Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer, and I think it is no secret and many know well here that I fully disagree with the children (Wales) Act, and I actually condemn any attempt to prioritise the criminalisation of good, loving and caring parents. With this Act, this Welsh Labour Government is now reaching further into the private lives of families, creating a nanny state, where Welsh Government think that they know best when it comes to the protection and safeguarding of our children.

The explanatory memorandum stated that the preferred option to

'Legislate to remove the defence of reasonable punishment in Wales' would cost a total to our taxpayers of between £6 million and £8 million. Isn't it a shame, when children can't access dental services, when they can't access mental health services, that it's felt so important to actually bring this legislation in? So far, the Welsh Government has already spent just under £1.7 million. However, it seems that costs are spiralling. The Bill's supporting documentation included funding for an out-of-court parenting support scheme, to be used where the police decided it is more appropriate to do so, and I can tell you locally we have children that are falling through the safeguarding net because our departments don't have the resources now, Deputy Minister, so, this is just going to compound pressures.

Between £162,000 and £473,000 per year was initially allocated for the scheme, but the allocation in the 2022-23 draft budget is now nearly double that. In an effort to justify this doubling of costs, you stated to the Children, Young People, and Education Committee, and I quote:

'When we indicated a sum of money for this scheme, that was done without having done the intensive work that's been done since.'

Today, we learn that the budget has now jumped from £473,000 per year to £2.4 million—