Therefore, I call on the Minister for Housing and Local Government, Julie James. 

Motion NDM7633 Rebecca Evans

To propose that the Senedd, in accordance with Standing Order 27.5:

1. Approves that the draft The Mid Wales Corporate Joint Committee Regulations 2021 are made in accordance with the draft laid in the Table Office on 23 February 2021.

Motion NDM7632 Rebecca Evans

To propose that the Senedd, in accordance with Standing Order 27.5:

1. Approves that the draft The North Wales Corporate Joint Committee Regulations 2021 is made in accordance with the draft laid in the Table Office on 23 February 2021.

Motion NDM7638 Rebecca Evans

To propose that the Senedd, in accordance with Standing Order 27.5:

1. Approves that the draft The South West Wales Corporate Joint Committee Regulations 2021 are made in accordance with the draft laid in the Table Office on 23 February 2021.

Motion NDM7629 Rebecca Evans

To propose that the Senedd, in accordance with Standing Order 27.5:

1. Approves that the draft The South East Wales Corporate Joint Committee Regulations 2021 are made in accordance with the draft laid in the Table Office on 23 February 2021.

Motion NDM7631 Rebecca Evans

To propose that the Senedd, in accordance with Standing Order 27.5:

1. Approves that the draft The Public Audit (Wales) Act 2004 (Amendment) (Local Government Bodies in Wales) Order 2021 is made in accordance with the draft laid in the Table Office on 23 February 2021.

Motion NDM7630 Rebecca Evans

To propose that the Senedd, in accordance with Standing Order 27.5:

1. Approves that the draft The Public Services Ombudsman (Wales) Act 2019 (Amendment of Schedule 3) Regulations 2021 are made in accordance with the draft laid in the Table Office on 23 February 2021.

Motion NDM7637 Rebecca Evans

To propose that the Senedd, in accordance with Standing Order 27.5:

1. Approves that the draft The Corporate Joint Committees (Amendment of Schedule 6 to the Welsh Language (Wales) Measure 2011) Regulations 2021 are made in accordance with the draft laid in the Table Office on 23 February 2021.

Motion NDM7634 Rebecca Evans

To propose that the Senedd, in accordance with Standing Order 27.5:

1. Approves that the draft The Equality Act 2010 (Public Authorities subject to the Public Sector Equality Duty) (Wales) Order 2021 is made in accordance with the draft laid in the Table Office on 23 February 2021.

Motion NDM7635 Rebecca Evans

To propose that the Senedd, in accordance with Standing Order 27.5:

1. Approves that the draft The Corporate Joint Committees (Transport Functions) (Wales) Regulations 2021 are made in accordance with the draft laid in the Table Office on 23 February 2021.

Motion NDM7636 Rebecca Evans

To propose that the Senedd, in accordance with Standing Order 27.5:

1. Approves that the draft The Corporate Joint Committees (General) (Wales) Regulations 2021 are made in accordance with the draft laid in the Table Office on 23 February 2021.

Motions moved.

Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. I move the motions. Part 5 of the Local Government and Elections (Wales) Act 2021, which was passed by the Senedd last year, provides for the establishment through regulations of corporate joint committees. Corporate joint committees, or CJCs, will be an important tool for local government to use to support collaboration, transformation, and the longer term sustainability of public services. They are also an opportunity to support the rationalisation of a number of existing and proposed regional working arrangements. CJCs will be bodies corporate, formed from the constituent principal councils, enabled to directly employ staff, hold assets and manage funding.

Through the package of regulations that we are debating today, I am seeking to put in place the necessary statutory provision to establish four CJCs in Wales, one each for mid Wales, north Wales, south-east Wales and south-west Wales. This is approached in line with the preference expressed by local government for CJCs to have the same geographic footprint as the existing city and growth deal areas. The four CJCs will be established by the following four sets of regulations: the Mid Wales Corporate Joint Committee Regulations 2021; the North Wales Corporate Joint Committee Regulations 2021; the South East Wales Corporate Joint Committee Regulations 2021; and the South West Wales Corporate Joint Committee Regulations 2021. As well as providing for the establishment of each of the four proposed CJCs, these establishment regulations also include the core constitutional arrangements and key details, such as membership, staffing and budgets. The establishment regulations also provide for the functions that will be exercised by each CJC: strategic development planning; regional transport planning; and the power to do things to promote or improve the economic well-being of their areas.

