In our report on the memorandum, we expressed serious concern with provisions included within the Bill on its introduction that impacted on devolved areas and on the accountability arrangements for the Electoral Commission's activities in Wales as set out in the Senedd and Elections (Wales) Act 2020. We were equally concerned, at that time, at the apparent lack of engagement between the UK Government and the Welsh Government in such a significant area of public policy—as the Counsel General has set out, this really matters. It's one of fundamental importance to the rights of citizens and their engagement in the democratic process to decide who governs them. We therefore welcomed the fact that, as the Counsel General has laid out this afternoon, the UK Government did indeed table amendments that carved out devolved elections in Wales from the scope of the provisions that caused us great concern, and that is welcome.

I'll now turn to the four recommendations we made in our report, the first three of which were, indeed, accepted by the Counsel General, and the fourth was accepted in principle. Our first recommendation called on the Counsel General, following the completion of the Bill's passage through the UK Parliament, to issue a statement on the implications of the legislation for devolved elections in Wales. He's outlined some of this this afternoon, but he has accepted this recommendation. We welcome that, and we look forward to seeing the statement from you.

Our second recommendation related to the view expressed in the memorandum that the Welsh Government would prefer to consult stakeholders in Wales and to bring forward its own electoral legislation for scrutiny in the Senedd in due course. Counsel General, in your response to the committee, you also stated that the Welsh Government intends to bring forward this legislation in time for the next Senedd elections in 2026, subject to other demands. We welcome this intention—we support it. We see it as an opportunity to consolidate the law for devolved Welsh elections, which would help people's understanding of that law and, again, make it more accessible in both Welsh and English. So, we would welcome any further information about how those plans are progressing in response to this debate today.

Our third recommendation related to the original provisions that impacted upon devolved areas, which I previously mentioned, and asked when the Counsel General intended to bring forward a supplementary legislative consent memorandum relating to amendments tabled to the Bill. As the supplementary memorandum tabled last Tuesday confirms, amendments to the Bill were tabled on 11 January, 17 January and 28 February. I would simply, at this point, like to echo what the Chair of the Local Government and Housing Committee has said in saying that there is some disappointment at the delay in tabling the supplementary memorandum after these amendments were laid. I'd also echo what I said in the debate on the legislative consent motion for the leasehold reform Bill back in December. This delay in conveying crucial information to the Senedd until late in the consent process reduces greatly the amount of time that we have to effectively scrutinise the Welsh Government’s approach. Laying supplementary memoranda earlier, as a matter of really good practice, would have enabled us to consider the issues in more detail and report to the Senedd in time for today's debate. We therefore fully support what the Local Government and Housing Committee had told us in correspondence last week about the delay in tabling this particular supplementary memorandum when they said that whilst it does not breach Standing Orders, it certainly goes against the spirit of Standing Order 29.2.

The final recommendation in our report called on the Welsh Government to include a commentary on the extent of co-operation and engagement with the UK Government in all legislative consent memoranda. We made this recommendation as it was not clear to us how the position set out in this memorandum in relation to the most contentious provisions in the Bill had been arrived at, and when and to what extent the UK Government engaged with the Welsh Government. We really welcome the positive response to that recommendation, and in particular that future memoranda will inform Members of the extent of co-operation and engagement with the UK Government. We think this is critical for all the reasons we've laid out this afternoon.

Finally, we note and therefore welcome the references made in the supplementary consent memorandum to the constructive engagement that was subsequently had with the UK Government since the first memorandum was tabled and, of course, the Welsh Government's successful influence on the Bill in the areas in which the Welsh Government sought amendments. Diolch yn fawr iawn, Llywydd.