The following amendments have been selected: amendments 1, 2 and 3 in the name of Mark Isherwood.

That brings us to our final item, which is the debate on the programme for government annual report and legislative programme. I call on the First Minister to move the motion—Mark Drakeford.

Motion NDM7587 Rebecca Evans

To propose that the Senedd, in accordance with Standing Order 11.21(ii):

Notes:

a) the Welsh Government Annual Report 2020;

b) the Legislative programme.

Motion moved.

[Anghlywadwy.]

If I could just stop you, First Minister, as I can't hear you. Do try again. We seem to have unmuted the First Minister, but will you check if there is a hard mute? I'm sure it's a minor technical issue, but we will take a very brief break whilst we reconnect with the First Minister. A short break—

I'll try once again.

Yes, we'll do that. That seems to be working. Do proceed.

Llywydd, diolch yn fawr. A little over a week ago, we published the final annual report of this Government term, setting out the progress made in the last year and over this period of Government. By any measure, this has been a remarkable five years; there can be few periods of Government like it in living memory. Since Wales last went to the polls in 2016 for the Senedd elections, we have witnessed unprecedented social and political upheaval. There have been two general elections, three Prime Ministers and one referendum. The UK has left the European Union, ending a successful 40-year union, and is yet to establish a new trading relationship with Europe or the rest of the world. At home, despite promising that it wouldn't seek to consolidate power at Westminster, the present UK Government is now trying to roll back the clock on devolution with its thinly hidden assaults on the Senedd authority to make decisions on behalf of the people of Wales. Llywydd, that is why we will challenge the internal market Act at every opportunity at our disposal. 

Llywydd, the current Conservative Chancellor of the Exchequer is the fourth to claim that austerity is over—and there've only been four of them—but the Welsh Government's budget for next year, as I've heard the finance Minister explain, is still 3 per cent lower in real terms per person than a decade ago. And when the present Chancellor announced in November that now was the time to invest in the UK's future infrastructure, what did that really mean for Wales? Well, you know the answer: not a single penny piece. 

Now, in addition to political instability, national and international upheaval and unremitting austerity, this Senedd term has also seen the climate emergency continue to escalate. And yet, all of this has been overshadowed by the current public health crisis. For almost a year, Wales and the rest of the world has been gripped by a virus that continues to be full of unpleasant surprises. At every term, this Government has put people's lives and livelihoods first. We have worked with our public services, not with expensive and untested private companies, to respond to the extraordinary threat of coronavirus. Our annual report highlights the £1.5 billion of additional resources we have provided for the NHS in Wales, more than 600 million items of PPE made available to front-line health and social care staff, and the 145,000 positive cases successfully reached by our test, trace, protect service. It shows we have provided £1 billion of additional funding for local authorities, how we have supported thousands of additional counselling sessions for children and young people, and revolutionised our approach to homelessness, securing accommodation for 5,000 people. We've recognised the essential contribution of front-line social care workers, not with a badge or warm words, but with a £500 payment—a policy since implemented in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

And the report highlighted how we were the first Government in the United Kingdom to extend free school meals support in the school holidays, a commitment we have now extended to Easter 2022. Our £3.2 billion economic resilience fund has provided the most generous offer of support to businesses anywhere in the United Kingdom, shaped by the advice of our social partnership council. And as soon as the public health situation improves, of course we want to see our businesses trading and thriving again.

Llywydd, I'm very proud to report that our wonderful vaccination teams have given more than 600,000 people their first dose of a vaccine in just over two months. This is truly remarkable progress in such a short time and we will support the first amendment laid to the debate this afternoon, while rejecting the other two. 

Austerity, Brexit, climate change and coronavirus: this combination of challenges would have been enough to slow the progress of any Government, but this Government has delivered on the promises it made to people in Wales five years ago. In 2016, we promised we would cut taxes for small businesses and we've done that; that we would provide free childcare for three and four-year-olds and we've done that too; invest £100 million in school standards, and that's been done; create an £80 million new treatment fund to improve access to new medicines, done as well; double the capital limit to £50,000, done two years earlier than promised; create 100,000 all-age apprentices, and that's been delivered as well; build 20,000 affordable homes. Every one of those promises delivered. And these were just the most prominent of the offers we made to the people in Wales. We've delivered a much wider programme of work to protect and build prosperity and to make Wales a more equal and greener country.

