Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:43 pm on 17 May 2022.
Yes, so all the reports, published or not, will be available to the review. The review is obviously subject to confidentiality and so on, but they will be subject to the review, absolutely. One of the things I expect to come out of the review is better guidelines about when, how and where the section 19 reports should be produced, possibly a timescale, although I don't want to prejudge it in any way, and there are issues with timescales, because I personally would like people to get it right, as well as fast. So, we'll see what the review brings, but I expect that clarity to be brought as a result of it.
There are more issues, so NRW actually produced some reports over that winter—they haven't got to do that, so there's a query whether they ought to have done it or whether they should do it; there are some issues there as well. Other authorities involved, the water authorities and other authorities, also didn't produce reports or did produce reports, so I expect the review to have a look at that landscape and see where we get.
Again, the committee that's looking at the regulatory framework for this is also looking to see whether all of these regulations put responsibility in the right place, on the right agency and so on. So, again, I'm desperately trying not to prejudge any of this, but, clearly, at the moment Welsh Government, local authorities and water companies and other responders all have some responsibility. Is that right? Does that work? We're expecting the committee to be able to make some recommendations to us about whether it does and how to embed it if it's right, and, if it's not right, what to do about it. So, I look forward to that.
And then, in terms of the public confidence in the reports, obviously the review will be looking at that. Siân Gwenllian and I had a very good meeting with Professor Evans and she's asked for some time to have a look at the scope of this—it's a lot of reports to look at—and also to consider what secretariat she needs and what back-up she needs. She's going to come back to us, I think within the month is what we agreed, to give us a better at least wet finger in the wind about what that might look like, although I don't want to hold her to that; I'm very keen to have it done properly rather than swiftly—within, obviously, parameters; we don't want it to take a decade. So, I'm hoping that she will come back, and I have every confidence she will. She undertook a report in my own constituency, if the Llywydd will forgive me for segueing into that for one moment, which is very complicated and highly controversial in the community, and she did a splendid job very independently and robustly of that. So, I look forward to a very similar approach on this.