So, this also represents an important milestone in the scrutiny of the Welsh Government's justice-related spending, and I hope that, through our work, we start to shine a light on this very important issue. As part of this greater scrutiny and transparency, we're very grateful to the First Minister for responding to our request and providing information on justice spend prior to our session with the Counsel General. This information identified broadly how resources are allocated to justice-related activity within each main expenditure group and across various ministerial portfolios, and that is truly helpful and very welcome.

Now, in all, we made seven recommendations that, given that justice spending is currently not separately disaggregated, generally sought to find more clarity, while looking ahead to how that information should be provided in future budgets as well. So, for example, we recommended that the Welsh Government should provide more detail about how the £4.2 million allocated for Welsh Tribunals is used, not least given the important role that the tribunals have played in responding to the challenges of coronavirus and the need to operate remotely, which has been subject to debate in this Senedd Siambr before.

Not surprisingly, perhaps, we recommended that the Welsh Government should work towards disaggregating spending on justice. In addition, we also recommended that its justice work programme should contain measurable actions and specific programmes that are fully costed, with an annual report highlighting progress in delivery and evaluating outcomes of individual components. We believe that our seven recommendations, if implemented, will help the Welsh Government deliver a recommendation of the Commission on Justice in Wales, namely for the Welsh Government to strengthen leadership and accountability on justice matters. And I noticed in the introductory remarks that the Welsh Government is looking at the recommendations going forward.

So, I'd now like to turn to the important matter of the Welsh Government's use of UK Bills to legislate and its consequential legislative consent memoranda. Now, surprisingly, their use has become a prominent feature—at least so far in this sixth Senedd—of the Welsh Government's legislative delivery of their policy objectives. Now, putting aside for the moment the merits or otherwise of this approach, the justification used by the Welsh Government has brought to the fore the issue of the Welsh Government's capacity to legislate and the resources allocated to this task. And, indeed, this was picked up by my colleague on the committee, Alun Davies, earlier. In a letter prior to our evidence suggestion with the Counsel General, the Counsel General told us that, and I quote:

'there is a need for the Welsh Government to consider each UK Government Bill carefully, and to balance the need to defend the current devolution settlement so far as possible'— so far as possible—

'and the principle that we should legislate ourselves here in Wales, with opportunities that may arise to improve the law for citizens of Wales', looking to the other end of the M4.

Now, these comments are striking because of their constitutional significance and their relevance to fundamental democratic principles—subsidiarity, devolution and so on. Moreover, we must not forget that the function of legislating is at the heart of this Senedd's role. In addition, there needs to be openness and transparency about how the legislative commitments in the Welsh Government's programme for government are to be delivered. So, it's for all these reasons that it is important to understand how the Welsh Government is budgeting to ensure that there is sufficient capacity to legislate and bring forward its legislative proposals—matters that, incidentally, I raised with the finance Minister last week here in Plenary.

So, the three final recommendations arising from our scrutiny of the draft budget try to aim to ascertain baseline data, to try and better understand the legislative challenges faced by the Welsh Government. We recognise that some of the current challenges stem from the consequences of leaving the EU and the coronavirus pandemic. However, as the Counsel General acknowledged, we also need to start thinking about the rest of the sixth Senedd and beyond. So, in particular, we're keen to learn about the level of resources available within the draft budget to increase the Welsh Government’s capacity to deliver made-in-Wales legislation, including recruiting new staff and increasing expertise—other Members have touched on this as well. Given that we've been making primary legislation for some 15 years already, we trust that this will be building on the existing training and recruiting strategies and not starting from a zero base. 

So, my thanks, in closing, to committee colleagues and our clerking team for the diligent scrutiny and analysis, as always, and we look forward to the Minister's response to the debate.