We created the development bank, the envy of the rest of the UK. It invested more than £100 million in 2019-20, safeguarding or creating almost 4,000 jobs in Wales. It now manages more than £1.2 billion of Welsh Government funds—an unprecedented scale of investment in our economy. Llywydd, this term has been the term of the foundational economy, the everyday goods and services we all need, the jobs that stay in the communities that create them. We are supporting innovative projects right across Wales to test exciting new ways of working in this crucial sector.

And when it comes to those who have the least, we continue to invest in the Wales-only council tax reduction scheme, helping more than 270,000 households in need to make ends meet, with 220,000 households paying no council tax at all. We've put a record £27.6 million into our unique discretionary assistance fund this year alone. We've launched our single advice fund, which brings millions of pounds to families most in need of help. We've doubled and doubled again the number of times a child can get help with the costs of the school day. We've created, expanded and funded our national programme to tackle holiday hunger—the only example in the whole of the United Kingdom of a national scheme, nationally funded.

Llywydd, I turn to that other great emergency of our time, the climate emergency that this Senedd declared in 2019, becoming the first Parliament anywhere in the world to do so. On this side of the Senedd, we are internationalists not nationalists, focused on the interdependencies of this fragile planet, not the illusions of independence. We make our contributions seriously and practically across the whole range of this Government's responsibilities. Wales continues to be one of the best recycling nations in the whole of the world, but still we want to be better. We've invested more than £40 million in the circular economy, helping us to use and reuse and then recycle materials that might otherwise be thrown away, supporting our goal of becoming a zero-carbon Wales.

In August, we published our clean air plan, setting out the actions we will take to improve air quality, and, last month, we published a White Paper further to strengthen our approach. We've set out ambitious plans for a national forest, and our local places for nature programme has created nearly 400 community gardens and other green spaces where people live, bringing nature to people's doorstep in a year in which we have needed it most. In 2020, for the first time in our history, more than half of Wales's electricity needs were met by renewable energy, and there are more than 72,000 renewable energy projects in Wales, moving us closer towards sustainable low-carbon energy generation.

Llywydd, this is the second full term in which the Senedd has exercised full law-making powers. In a five-year term that has been dominated by Brexit and the pandemic, our legislative workload has reflected that mix. We have made 72 Welsh EU exit statutory instruments and consented to a further 219 UK EU SIs, as we made sure our statute book was ready for Brexit. The legislative impact of coronavirus has dominated the work of the Senedd for nearly 12 months, placing huge demands on the legal resources of the Welsh Government. We have made and renewed the legislation that has kept Wales safe on more than 120 occasions. And all this while also passing 17 new laws, with another three still before the Senedd. When considered together, our legislative programme has widened the franchise in local government elections, provided greater security for renters, laid the groundwork for our new curriculum, protected children by prohibiting the use of physical punishment, introduced minimum alcohol pricing, abolished the right to buy, repealed oppressive anti-trade union laws, and created the first Welsh taxes for almost 800 years, using those powers for progressive purposes.

Llywydd, the annual report sets out clearly how this Welsh Government has worked through the toughest of circumstances to improve the lives of people in Wales in practical ways that make a real difference. These achievements are an investment in a better Wales now and in the future, and have helped to keep our people safe in the face of this year's challenges. Those challenges have not gone away, and neither has this Government's priorities of protecting the health service, safeguarding jobs and working hard everyday for a more equal Wales. That is how we begin to look forward to reconstruction, that is how we can create a future that is fairer, and better because it is fairer. The record of this Government is a source of pride, and, most importantly, a source of hope. I invite the Senedd to consider the annual report.

The Deputy Presiding Officer took the Chair.

Diolch, Prif Weinidog. I have selected the three amendments to the motion, and I call on Andrew R.T. Davies to move amendments 1 to 3, tabled in the name of Mark Isherwood.

Amendment 1—Mark Isherwood

Add as new point at end of motion:

Acknowledges and thanks all public servants and the public in their efforts in tackling COVID-19 in the last year.

Amendment 2—Mark Isherwood

 Add as new point at end of motion:

Regrets the lack of a national recovery plan being brought forward by the Welsh Government, especially with 3,500 people potentially missing out on cancer treatment in Wales.

Amendment 3—Mark Isherwood

Add as new point at end of motion:

Further notes the lack of ambition in the legislative programme, particularly the delay in introducing a clean air Act for Wales before the end of the Senedd term, despite having cross party support.

