As a member of the Senedd's Finance Committee, I wish to thank the Chair of our committee, Peredur Owen Griffiths, for his stewardship, and to my fellow committee members, Mike Hedges and Peter Fox, for their solid work on the committee. I also want to take this opportunity to place on record my thanks to my colleagues Jack Sargeant, Carolyn Thomas and Alun Davies, who have ably substituted for me at times during our period of scrutinising this Act.

I agree with the Minister when she outlined the generic need for the Bill. The Minister told the committee, and I quote:

'the vulnerability, really, of the Welsh Ministers in respect of being able to respond appropriately to tax policy changes made by the UK Government is quite clear, and Welsh Ministers should be in a position to provide near immediate responses to certain external events'.

We have seen that the Chancellor of the UK is adept at making extensive changes to tax policy, changes with cursory thought for the consequence on Welsh taxation measures. So, I was heartened that the Minister has made explicitly clear that these powers would only be used to respond to specified external circumstances in her letter, and did not anticipate the powers being used regularly. However, I also note and very much welcome the intended amendments, as articulated by the Minister today. We always have to be mindful of the balance between Executive power and the powers of the legislature—this fine balance, diversified further in a United Kingdom with a maturing devolved structure of governance. The committee, I know, was keen for an evidence basis, and I welcome the Minister's letter to the Finance Committee of 22 April, which outlines the extensive and specific detailed information that the committee were rightly seeking. I noted the headline from the Chartered Institute of Taxation's response to the committee's report, which stated that the committee gave 'cautionary backing' to the Welsh Tax Acts etc. (Power to Modify) Bill—in essence, good governance. The Welsh Labour Government responded agilely and flexibly to external events, whilst the Senedd's scrutiny functions and committee forensically carried out their work and analysis.

Llywydd, with the stated amendments, I do support the general principles of the Welsh Tax Acts etc. (Power to Modify) Bill, and I also wish to take this opportunity, finally, to thank the Minister, Rebecca Evans, for the manner in which she has brought this measure forward, her adaptive and constructive approach during this process. Diolch yn fawr.