Diolch, Llywydd. I move the motion today, the consent motion on the framework for determining age in the UK Nationality and Borders Bill. I will be calling on Members to withhold consent on the clauses on the framework for determining age in this Bill. I am grateful to the Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee, the Health and Social Care Committee, and the Children, Young People and Education Committee, for considering the legislative consent memorandum and for their recent reports. I note that the majority of the committee's members agreed with the position I'm putting forward to the Senedd today.

The UK Government Nationality and Borders Bill will fundamentally undermine our nation of sanctuary vision, which the Senedd has endorsed. And I agree with the First Minister: the Bill is an impending tragedy. The Counsel General and I made a statement on 6 December on the Nationality and Borders Bill. In that statement, we said,

'We believe many of the provisions in the Bill will breach international conventions, violate basic principles of justice and will place ultimately extreme and insurmountable conditions on people who seek our protection.'

The Bill's provisions are the antithesis of what is needed to achieve the stated aim of making immigration safer and more effective, and there are compassionate and effective solutions. We've put these forward to the UK Government. We've repeatedly raised concerns with the UK Government about the impact of the Bill on Wales. We've sought details of the clauses relating to age assessment from May onwards, without success. They have provided no satisfactory assurances, no amendments have been tabled to address the concerns that the Welsh Government has raised.

So, Llywydd, in terms of the Bill and the provisions covered by the legislative consent memorandum, it does include the potential referral of age assessment to a new UK national age assessment board, to require the supply of evidence to the Secretary of State where the local authority decides to undertake the assessment themselves, and the creation of a method of assessing age that is in direct opposition to our existing Welsh method in the Welsh Government's age assessment toolkit, including the use of so-called scientific methods to assess the age of child asylum seekers.

The Bill does not recognise the devolved context of Wales and confers powers on the Secretary of State to make regulations imposing functions on devolved Welsh authorities. The practice of assessing the age of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children is primarily carried out to determine access to social services, care and support. And local authorities undertake these assessments to ensure that no child is left vulnerable where they have been separated from their parents or carers. In Wales we treat all unaccompanied asylum-seeking children as looked-after children, and this is set out in Welsh law under Part 6 of the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014. Our policy position arises from our commitment to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child to act in the best interests of all children.

Local authorities will have the challenge of navigating two statutory but conflicting approaches to age assessment. Ultimately, this Bill may result in a tribunal making determinations in favour of the Secretary of State's age assessment decisions, which will usurp Welsh local authorities' age assessment decisions.

And I do not agree that the UK Government through this Bill should be able to undermine the Senedd's legislative competence by requiring referral of age-disputed children to other Home Office appointed decision makers or mandating particular evidence or methods of age assessment that are not considered good practice in Wales. Therefore, I ask Members to withhold their consent to these deeply damaging provisions in this Bill today. Diolch.