Amendments 1, 2 and 3 moved.

Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer, and I thank the First Minister for introducing this important debate to the Senedd today to reflect on the annual report and note its contents. The first amendment, I think, is wholly appropriate, and I'm pleased to hear about the First Minister's support for that amendment, paying thanks to everyone involved in the extraordinary endeavours both of the Government, but of society at large, we must reflect on, because it is the people at large who've bought into the measures to try and suppress the virus across the length and breadth of Wales, but in particular public servants and the role that they've played, whether that be in local authorities, health boards—or in the Government itself, in fairness. I'll put my thanks—I might disagree with some of the policies that Government have come out with, but I know a lot of these policy decisions have been debated vigorously within Government, and the floor of the Chamber is the place for us to debate the differences, but I know the pressures that the First Minister and Ministers have faced as well, and, whilst I disagree on some of the policy positions, I know they've worked around the clock to try and endeavour to breach some of the shortfalls that people have felt in their everyday lives across Wales. That's why I think it's important that—I hope the whole Assembly will be able to endorse the first amendment, because, all too often, it's easy to say thank you, but you must mean it. 

And I hope that the Senedd will speak with one voice when it comes to amendment 1. And I think the best way to reflect on that, because I know the First Minister in his remarks around First Minister's questions was agitated, shall we say, that the leaders of the parties hadn't spoken about the vaccination roll-out—well, if he'd heard the statement earlier on in the afternoon, that thanks was wholesome and fulsome, certainly coming from the Conservative benches, around the efforts around vaccination. And I want to put on record as well that I think the vaccine roll-out has really shown, where Governments work best, they work together to achieve such a success in vaccine roll-out. It was right from an opposition point of view that we highlighted the shortcomings of the early part of the vaccine here in Wales, but ultimately momentum has gained in that particular programme and now we're moving on in greater numbers. No-one wants to see that programme fail, but the early actions of the UK Government, working with the devolved Governments to get into the market to purchase those vaccination doses, have meant that we are, at the moment, leading the world in making sure that our population is safe and secure, with a vaccination programme that is meeting targets unheard of in other parts of the world. 

Amendment 2 talks of the need to have a recovery plan, and a clear recovery plan, because we know the damage that the COVID crisis has hit us with in the economy, but, importantly, in the health sector. Reading the annual report, it is difficult to decipher, and seeing the First Minister and hearing the First Minister's responses in First Minister's questions today, it was trying, to say the least, to realise that there was so little available information about how those plans might look when we come out the other side of the COVID crisis, when we have waiting times with one in five people on a waiting list here in Wales—nearly 240,000 people waiting 36 weeks or more. And when you have people like the chief executive of Tenovus saying that they are receiving pushback from the Government when it comes to pushing for a cancer recovery plan, that really is concerning. And that is our job as an opposition—to highlight these concerns. And hopefully, when we go into the general election campaign here in Wales, we'll be able to debate and discuss the alternatives that we, certainly from the Welsh Conservatives, want to put before the people of Wales to see that radical transformation that we believe is in the grasp of the people of Wales when they fill out the ballot papers by having a change of Government after 6 May. So, I do urge the First Minister, in the time left for this Government, to actually work night and day to bring those preparations forward so that we can have confidence that there isn't a stagnation at the heart of Government when it comes to the recovery plans, and we can have confidence that we will be tackling these huge numbers in the health sector in particular. That's why amendment 2 has been tabled, and I would urge Assembly Members to support amendment 2, because I think it adds substance to the main motion.

Amendment 3 focuses on the legislative programme. And to me, what encapsulates failure in the legislative programme is the inability of the First Minister himself to deliver on a leadership manifesto commitment, which was the clean air Act. There was universal support around the Chamber for this to actually happen, and I hope in his summing up the First Minister will reflect on a missed opportunity here. We know for a fact that there have been at least 2,000 premature deaths a year because of the dirty air that is breathed in the communities of Wales. And, as I said, if it was a leadership commitment, it should have been delivered, because there was consensus on the floor in Plenary for this to happen. And, as we’re seeing today with the elections Bill, it is possible to deliver emergency legislation that can be effective and can make a difference, and I really regret that the First Minister wasn't able to fulfil his manifesto commitment in his leadership bid and deliver such a clean air Act to the floor of Plenary, which would have enjoyed universal support.

