During the course of our work, we heard time and time again that spills from overflows are not the main cause of poor river quality, and we don't dispute that as a committee, of course, but there is a tendency by some to use that to try and underplay the unacceptable number of spills, by trying to deflect the debate to pollutants from other sectors, and that's just not helpful, because overflows do contribute to declining water quality, and it is an area that needs to be addressed.

Before turning to the committee's specific recommendations, I'd like to make reference to the Minister's introductory remarks in her response to our report. The Minister told us that tackling storm overflows alone would not lead to wholesale improvement in water quality. As I'm sure the Minister will appreciate, we're not asking you to only tackle storm overflows, of course. All forms of water pollution must be tackled in a proportionate and fair way. But what we are asking you to do, along with the water companies and NRW and others, is to do more and to do so quickly to bring down the eye-watering number of spills that are occurring year on year across Wales.

Our report makes 10 recommendations, and all of them were accepted in principle by the Minister. Some of the recommendations were also aimed at NRW, the water companies and Ofwat, and we are grateful to the Minister and the companies for their responses, which are in the main positive, and we also look forward to hearing from Ofwat and NRW when the time comes.

In the Minister's response to our first recommendation, which asks the Welsh Government to show greater leadership, the Minister referred to a road map for storm overflows that is being prepared by the better river quality taskforce. The committee called for this road map to include targets and timescales for reducing spills, and comprehensive and transparent monitoring and reporting mechanisms, so that progress towards delivery can be assessed. The Minister has accepted this recommendation. We are given that the road map will set out objectives and measurable outcomes for delivering improvements, so that's a good start and is very promising. But what about the targets and timescales that we've called for? Perhaps, Minister, in responding, you could commit to ensuring that the road map includes these.

We're also told that oversight for the delivery of the road map will be a matter for the taskforce and that accountability for delivering actions will lie with taskforce members. Well, perhaps, Minister, you can tell us in response how we and the public will be able to scrutinise progress towards delivery. Will you ensure full transparency in the work of the taskforce, something that has been missing to date, I have to say?

Recommendation 4 calls for enhanced monitoring arrangements to ensure better understanding of the impact of spills on receiving water, namely the water that spills flow into. We're told that an investigation monitoring programme will be established to determine long-term requirements for monitoring overflows. That begs the question: why has it taken until now to do so? This programme needs to lead to outcomes, and we need to see those quickly.

I want to return to the matter of unpermitted overflows, and I mentioned them a little earlier, because there's hardly any information on these, so we don't know what damage they could be causing. I'd like to hear from the Minister, therefore, whether you have such a clear time frame that sets out when you expect NRW to bring these into the regulatory regime. How much of a priority should this be for NRW?

Finally, the Minister has advised that the cost of delivering on much of this work is outlined in her response. Well, that's not a particularly satisfactory response. Can you give us an idea, Minister, of when this work will be completed? And can you also provide us with assurance that there is adequate funding available to pay for the work that you've outlined, which is just as important?

To conclude, therefore, Dirprwy Lywydd, although media attention on storm overflows may have waned in recent months, the problems of sewage spills have not gone away. Now that the true scale of the spills has emerged, we do expect to see firmer action taken to drive them down. We expect to see improvements in the understanding of the cumulative impact of spills on water quality. We, as a committee, expect to see a reduction in the damage caused by spills to our rivers and to the precious wildlife that inhabit them. We also, of course, as a committee, look forward to discussing the progress made, hopefully, in implementing our recommendations later in this Senedd term. Thank you.