Diolch, Llywydd. I move the motion. In March 2021 the Senedd approved the regulations establishing four new corporate joint committees, or CJCs, in Wales. This included the South East Wales Corporate Joint Committee Regulations 2021, which established the south-east Wales CJC.

Members will be aware that the establishment regulations set out the core functions that the CJCs will be delivering. They are: the duty to prepare a regional transport plan; the duty to prepare a strategic development plan; and the ability to exercise the economic well-being function—that is, the power to do anything to improve the economic well-being of their area.

The approach to the development of the CJC model to date has been one of co-development and close collaboration with local government, through a phased approach to both the development of the legislative framework that CJCs will operate in and to their implementation. This included agreement that the core functions would not be commenced until 2022, to provide a period of time for CJCs to put in place the necessary administrative and governance arrangements.

As part of this approach, during the development of the establishment regulations, each region chose when exactly they would want their core functions to commence. The south-east Wales region elected to commence their core functions on 28 February 2022, as part of an ambitious programme to transition this Cardiff capital region city deal activity into the CJC as soon as possible. The other three CJCs elected to commence their core functions on 30 June 2022. However, as part of the preparatory work during the implementation phase, a number of technical issues were identified in relation to the treatment of tax within a CJC, particularly in relation to VAT. The leaders of the south-east Wales CJC have requested a change in the commencement date of their functions to allow time for these technical issues to be addressed.

The regulations we are debating today respond to this request and seek to amend the commencement date of the core functions of the south-east Wales CJC from 28 February 2022 to 30 June 2022. This will bring the south-east Wales CJC in line with the point at which the other three CJCs in Wales start to exercise their functions.