Thank you, Llywydd. In speaking today, I draw attention to our two reports on this draft Order in Council. Firstly, in accordance with our responsibilities under Standing Order 21, and secondly, in relation to our constitutional role and the draft Order as part of the common framework for a UK-wide emissions trading scheme.

Our first report, laid on 28 September 2020, made one technical reporting point, noting that the draft Order is made in English only. The Welsh Government's explanatory memorandum states that

'it is not considered reasonably practicable for this instrument to be made or laid bilingually' as it will be subject to UK parliamentary scrutiny. Our single merits point noted the policy background to the draft Order as a legislative component to a UK emissions trading scheme common framework and acknowledged the Minister's letter to us of 18 September that included the definitive list of the installations in Wales captured by the draft Order.

Our second report, laid last week, looked at the draft Order as part of the wider common framework on the UK emissions trading scheme, and I'd like to highlight a few important points from that report. Whilst we accept the principle of a UK-wide scheme, we did express disappointment that we've had to scrutinise the draft Order without the full accompanying documentation, including the provisional framework outline agreement and governance concordat being made available in a timely manner. This disappointment and concern at the approach adopted led us to make a number of recommendations related to today's debate and the future development of the framework.

Little information has been made available about how the mechanism for future changes will operate, with the resolution of disputes between the Governments to be covered in the governance concordat. We therefore recommended that the Minister should, during this debate, explain how the disputes will be resolved, and more broadly we also recommended that the Minister should explain how mechanisms for the future changes to the common framework, including the Order, will operate, in order to allow Senedd committees and stakeholders to participate. I note the comments of the Minister today. We noted the possibility of the UK Government introducing a UK-wide carbon tax that would replace the UK emissions trading scheme. We share the Minister's concerns on this point, and we recommended that she keep us informed of developments. 

And finally, as I alluded to earlier, we're disappointed that we've had to scrutinise the draft Order in the absence of other components of the common framework. This is a serious omission and undermines the process of scrutiny. We've therefore recommended that the Welsh Government should ensure that, in future, the Senedd is not asked to consider subordinate legislation related to a common framework before the provisional framework document is made available to the Senedd for scrutiny. Diolch, Llywydd.