Thank you very much, Llywydd. It's a pleasure to participate in this important debate, which is groundbreaking in our history, of course—the report on the second annual report of the president of Welsh Tribunals, Sir Wyn Williams. In the first instance, I would also like to thank Sir Wyn for his work over the years and echo the kind words spoken about him already, particularly the contribution of the Counsel General.

The background, as set out by the Counsel General—. Because naturally, some of us have been crowing for years on the need to devolve prisons, policing, probation and justice to this Senedd. It's easy, then, to forget that one part of the justice system is already devolved, and that's what we're discussing today. We sometimes forget that—well, in fact, we often forget that. It's the administrative justice system, which looks at how we administer the legislation that is already devolved; it's these various tribunals in six different areas. As a Member of this Senedd over the years, I have been involved with a few tribunals in representing constituents, who have a dispute, usually, with the local authority on the special educational needs system.

Another tribunal, of course, is the mental health review tribunal, and in looking at the figures, that is the most active of all of them. But as the Counsel General has already stated, the tribunals already cover ground such as agriculture, mental health and special educational needs. There is also the Welsh language and the residential property tribunal. I won't cover the same ground as David Melding, but there is scope to strengthen the work of these tribunals, particularly now as the Government in this Senedd is legislating anew in certain devolved areas such as housing, and there is the potential there to generate activities for the tribunals, and we would welcome that. There is also the adjudication panel Wales.

So, there is a great deal of work that is already ongoing, and I'm sure most of us, perhaps, didn't understand that that work in the sphere of justice is already devolved to this place. Of course, the Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee of this Senedd did scrutinise the work of the tribunals and has done in the past, and I'm sure that the Chair, if he has an opportunity to contribute, will set out our role as a committee here in the Senedd, including inviting Sir Wyn Williams to meet with us virtually as a committee.

As the Counsel General's already set out, the background to this is the Thomas report on justice in Wales, which outlines the current situation in terms of justice of Wales, and he stated that it needed to be strengthened. The tribunal system is part of that, of course, but we do need to safeguard the independence of the tribunals from the Welsh Government, too. And just to emphasise that point, in terms of the way tribunals are funded, directly or indirectly from Government, of course, they are expected to make decisions independent of Government in all of these different areas such as housing, education, mental health, and so on, and that's a challenge. There's also a challenge there for the Welsh language tribunal in ensuring the independence of the tribunals as their powers increase. We do want to see those powers increase as the years pass.

Of course, my final point is that the COVID pandemic has had a significant impact on the activities of the tribunals, as it has in every other sphere, and many of the tribunals have gone online, they've had virtual meetings dealing with problems, particularly in terms of mental health. They haven't been able to meet face to face because it wasn't possible to do so for most of this year, but the work of the tribunals continues.

Therefore, to conclude, we are starting on this journey. Many of us in this Senedd want to see the justice system devolved in its entirety to this Senedd. We're focusing here on the one section that is already devolved, and we want to see that strengthened, too, so that we improve the way that we deal with justice here in Wales. We need to build on the foundations that we have leading to the day when we do see the devolution of policing, prisons, probation—the criminal justice system in its entirety in the hands of the people of Wales, here in Wales. Thank you very much.