Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer. I'm pleased to be speaking in today’s debate. Over the course of this Senedd term, the Commission and chief executive have worked with the committee to produce transparent financial information, and I do hope that this effective working relationship will continue into the sixth Senedd.

The committee welcomes the news that the project to procure legislation software is progressing to the original timescale and is well within the cost originally budgeted, which is very positive. However, we are still concerned that the Commission has not provided sufficient information on the project to replace windows in Tŷ Hywel. No resolution has yet been reached on the overall funding required for replacement windows, or on the phased implementation of the project, even though this has been considered as part of the scrutiny of the annual budget since September 2018.

While the committee recognises that operational budgets may be used to meet these costs, and supports, in principle, the Commission’s decision to implement essential maintenance projects through a phased approach, the committee believes that projects of this magnitude should be subjected to public scrutiny. Therefore, I am pleased to see that the Commission has accepted our recommendation to attend an evidence session with the Finance Committee in February to help us understand how it can implement its long-term plans for projects in a phased way and how, of course, it can fund this work.

The committee welcomes the changes made to the way in which the costs of the staff supporting the commissioner for standards have been presented in this draft budget, and that follows one of the previous recommendations of the committee. However, although the committee had requested a report on the voluntary exit scheme, it is disappointed that the report was not provided in time for the annual scrutiny session, but we acknowledge that priorities have shifted due to the impact of COVID-19. While the committee recognises that cost saving was not the only purpose of the VES, the committee needs to understand how the Commission has achieved the aim that was set of delivering long-term savings, where possible.

In its response, the Commission says that all posts, aside from one, have been re-established or redistributed, and that financial savings will accrue in future as staff are recruited at lower points within the salary structure. Therefore, the Commission does not intend to provide any further detail on financial savings. It is unusual, however, to offer a VES scheme that does not lead to financial savings, and it is disappointing that a scheme of this value offers no long-term savings.

The period since March 2020 has been very challenging, as I suggested earlier, and the committee does recognise what the Commission and its staff have achieved in successfully running Senedd business, arranging for staff to work from home, and supporting staff well-being throughout the pandemic. While staff sickness and staff churn have been lower than usual on an in-year basis, we heard that there has been an overall increase in the annual leave accrued by staff—Suzy Davies mentioned this—and this does raise concerns for the committee in terms of staff well-being in particular. If the Commission does need to bring forward a supplementary budget as a result of all the annual leave that's been accrued, then the committee would expect it to assess whether there are any risks related to carrying additional costs forward into 2021-22, and to provide an update on sickness levels and other absences, specifically special leave.

The committee recognises that the Commission needed to change the focus of its engagement work very rapidly, moving away from face-to-face interactions to digital engagement in light of COVID-19, and we commend the Commission on its engagement efforts during the pandemic. However, not everyone engages digitally and the committee urges the Commission to ensure that it does not forget about the needs of those people when considering the success of digital engagement. We acknowledge that it's not only through digital means that the Commission has undertaken engagement activity, and we’ve referred to this in our report, but we do recommend that it builds on this work to mitigate the impact of the pandemic in terms of the difficulties it has caused in relation to face-to-face interaction.

Given that the digital engagement work has accelerated quickly, the Commission said that it was investing in senior staff to support the new director of communications and engagement. The evidence did not demonstrate clearly how the structure of the communications and engagement service was aligned with the aims of the voluntary exit scheme, and the committee requested more information on this, as well as additional details on how the Commission’s communication plan sets priorities, measures impact, and seeks to raise the profile of the work of committees and the Senedd. The committee is grateful for the additional information that it received from the Commission on this matter, but it did not include adequate detail about how the engagement plan is working to raise the profile of Senedd committees, and this is disappointing.

The committee supports how the Commission’s investment in building capability in the context of Brexit and the EU transition period has now been mainstreamed within the budget. That's very positive, in our opinion. The committee has previously acknowledged the work of Commission staff in responding to the work generated by Brexit, and I would like to close today by reiterating this sentiment, and by noting that Commission staff have carried out their work in 2020 under the constraints and difficult limitations that have arisen as a result of COVID-19. Thank you very much.