Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd, again. We considered these regulations at our meeting yesterday morning, again, and our report contains one technical and one merits point.

The technical reporting point notes that regulations 10 and 11 require notices or documents that have been published between 22 April 2020 and 30 April 2021 to remain accessible electronically for a period of six years, as the Minister has outlined. The regulations are not due to come into force until 1 May 2021. Our reporting point probed whether regulations 10 and 11 retrospectively change the law relating to documents published before the regulations come into force. The enabling provisions for these regulations in the 2021 Act and the Local Government Act 2000 do not provide express authority for the regulations to have retrospective effect. The Welsh Government's response to our report confirms that regulations 10 and 11 do not have that retrospective legal effect. The Welsh Government told us that, in its view, retrospective provision is any provision that changes the relevant law so that it comes to effect from a time before that provision comes into force. The Welsh Government considers that regulation 10 changes the law with regard to events that occur on or after the day the law is in force. As for regulation 11, the Welsh Government does not consider that it changes the law so that it has effect from a time before that provision comes into force. 

The merits reporting point just notes that no consultation was undertaken in relation to the regulations. Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd.