Well, amendments 123 and 124 seek to insert a duty on Welsh Ministers to make and publish guidance on how a corporate joint committee is to discharge its economic well-being function. These amendments seek to strengthen arrangements for the scrutiny of corporate joint committees to ensure accountability and transparency when they discharge their functions, as well as involving local people and local community-based organisations within the decision-making process. The closer these decisions are to people, the communities and the regions, and the further from centralised control, the better the outcome will be for the people and communities involved.

Amendment 132 requires corporate joint committees to publish an annual report that is to be laid before the Welsh Parliament and the constituent councils that make up the corporate joint committee. The report must outline a number of things, including what the committee has achieved for the area in which it exercises its functions, the committee's medium- and long-term plan of how it proposes to exercise its functions and the committee's arrangements in relation to the management of its financial affairs. These amendments seek to strengthen arrangements for the scrutiny of corporate joint committees, to ensure accountability and transparency and involve local people and community-based organisations.

Amendment 134 seeks to ensure that local people and local community-based organisations are involved within the decision-making processes of corporate joint committees. During Stage 1, stakeholders raised concerns about the lack of provisions for local involvement with corporate joint committees. For example, Community Housing Cymru shared concerns regarding the limited provision for CJC accountability arrangements, which is,

'at odds with the Bill’s commitment’s to enhance access to and participation in local decision making'.

This amendment therefore embeds the principles of involvement and participation within the Bill. Involvement approaches include working with people at earlier stages, helping to identify issues and potential solutions and supporting them to remain involved right throughout design, implementation and evaluation processes.

During Stage 2, the Minister said she would not accept this amendment, as it, she said, 

'is the regulations that will detail how a corporate joint committee should operate.'

She said,

'I therefore think it more appropriate for the issues raised by the amendment to be considered as part of the preparation of the corporate joint committee regulations.'

However, as I said during Stage 2 proceedings,

'We do hear a lot now of positive language from members of all parties about issues such as co-production, community empowerment, citizen engagement, but in reality, it's sparse on the ground'.

As such, this amendment seeks to ensure that principles of co-production are fully embedded on the face of the Bill to require corporate joint committees to actually deliver the involvement of local people and local community-based organisations.

Amendments 149 and 150 have been drafted to reflect concerns of the Auditor General for Wales. These amendments seek to ensure that corporate joint committees are subject to the requirements of the Public Audit (Wales) Act 2004, which is important for public confidence in the use of public money. The Welsh Government intends to make such provision through future regulations. However, the auditor general's office has stated that using that mechanism risks complexity and confusion and that providing for this requirement through the Bill would ensure that local government audit provisions are consolidated into one place to aid interpretation and maintain a well-structured statute book. Once again, these are the bodies we should be taking guidance from, not issuing guidance to, on these specific matters. Thank you. Diolch.