And I'll close on this about promises: it is vital that Government Ministers of any colour, whenever they stand in a Parliament, in a parliamentary debating chamber and they give a commitment, stick to that commitment. The recent rowback on that with nitrate vulnerable zones is a clear indication to the people of Wales when it comes to trust. We can argue about the merits of the proposals, and you and I have debated this, First Minister. It's not about the merits of the proposals, because I've said many a time that one pollution incident is one too many, but it's the seven commitments—at least seven commitments—verbally that the Minister gave that, during the pandemic, these regulations would not be brought forward because of the effect that they would have on the agricultural sector. And yet despite those seven commitments—promises, I would say—that were made on the floor in Plenary, the Government are hell-bent on driving this through. So, when the First Minister talks about promising to make commitments to the people of Wales, he might reflect on the broken promise that he made to the rural economy and the rural community around NVZs. And how on earth, if they throw away such promises so lightly, can people trust the Welsh Labour Government when they seek re-election on 6 May? I therefore urge this Assembly to support the three amendments that are tabled in the name of Mark Isherwood, because I think they substantially add to the debate and improve the motion.

I'm pleased to have the opportunity for the second time today to scrutinise the programme for government annual report. I won't rehearse the points I made earlier on the systemic lack of delivery of this Government in key areas such as child poverty and fuel poverty. But I will say that we have become far too familiar with this repetitious pattern over the term of this Government and previous Governments: targets being set, targets being missed, targets being dropped, targets being reset even further into the future, as we've seen with the latest target on the environment today.

In other areas such as housing, the targets are so meaningless and so far removed from the reality of people's life on the ground under this Government, that you do have to question the value of the exercise in the first instance. Whilst the Government boasts in this document about delivering its manifesto commitment to build 20,000 affordable homes, the reality for too many people in Wales—particularly young people—is that they can't afford to buy houses in communities that are on their knees as a result of too many second homes and in communities where the Labour Government's allegedly affordable homes sell for £250,000 and more, and do more to increase the profits of private developers than they do in meeting local needs for housing. Even the housing Minister herself has now acknowledged that the definition and this Government's emphasis on affordable homes is not fit for purpose in terms of tackling the homelessness crisis in Wales.

At a political level, the lack of will to respond sufficiently swiftly and robustly to complex issues such as the second-homes crisis, which is literally working against so many of the Government's other priorities, from the Welsh language to sustainability, actually hinders delivery. And whilst budgets are tight, the inability to work creatively and to implement policies such as the expansion of free school meals—as we heard again in the budget debate—which would bring clear benefits in so many areas and possible savings too, even after the child poverty review stated that this was the one thing that could make the biggest difference in transforming the lives of children living in poverty, is just negligent.

But the deficiencies in terms of political will and ambition in themselves don't explain what's at the core of the lack of delivery on a systemic basis. It's clear that the machine supporting governance in Wales in its broadest sense is not adequate and not properly aligned, as Alun Davies referred to earlier, in terms of delivering the comprehensive agenda in terms of sustainability and prevention that there is a broad consensus in favour of. The statutory framework that this Senedd has put in place is there on paper, and in principle at least, but as the Public Accounts Committee's inquiry and the Finance Committee's inquiry is currently discovering, in terms of barriers to the delivery of the future generations Act, we need fundamental changes if we are to deliver long-term progress.

Ironically, perhaps it's the pandemic above all else, and the need to act swiftly together as one team, one nation, one public service, that will be the driver that will have done most to deliver these aims and objectives, more than anything else that the Government has done during this term. So, how therefore do we take that next step in terms of operating as one public service, one nation, as we recover from the pandemic and avoid those old ways of working? In terms of the Government's public services in their entirety, we have to be more disciplined and try and reduce the number of indicators and objectives and strategies that are just piling up, and focus on the main well-being objectives within the well-being of future generations Act; one framework in terms of a programme for government, for the work of all of the arm's-length bodies, the councils and so on, and empowering staff and specialists on the ground in their various sectors to do their work without tinkering from the centre. The great reward of independence ultimately will be further devolution and empowerment within Wales, going hand in hand.

No Government, be it central or local, can undertake a properly independent assessment of its own performance. So, we need better accountability and an external overview in order to measure performance. Surely, the future generations commissioner has a more specific role to play, and the Senedd itself for that matter, in terms of accountability and delivery in the next term. Would the First Minister perhaps agree that creating a public administration committee within this Senedd would bridge that gap between the role of political leaders and leaders within the public sector? Certainly, this First Minister in waiting—

The Member must bring his comments to a close.

