I'm pleased to contribute to this debate as Chair of the Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee, and you'll be aware that the committee wrote to the Business Committee back in September outlining what we considered to be the key challenges for the Senedd in scrutinising LCMs. We asked the Business Committee to undertake a review into the LCM process to ensure that it is fit for purpose. Now, the letter was prompted by our experience of scrutinising on the LCM for the environment Bill during the early part of this Senedd term, but it's safe to say that the challenges we face were not unique to that LCM, and they are not unique to this Senedd. Before the fifth Senedd, LCMs, in the main, had related to narrowly focused provisions; they didn't attract much argument or controversy. The fifth Senedd was perhaps a turning point in scrutinising LCMs as LCMs for large, complex Brexit-related Bills that made substantive provisions for Wales were brought forward.

It became apparent very quickly that the LCM process was not designed to support scrutiny of Bills such as these. Take our scrutiny work for the environment Bill as an example. Like other Brexit-related Bills, the environment Bill contained substantive provisions for Wales in key areas of devolved policy, provisions that would undoubtedly be better suited to a Bill in this Senedd. Had it been a Senedd Bill, the scrutiny timetable would have spanned many months. Instead, we had four weeks, just two meetings, to consider and report on the LCM. Had this been a Senedd Bill, the Welsh Government would have been required to provide detailed information on its policy objectives, the purpose and intended effect of the provisions, and cost estimates among other things. But the LCM, of course, contained limited information on some of these aspects and no information at all on others. Had this been a Senedd Bill, there would have been an opportunity for the committee's concerns about specific provisions to be addressed by amendments, but the environment Bill had already reached its final scrutiny stages in the UK Parliament, so negotiating amendments wasn't an option. 

Deputy Llywydd, the challenges I've outlined are probably, by now, familiar to most, if not all policy committees, given the significant number of LCMs brought forward since the start of the sixth Senedd. We find ourselves in a position where the Welsh Government is using LCMs as a replacement for Senedd Bill scrutiny processes. The UK Government is increasingly using UK Bills to legislate in devolved areas without the Welsh Government's agreement. The process set out in our Standing Orders simply wasn't designed for this, and we must ask whether it is still fit for purpose. 

As was outlined in my letter to the Business Committee, now is the time to review the LCM process. If the Welsh Government intends to continue to use UK Bills to legislate for Wales on matters of significance, then we must be confident that the LCM process facilitates and supports meaningful Senedd scrutiny, and that the Welsh public and stakeholders are consulted on matters that will affect them. 

I very much hope, therefore, that today's debate will mean that we do now see progress made towards a review, and that, as a result, we will see significant and early improvement to the current process. Thank you.