Thank you very much for colleagues' contributions to the debate today. Just to reiterate, really, what Llyr Gruffydd was saying there in terms of we are very much debating about how we make CJCs work today, and we're debating about putting in place the appropriate regulation, oversight and governance that you would expect of local government bodies and public bodies in Wales, rather than debating the principle of CJCs. I'm familiar with colleagues' wider concerns about CJCs, both in Plaid Cymru and on the Conservative benches, and those have been explored in quite some detail, most recently in oral questions where I was able to respond to those concerns raised by Sam Rowlands, in particular, about some of the public accountability concerns that he raised and also the democratic accountability concerns. So, I won't reiterate those points today, because they're not relevant to the specific issues that we are debating.

But, I will say on the matter of cost, the cost of a CJC will depend significantly on the choices of the constituent council members of the CJC and how they want to operate the CJC and how they'll use the flexibilities within the CJC model. For example, the flexibility for CJCs to employ or second staff and for local authorities to put staff at the disposal of CJCs. Having certain key statutory officers is an integral part of applying local government governance arrangements to CJCs and ensuring that CJCs operate effectively and appropriately. And this approach was very much tested and confirmed in the consultation that has been undertaken in regard to this work. But appointing statutory officers or any staff to support the CJC doesn't mean directly employing them. Of course, how the roles are provided will be a matter for the CJC and they might, for example, share or second staff for these purposes. I appreciate everything that Llyr Gruffydd has said about the pressures on local government; they're well understood and we'll have further discussions on that as we move towards setting our draft budget in terms of the overall settlement for local government for future years, in advance of the publication on 20 December.

But, just to reiterate, what we are talking about here today is very much about ensuring that the regulations that are in place ensure the appropriate regulation, oversight and governance of members of our local government family here in Wales. And I would ask Members, on that basis, to support the regulations.