Thank you very much, Llywydd. I'm very pleased to be speaking in this debate today on the inquiry by the Finance Committee into the implementation of the Wales Act 2014 and the fiscal framework. And I'd like to thank, at the outset, all those who have contributed to this inquiry, and to the Minister for Finance and Trefnydd for her response to our report. We made 12 recommendations, and we're very pleased the Minister has accepted 11 recommendations in full, and the other in principle. I'd also like to thank HMRC and the Senedd Commission for their responses to our report.

In 2014, we saw one of the biggest changes ever to the Welsh devolution settlement. The Wales Act 2014 provided for the devolution of powers over taxation, including Welsh rates of income tax, the land transaction tax and the landfill disposals tax. In order to enable the powers in the 2014 Act to be implemented, the Welsh Government and the UK Government reached an agreement in the form of the fiscal framework. The fiscal framework also covers the borrowing limits of the Welsh Government and its tools for budget management, and it also deals with spill-over effects in terms of policy and implementation arrangements. As we approach the end of the Senedd, we felt it was important to reflect on the way in which these powers were introduced and the effectiveness of the fiscal framework.

As part of this inquiry, we extended several invitations to the Secretary of State for Wales and to the Chief Secretary to the Treasury to provide evidence. We're grateful to the Secretary of State who has engaged with us on this inquiry and in relation to the financial recovery post COVID-19. However, we are disappointed that the Chief Secretary has refused our requests. The Wales Act 2014 is fundamental to the devolution settlement, and the roles of the Welsh Government and the UK Government are intrinsic to the delivery of the objectives of the Act. While we're grateful to the Secretary of State for his contribution, it was only the questions relating to his responsibility that he could answer, of course. Therefore we were unable to understand the position of the position of the UK Government on a number of significant fiscal issues, including the process of tax devolution and the creation of new taxes, transparency in the process of engaging with the Welsh Government over funding decisions and the means of challenging such decisions, the potential for reviewing the Barnett formula, and also there was no opportunity to consider increasing borrowing powers.

Following that, I wrote to the Chief Secretary on these issues, and we received his response last night. Unfortunately, many of these matters remain unresolved, and the fact that the Chief Secretary refused to attend a meeting has undermined the value of the process of fiscal devolution. His letter also fails to address how the Senedd is supposed to scrutinise the fiscal arrangements of the UK Government for Wales if the Chief Secretary is not willing to attend to answer questions from the Members on that issue.

We started this inquiry during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the evidence that we received, alongside the practical issues that emerged in terms of the funding arrangements throughout the pandemic, have shown that the Welsh Government and the UK Government must review the funding mechanisms urgently. The financial response to the pandemic has resulted in a significant amount of money being spent at a UK level, which has raised a number of issues regarding how the fiscal framework and the Barnett formula operate in Wales.