—believes that. And believes that because there is a role for everyone in creating the new Wales. It is work that we all have to do to create structures to deliver it.

First Minister, can I welcome the annual report on the delivery of the programme for government? After the last 12 months that we've all experienced, it's an excellent reminder to me that the many hours spent online have been time well spent supporting this Welsh Government through the pandemic, and in continuing to deliver on the manifesto promises that we made at the 2016 election. Because I know that, aside from the necessary actions to get us through the pandemic, the communities of Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney have been well served by some of the core policies of this Welsh Government, whether that is, as you've already outlined, First Minister, in extending free school meals, council tax support, free prescriptions, free childcare, all-age apprenticeships, support for small businesses, access to the new treatments fund, and so much more.

My constituents have also benefited from capital investment in education, in health, in town centre regeneration and in transport. I've had the pleasure of attending the opening of new and refurbished schools at Ysgol Idris Davies in Rhymney, and Ysgol Afon Tâf in Troed-y-rhiw, with other new schools in the pipeline. We will shortly open a new bus station in Merthyr Tydfil, which has the potential to become a new transport hub for the area. Our rail lines and stations are being upgraded, and we will soon see four trains an hour between Merthyr, Rhymney and Cardiff, opening up opportunities for people to live and work more easily in these Valleys communities, all of which will be so important in the post-COVID recovery if we are to build back fairer.

We will complete the improvements to the Heads of the Valleys road, which has the potential to deliver a real economic stimulus to the northern Valleys along the A465 corridor, and we will see continued investment in Prince Charles Hospital, with a further £220 million announced just last October, ensuring that we not only have world-class services being delivered by an amazing NHS workforce, but world-class facilities in which to do so as well.

Now, I'm not here to say that the job is done, because it never is, and despite all the benefits of policies delivered by the Welsh Government, and the difference that I've seen them make to so many lives, I know that we always have more to do, and the challenges that face our communities post COVID cannot be underestimated. But for now, I am proud to represent the party of Government in Wales that has delivered on its promises to my constituency. Diolch.

Dirprwy Lywydd, for 30 years I worked as a lawyer in employment and trade union legislation, and year after year I saw the consequences of Tory reductions in workers' rights and the voice of working people. Nothing has changed since then, other than that when I came into this Senedd, and we had legislative powers, and we started to develop a series of laws and legislation that began to try and restore some of those protections, even within the limited competence that we had. We supported the union learning fund. We gave rights to agricultural workers when they were being abolished in England. We opposed the blacklisting of trade union members at a time when, in England, there were many complicit in that activity. We abolished zero-hours contracts for care workers and, more recently, we have opposed trade union restrictions that were being imposed in England that, fortunately, we've been able to restrain within Wales.

So, very important in this legislation, following on from the statement made by Hannah Blythyn earlier, are really two very important pieces within the legislative programme, some of which will have to carry through, and they are the social partnership Bill, but also the implementation of section 1 of the Equality Act 2010. We must not underestimate the importance of these within our COVID environment at the moment and as we come out of COVID, because the one thing that we all say in common is that things can't go back to how they were, which means they cannot go back to how they were in terms of jobs, zero-hours contracts, bogus self-employment and austerity for working people. So, the social partnership Bill, which is going to go out for consultation, I think is one of the pinnacles of the legislative programme of this Government. It really enables us to almost implement a future generations legislation for working people, for workplaces to establish ethical standards of employment.

So, I very much welcome that, because I know two things about Tory Governments, the two things that they always do: one is they cut taxes for the rich and the second is they always gag the voice of working people. So, this legislation is something that is radical and an opportunity for Welsh legislation to really make a mark for the future. And I'd be grateful, First Minister, if you could perhaps expand on the consultation that will take place and the sort of timetable you envisage, going through into the next Senedd to the next Labour Government.

Thank you very much. I have no Members who've requested an intervention, therefore I call on the First Minister to reply to the debate.

Dirprwy Lywydd, thank you very much. Can I thank Andrew R.T. Davies for his generous opening remarks? I know that he's put on record this afternoon his appreciation of the vaccination efforts that have been made by front-line workers here in Wales, and as I indicated, the Labour Party and the Government will support the first amendment that his party has laid to this afternoon's debate. I thank him for his support for this Government's decision to agree to the UK-wide effort for procuring vaccinations.