The establishment regulations have been informed by the responses to the consultation I launched on 12 October 2020 and engagement activity I and my officials have undertaken with local government and key stakeholders. I would like to take this opportunity to once again thank the local authority leaders and their officials for their constructive approach to the co-development of these regulations.

Alongside the establishment regulations, the Corporate Joint Committees (Transport Functions) (Wales) Regulations 2021 and accompanying explanatory memorandum have also been laid. The regulations make the necessary modifications to the Transport Act 2000 to require the CJCs to develop transport policies and establish a regional transport plan for their areas.

Five further statutory instruments have also been laid alongside the establishment regulations to ensure that, from the point they are established, CJCs are subject to appropriate standards of conduct, and come under the remit of the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales; are subject to appropriate accounting and financial management duties and come within the remit of the Auditor General for Wales; are subject to the public services equality duty; and will be subject to the Welsh language standards. This ensures that CJCs and their members are subject to appropriate oversight management and conduct requirements from the start.

It is my intention that the statutory instruments we are debating here today will come into force from 1 April this year. In agreement with each of the regions, the strategic development planning function, regional transport planning function, and economic well-being function will then commence in 2022. This will give the CJCs the time local government has asked for to put in place the necessary governance and administrative arrangements. I ask Members to approve these regulations today. Diolch.

Thank you. I call on the Chair of the Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee, Mick Antoniw.

Diolch Dirprwy Lywydd. We considered these very technical regulations, grouped for debate this afternoon, at our meeting on 8 March. My comments this afternoon will focus on the Corporate Joint Committees (Amendment of Schedule 6 to the Welsh Language (Wales) Measure 2011) Regulations 2021, and the Corporate Joint Committees (Transport Functions) (Wales) Regulations 2021. We've not made any comments regarding the other regulations being considered in this group, and we've laid clear reports in relation to those regulations. Our report on the Corporate Joint Committees (Amendment of Schedule 6 to the Welsh Language (Wales) Measure 2011) Regulations 2021 contains two technical and one merits reporting point.

Our first technical point noted that the subject heading of the regulations should include 'local government', to indicate the area of law to which the instrument relates. The Welsh Government agrees with our view and, in its response to our report, has indicated that, should the regulations be approved this afternoon, the additional subject heading will be included in the version to be signed by the Minister.

Our second technical point relates to what we considered to be an error in the powers cited in the preamble to the regulations. The Welsh Government disagrees with our assessment on this, and its response to our report sets out the rationale for the cited powers.

Our single merits reporting point highlights what we consider to be an irrelevant reference in the explanatory memorandum that accompanies the regulations. The Welsh Government has agreed with our assessment, and I note that the explanatory memorandum has been updated to replace the erroneous reference.

Moving on to our report on the Corporate Joint Committees (Transport Functions) (Wales) Regulations 2021, our report contains just one merits point, which again relates to the subject heading of the regulations. The subject heading of the regulations currently drafted refers to 'local government, Wales'. However, the main focus of the regulations is the transfer of local transport-related functions to the relevant newly formed corporate joint committees. As such, it is unclear why the subject heading does not include also 'transport'. Again, the Welsh Government agrees with our view and has indicated that, should the regulations be approved this afternoon, the additional subject heading will be included in the version to be signed by the Minister. Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd.

The Welsh Conservatives can't still 100 per cent sign up to these regulations. Under the regulations, councils will be forced to participate in new corporate joint committees, public bodies that will make regional decisions on everything—education, transport, land use and economic well-being. The purpose of these regulations is to improve collaborative and regional working between councils and, essentially, tidy up the collaborative structures. CJCs will comprise of elected members in their constituent principal councils, as well as co-opted members who will be capable of employing staff and holding assets and funding. These regulations would transfer a number of functions to these CJCs, such as the economic well-being function, transport, and strategic planning function.

