Thank you, acting Llywydd. In respect of item 7 and item 8 together, we considered both sets of regulations at our meeting yesterday morning, and our reports have been laid before the Senedd to assist today's debate.

If I may, I'll deal with the Health Protection (Coronavirus Restrictions) (No. 2) (Wales) (Amendment) (No. 18) (Bangor) Regulations 2020 first. Our report on these regulations contained one technical reporting point and five merits reporting points. The technical reporting point highlights a potential issue regarding the clarity of the law. Regulation 2(2) refers to the electoral division of 'Menai'. The County of Gwynedd (Electoral Changes) Order 2002 states that there are in fact two electoral divisions of Menai, Menai Bangor and Menai Caernarfon, and whilst it may appear obvious from reading the standalone amending regulations that the electoral division to be taken into account here is Menai Bangor, as the name Bangor is included in the title of the amending regulations, it may be less obvious when considering the principal regulations in isolation. There is also the potential for future confusion and duplication should the Menai Caernarfon electoral division be subject to restrictions in the future. The same issue arises in the Welsh version of the regulations. The Welsh Government has acknowledged our concerns, and the irregularity has been rectified in the Health Protection (Coronavirus Restrictions) (No. 2) (Wales) (Amendment) (No. 19) Regulations 2020, made on 16 October 2020.

Our first merits point relates to the Welsh Government's justification for any potential interference with human rights. We've reported an error in the description of article 11 of the European convention on human rights in the explanatory memorandum. The Welsh Government response to our report indicates that the error will be corrected. As with a number of regulations the Senedd has considered in recent months, our second merits point notes that there's been no formal consultation on these regulations. Furthermore, our third merits point noted that there is no equality impact assessment for these regulations. We asked the Welsh Government to explain what arrangements it has made to publish reports of equality impact assessments in accordance with regulation 8(1)(d) of the Equality Act 2010 (Statutory Duties) (Wales) Regulations 2011. We note that the Welsh Government intends to publish an integrated impact assessment of social gathering restrictions in due course. In our fourth merits point we reiterated our view that, where coronavirus restrictions are being tightened in any significant way, explanatory memoranda should set out the evidence on which the Welsh Government relies in deciding that such tightening is necessary and proportionate. 

The Welsh Government's response to our report does set out more evidence, and we welcome that. It states that, when the Bangor area local health protection area was established, there was a rising trend in rolling seven-day incidence rates of COVID-19 in Gwynedd; Gwynedd was continuing to exceed 50 cases per 100,000; however, Public Health Wales figures indicated that the incidence rate in Bangor was much higher, at 318 cases per 100,000 of the population. The Welsh Government highlight the incident management team's biggest concern that, in student communities in Bangor, there was an incidence rate of around 390 cases per 100,000. The clear recommendation from the IMT was to establish a local health protection zone for Bangor only. We believe that providing this evidence will aid transparency and assist the Senedd's scrutiny of coronavirus regulations. 

Our final merits point highlights to the Senedd that these regulations came into effect before they were laid before the Senedd. We have noted, as per the requirements of the Statutory Instruments Act 1946, the First Minister's letter to the Llywydd, dated 9 October 2020, confirmed this fact and included an explanation that this was considered necessary and justifiable in view of the changing evidence on risk in relation to coronavirus. We asked the Welsh Government to provide further details of this evidence in its response to our report. The Welsh Government has said that it considers that the increase in cases described in its response to our fourth reporting point demonstrates and justifies the need for the regulations to come into force as quickly as possible. 

Turning now to the Health Protection (Coronavirus Restrictions) (Functions of Local Authorities etc.) (Wales) (Amendment) Regulations 2020, our report on these regulations contains two merits points. The first point noted the Welsh Government's justification for any potential interference with human rights and draws attention to relevant paragraphs within the accompanying explanatory memorandum. Our second reporting point again highlights that there has been no formal consultation on these regulations. Diolch, acting Llywydd.