I share his regret that it has not been possible to bring forward a clean air Bill during this final year of this Senedd term, just as I regret the fact that the social partnership Bill hasn't been possible, that the tertiary education Bill hasn't been possible, and that many other important aspects of our legislative programme have had to be sacrificed because of the demands that coronavirus has placed on the resources of the Welsh Government, and on the resources of this legislature as well. 

Our commitment to a clean air Act is as strong today as it has been throughout. That is why we published the document we did—it was launched at the Eisteddfod in August—and why we have published a White Paper. It is a very clear down payment on our determination to bring that legislation forward if we are in a position to do so, and I look forward to his support when we do that. I wish we could have his support for pollution in the agriculture industry as well, but we know we're not going to get that, and people will draw their own conclusions.  

Adam Price, Llywydd, said he wouldn't reprise his contribution of earlier today before he went on to do so. When he couldn't say that our targets hadn't been met, he tried to argue that they weren't the right targets. I don't think that the 20,000 families that are now able to live in homes that otherwise would not have been available to them—decent homes, affordable homes, homes in every part of Wales—I don't think they would share the dismissive approach to that that he repeated for the second time this afternoon.

Can I thank Dawn Bowden for her support for the Welsh Government throughout the very challenging times of the last 12 months? Thank you to her, as well, for mentioning the twenty-first century schools and colleges programme, the biggest programme of renewing our education estate for 50 years—a programme unrivalled not simply in the devolution period but for 30 years before that. Of course she is right to point to all those other things that we are doing that will make such a difference in our Valleys communities. When she referred to the completion of the Heads of the Valleys road, that is the completion, again, of a project that has been a Labour project for the whole of the period of devolution, a project, as we know, bitterly attacked on the floor of the Senedd by Plaid Cymru as we move to its completion, but a project that will bring prosperity and new economic opportunity to those Valleys communities that this Labour Government has at the heart of what we believe to be important for the future of Wales. 

Thanks to Mick Antoniw, as well, for drawing that thread that has run through this Senedd term of restoring protections to people who otherwise would have had them robbed away from them. I look forward to publishing a draft social partnership Bill. We will do that before the end of this Senedd term. It will have aspects of it that we will wish to consult with our partners on. That's the nature of social partnership. That's how we want the Bill itself to be constructed, in partnership with our local government colleagues, our trade union colleagues and with public and private sector employers in Wales as well. If I look back over the last 12 months, then I think of the social partnership council as one of the core strengths that we have had to draw on in these most difficult days. That council has met every two weeks throughout the crisis. It has focused on some of the most difficult decisions that Governments have had to make. It has thrashed out some deeply controversial matters in a spirit of social partnership and the Bill will ensure that that uniquely Welsh way of transacting our public debate and discharging our public responsibilities will be underpinned by the force of law if we are in a position to bring that in front of a Senedd after the next election.

The report in front of the Senedd today reflects the most extraordinary period in our history. It demonstrates, if I could say so, not just the strength that we have here in Wales, the support we have from the public, the way we've been able to draw organisations together, but it has demonstrated the strength of the Senedd as well, the way in which this legislature has adapted to the ways in which we now have to work. It has found ways of scrutinising some of the most significant pieces of legislation that have ever been put in front of a legislature in the period of devolution. I thank all Members from all parties for the contribution that they have made to this extraordinary national effort. Of course we don't agree on everything, as Andrew R.T. Davies said, and nor should we, but when things have been at their most serious, the ability to come to the floor of the Senedd, to hear the debates, to gather the support we have needed—I think that that has demonstrated the strength of our devolved institutions as well as of the response we've been able to make here in Wales. In concluding this debate, I thank all those who have made a positive contribution to that enormous national effort. 

Thank you. The proposal is to agree amendment 1. Does any Member object? I don't see any objection. Therefore, amendment 1 is agreed in accordance with Standing Order 12.36.

Amendment agreed in accordance with Standing Order 12.36.

The proposal is to agree amendment 2. Does any Member object? [Objection.] I see an objection to amendment 2. Okay. We now defer voting on this item until voting time. 

Voting deferred until voting time.

In accordance with Standing Order 12.18, I will suspend the meeting before we proceed to voting time. 

Plenary was suspended at 20:15.

The Senedd reconvened at 20:17, with the Llywydd in the Chair.