During Stage 1 of the proceedings on the Local Government and Elections (Wales) Act 2021, a number of concerns were raised about corporate joint committees. Community Housing Cymru raised concerns about the limited provision of the CJC accountability arrangements, which is at odds with the Bill's commitment to enhance access and participation in local decision making. Meanwhile, One Voice Wales argued that services are going to become more regionalised and further and more remote from local electorates.

The WLGA, while supportive of voluntary CJCs, were concerned about the impact that Welsh Government-mandated CJCs would have on councils, intending that it has fundamental concerns over the principle of mandation, which is seen as undermining local democracy.

Whilst we broadly acknowledge the intentions of the corporate joint committees, they must not result in collaboration for collaboration's sake. We need to be sure that any CJCs will enhance collaboration rather than simply duplicate what already exists. However, we are concerned that mandated CJCs undermine the internal devolution and local partnership working already established and will lead to back-door council mergers in all but name. We believe that collaborated working arrangements work best when they are organic, in which all constituent members actively seek to work together to improve regional service provision for social and economic benefit for the residents, and that the autonomy of local councils must be respected by Welsh Government. Put simply: we need to work with local authorities, not impose things on them. As such, we've put forward a suite of amendments during the passage of the local government Act, in recognition of the concern that stakeholders had about the creation of CJCs. However, we were very disappointed that the Minister decided to reject all of our amendments, which were constructive in nature and intended to respond to the concerns of stakeholders, and particularly local government representatives.

The arguments used by the Minister were also directly contradicted by the comments made by stakeholders that we worked with throughout the amendment process. Once again, Welsh Government has placed ideology above the expert opinions of stakeholders. Concerns have continued to be raised by various stakeholders about corporate joint committees, with these regulations seemingly ignoring the legitimate worries of many within the local government sector and beyond. At a time when people want decision making to be closer to voters and by representatives who are directly accountable, this will create bodies that put power into the hands of unelected individuals and further away from communities. That's why we will be opposing most of these regulations.

Plaid Cymru will vote against the main regulations to establish the corporate joint committees today. I would call on all Members to do likewise. Plaid Cymru does believe that Welsh governance for the future should continue to include local, regional and the national and agrees that we need the right structures in place to support effective decision making at the right level, with democratic accountability for the people the structures serve.

Any change needs to happen as part of a clear vision for the governance of Wales in its entirety in order to deliver specific principles, and unfortunately, I don't think that that's the case here—principles such as transforming public services, connecting all communities in Wales, ensuring that we get the best benefit from taxpayers' money and avoiding duplication. Unfortunately, this isn't a plan for the long term, but an unacceptable attempt to rush far-reaching change through the Senedd with just a week to go of our mandate, during a pandemic, without any clear vision seeming to be a foundation for these changes.

Clearly, because of COVID, the whole process has happened with haste, and the primary legislation enabling the introduction of the corporate joint committees came into force in January whilst the majority of the bodies delivering public services affected by this were fighting the worst wave of the pandemic. There has inadequate consultation, and that's been harshly criticised by local authorities, and also civic society, as has already been set out. They're all concerned about the impact of the undemocratic changes.

There's an expectation for the regulations to come into force—if they are passed by the Senedd—on 1 April when this Senedd will no longer be sitting. The purpose of elections is to allow people to make their own decisions, so, clearly, I would say that the appropriate thing to do would be to allow the parties to put forward their vision for Welsh governance before the people of Wales, so that the people can decide whether they agree. Voluntary collaborative working, of course, is something that's very important, and it has been happening for a number of years in Wales, to various extents and with various success, but the changes proposed here are far-reaching, as we've heard. It creates new entities that can employ staff, as Laura Jones has set out, including chief executives and senior staff, it can hold assets, and it would mean a major change in the landscape of Welsh governance. 

But it's not only in terms of the deficiencies of the process and a lack of vision that I would oppose, basically because of the substance here too, because it's a plan that will clearly be very expensive. I would say that it would be a waste of that money, in addition to problems in terms of a democratic deficit. In north Wales, for example, the Minister has confirmed that there will be two regional structures running side by side for economic development responsibilities of the ambition board, which was established by the UK city deals and the corporate joint committees. I just don't see how that could make sense.

