Thank you, Llywydd, and I welcome the opportunity to open the debate on group 5, and to specifically speak to amendment 166, tabled in my name. During our scrutiny work on the Bill as introduced, the Children, Young People and Education Committee was eager to ensure that this legislation and the new arrangements that will be created through it will maintain and extend the long-established principles in relation to academic freedoms—that is, that there needs to be freedom for our academic community to follow their own research interests, whatever the topic of that research may be, and that they need protection to do that, free from any prejudice or detrimental consequences, because that independence of opinion can challenge institutions, society, Governments and so on, but also enriches and enhances all our lives.

My aim in introducing the amendment is to build on the strengthening of the Bill during, and following, Stage 2, specifically section 17 of the Bill, as it appears before us today. Section 17(1) as currently drafted puts a requirement on the Minister and the commission to address the importance of safeguarding academic freedoms of tertiary education providers in Wales that provide higher education, to the extent that that freedom relates to HE and academic staff within those providers.

Members who will have read the Bill in detail, and I'm sure that you will all have done so, will see that the definition of a provider of HE is to be found in section 141 of the Bill, and that that includes the provision of education through a course. However, the activities of these institutions in relation to research and innovation is broader than providing education through courses, and they could include research programmes in the postgraduate sector and innovation projects. It's important, therefore, that there is safeguarding in terms of academic freedom relating to these activities too.

This amendment therefore further amends subsection 1 to ensure that that freedom does extend to research and innovation activities and to the provision of HE. I ask Members, therefore, to support this amendment, which will facilitate and provide clarity and further assurance on the length and breadth of this important provision. Thank you.