Fisheries Bill went before the UK Parliament in November 2018, I'd like to thank very much all those who have contributed to our work. Our first report on an LCM for the Bill was published in February 2019. This Bill failed to complete its passage by the end of the last parliamentary session, so a new and somewhat improved version of the Bill was presented to the UK Parliament in January this year. We reported on the new Bill in May and again in September, but, since then, two further supplementary LCMs have been laid with no time for committee scrutiny ahead of today's debate. This piecemeal approach to scrutiny illustrates how unsatisfactory the LCM process is when considering Bills of this nature.

In the main, the Welsh Government has responded positively to our reports, accepting the majority of our recommendations. Although in most cases this has not resulted in amendments to the Bill, we have managed to secure firm commitments from the Minister on several key issues, and we will obviously pursue these with the Minister in due course. We are broadly content with the Welsh Government's response, but there are a couple of matters I want to draw to the Senedd's attention.

As the Minister has already outlined, the primary purpose of the Bill is to establish a framework for fisheries management in the UK once it has left the common fisheries policy. We accept the need for such a framework, and using a UK Bill to achieve this is a sensible approach; fish are no respecters of boundaries. But the Bill includes provisions for Wales that go beyond that to establishing a framework, and these include extensive regulation and executive-making powers for Welsh Ministers. Now, the Minister has consistently maintained that these powers are necessary to support Welsh fisheries to get through a very uncertain period. That is hard to argue against with a Brexit trade agreement yet to be reached, the COVID pandemic continuing to take its toll and no prospect of a Welsh fisheries Bill in this parliamentary term.

Now, the Minister has maintained that the powers being taken are transitional, but this is not reflected in the Bill. In our second report, we recommended a statutory time limit on these powers via a sunset clause, and the same recommendation was made by the Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee. This recommendation was rejected on the basis that the Welsh Government could not guarantee a Welsh fisheries Bill would be introduced before any time-limited powers expired. Lesley Griffiths has committed to bringing forward a Welsh Bill in the next Senedd, but there are no guarantees that a different Minister or, indeed, a different Government will give that same commitment. Without a sunset clause, there will be little or no impetus for any new Government to introduce its own Bill. It would be able to rely indefinitely on powers in the UK fisheries Bill, powers that have been consented to by the Senedd, at least in part, on the basis that they are transitional. As the Minister has ruled out a sunset clause, the Senedd must have an opportunity to reassess the merits of powers being conferred by the UK Bill. As recommended in our latest report, we've just heard that the Minister has given a commitment to report to the Senedd biennially on the exercise of these powers.

And then, I want to focus on the current clause 23—the power of the Secretary of State to determine UK fishing opportunities. This was initially a red line for the Minister. Her concerns, shared by the committee, were about the extent of the powers and their impingement on devolved matters. The Minister has sought to address these concerns not by pursuing an amendment to the Bill, as recommended by us, but through a memorandum of understanding between Governments. Despite previous assurances, the Minister is unable to share that memorandum of understanding with the Senedd. She's also unable to share a draft memorandum of understanding. The Minister has, however, provided a copy of her recent exchange of correspondence with the UK Government on what would be a reasonable approach to consulting before the Secretary of State exercises the power under clause 23.

Our committee has not had an opportunity to consider this latest information, but I hope I speak on behalf of the committee in saying it is disappointing that the UK Government has been unable to agree all of the Minister's asks. It remains unclear whether the UK Government and the Minister have managed to provide the necessary level of assurance on this issue. Llywydd, each of the committee's reports have recommended that the Senedd gives consent to the relevant provisions in the Bill, subject to being satisfied with the Welsh Government's responses, and I ask Members to reflect on the points I've raised before making their decision tonight. Thank you.