The pandemic's demonstrated that we can't place our confidence in powers that are a long way away from us—and this point has been made already, and this has engendered very strong feelings, I think. Because of the objections of local people in terms of the transfer of power that's going to happen, I would say that it's more important for us not to follow a Westminster map, which continues to make us reliant on the crumbs from someone else's table, rather than linking communities and delivering the potential of our own nation.

I would close, Deputy Llywydd, by saying that I am hopeful that these regulations will be removed as quickly as they come into force, as the Welsh Government would replace them immediately and look to raise the nation, rather than further divide it.

Thank you. I have no Members who've indicated they want to intervene, therefore I'll call the Minister to respond to the debate. Julie James.

Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I'm grateful to the Chair and members of the legislation and justice committee for the points that they have made, and the Chair's quite right in summarising the Welsh Government's response to those points—I have nothing further to add to those two.

Both Laura and Delyth, I'm afraid, have sought to rerun the conversation that occurred in the Senedd before the passing of the Act at both Stage 2 and Stage 3. These, of course, are not the fundamental principles that we're talking about today, these are the regulations that enable the Act, which was democratically passed by the Senedd, as they both rightly said, during this Assembly term. So, rerunning the fundamental issues around the Act, which were rehearsed extensively at Stage 2 and Stage 3, doesn't really actually address any of the issues of the regulations that are in front of us today.

So, I don't intend to go back through all of the arguments that we had in front of the Senedd when we passed that Act democratically, Deputy Presiding Officer. I will say this, though: we have done this in absolute collaboration with local government all the way through. I myself have invested an enormous amount of time and energy in speaking directly to leaders weekly, sometimes on a daily basis, through the pandemic. We have consulted widely about this, and officials throughout local government have assisted us to put these regulations and the guidance that goes with them in play. This has been done in co-development throughout with people who understand entirely how local government works, value its place in our family of democratic accountability and thoroughly want local government to be able to take its place on a proper stage.

So, I absolutely reject, from both sides, actually—and it's interesting that their attacks are from completely different sides—I absolutely reject that. What this does is it empowers local government, it gives it an important tool for collaboration. It will support the strategic recovery and transformation of the delivery of services in Wales. It gives local government a tool they have never had before in Wales, and I'm sure that they will use it wisely, because I believe in local democracy and in local government, and this Act shows that that's the case. Diolch, Deputy Presiding Officer.

Thank you. The proposal is to agree the motion under item 9. Does any Member object? [Objection.] I do see an objection. Therefore, we'll vote on it at voting time.

Voting deferred until voting time.

The proposal is to agree the motion under item 10. Does anybody object? [Objection.] I see an objection to item 10. So, therefore, we'll vote at voting time.

Voting deferred until voting time.

The proposal is to agree the motion under item 11. Does any Member object? [Objection.] Objection there, so we defer voting.

Voting deferred until voting time.

The proposal is to agree the motion under item 12. Does any Member object? [Objection.] And there's an objection. Therefore, again, we defer voting under this item.

Voting deferred until voting time.

The proposal is to agree the motion under item 13. Does any Member object? [Objection.] There is an objection. Therefore, we defer voting until voting time.

Voting deferred until voting time.

The proposal is to agree the motion under item 14. Is there any objection? [Objection.] There is an objection. Therefore, we vote, again, at voting time.

Voting deferred until voting time.

The proposal is to agree the motion under item 15. Does any Member object? [Objection.] I see an objection on 15. Therefore, we defer voting until voting time.

Voting deferred until voting time.

The proposal is to agree the motion under item 16. Does any Member object? [Objection.] I see an objection on item 16. Therefore, we, again, defer voting until voting time.

Voting deferred until voting time.

The proposal is to agree the motion under item 17. Does any Member object? [Objection.] I see an objection. Therefore, item 17 will be voted on at voting time.

Voting deferred until voting time.

The proposal is to agree the motion under item 18. Does any Member object? [Objection.] I do see an objection. Therefore, we agree to defer voting on this until voting time.

Voting deferred until voting time.