Diolch, Llywydd. Can I start once more by giving my thanks to John, Llyr and Mick for their constructive and helpful remarks this evening and also, once more, for the work of their respective committees, which we're very grateful for? And, as I said at the outset, I'm very appreciative of the enormous amount of hard work in very difficult circumstances that's gone on, and particularly grateful to Llyr, as he mentioned having gone through a relatively unusual procedure to get through the various stages of scrutiny. So I'm very grateful to people for having done that. I'm also very grateful to all the other Members who have spoken during today's debate.

I just want to make one or two remarks in response to various comments Members have made. I won't have time to go through all of them, Llywydd, but I just want to start by saying that it is important to isolate the COVID regulations from the amendment Bill in front of us today. I think a number of Members did conflate one or two of the issues. I'm very happy to do a briefing session later on for Members on the differences between the two.

In terms of some of the issues that a number of Members raised about the ability of the courts to cope, we are expecting a wide reduction in social landlord possession cases as a result of a number of agreements we've made with social landlords in Wales, and that will free up a number of court resources to accommodate any increase in hearings that's due to this Bill, although we are not expecting that to happen.

Just in terms of the Scottish situation, a number of people seem to be under the impression that Scotland has done something that we are not doing, but just to be clear, this amendment Bill guarantees six months' notice when the tenant is not at fault. This is not the case in Scotland, where a tenant not at fault can be evicted with as little as 28 days' notice, for example, where a landlord wants to sell the house that the tenant is occupying, and the tenant need not have committed any fault in their occupation of that house in order for that to be effective. So that is not the case, Llywydd, and I think it's very important for Members to understand that. 

There are a number of other things that Members have raised around the evidence, and so on, but all of the thrusts were the same. The evidence that we have is that only two months' notice is currently required to be given and, without the amendment Act, that will remain in place. That's clearly not sufficient to find a new home or new schools for your children, and so on, and so this will give tenants much longer to be able to do that and, of course, it's not able to be served in the first six months, so it gives everyone at least one year's security of tenure. So I think it is very important to say that.

I also want to assure Members that we continue to work closely with all our stakeholders, from the landlord sector and with those who represent the interests of contract holders in Wales, as we move into the next stage of the scrutiny process. And Llywydd, you can tell from the various contributions across the floor that we are being criticised by people who feel we are harsh on the landlords and criticised by people who feel we haven't taken tenants' rights into account, and therefore I feel very strongly that we seem to be hitting the balance that we talked about so much as part of this process.

I should add in closing that, in addition to the Government amendments that I've committed to bringing forward in response to committee recommendations today, there will also be a number of Government amendments at Stage 2 to correct some technical matters, both in this Bill and in the 2016 Act, which it amends. None of these are significant, by which I mean they will not change the scope of the legislation nor the overall policy it seeks to deliver, and I will ensure that Members are fully briefed in terms of the purpose and effect of those amendments when we bring them forward.

I mentioned in my opening remarks my disappointment in having to delay the implementation of the amended Act to early 2022, however, in an attempt to end on a more positive note, I can honestly say that I think that it will be some achievement on all our parts if we're able to complete the remaining work necessary to get this Bill onto the statute book before this term ends, and I very much look forward to continuing to engage with Members of all parties in the constructive spirit that has characterised our work on this important Bill thus far. Diolch yn fawr, Llywydd.