The next item is a statement by the First Minister on the legislative programme. And I call on the First Minister to make that statement. Mark Drakeford. 

Diolch, Llywydd. Today, I am pleased to make a statement on our legislative programme. This is an essential part of our ambitious and radical programme for government that will help to shape Wales for the future. We're now in the third Senedd term since the people of Wales voted to give the then National Assembly the power to make Assembly Acts. Since 2011, we have been building up to the volume of primary legislation that this Government will bring forward over the course of this Senedd term. This is a programme that demonstrates our extensive use of those powers, and at an extensive rate.

Bringing forward the primary legislative programme does not take place in a vacuum. Other pressures exist that have an impact on the Government and the Senedd. A significant programme of subordinate legislation sits alongside and underpins our legislative programme. Very often, there is a lack of understanding about how broad and important subordinate legislation is. In recent years, there has been an increase in the volume of such legislation and the importance of the decisions determined in this way. This has significantly increased the workload of the Executive and the legislature in recent years, both in Plenary and committees.

Since early February 2020, Llywydd, more than 300 items of subordinate legislation have been made in relation to coronavirus alone, often with fundamental impact on the daily lives of our fellow citizens. The current surge in COVID numbers, as we've discussed this afternoon, reminds us that this journey is still not over. And, Llywydd, while the volume of EU exit-related secondary legislation has diminished in the last 12 months, we will still be bringing Brexit-derived statutory instruments to the Senedd until the end of this calendar year.

Beyond COVID and Brexit, in the last 12 months, we have made over 50 SIs to implement major Acts passed in the last Senedd, including legislation to support schools and teachers to deliver our radical changes to the Curriculum for Wales, and the provisions of the Local Government and Elections (Wales) Act 2021. Members will consider regulations to make 20 mph the default speed limit in residential areas next week here in the Senedd, a key component of our programme for government. Further secondary legislation will follow during the year, including regulations to implement the Tertiary Education and Research (Wales) Bill, and aspects of the Health and Social Care (Quality and Engagement) (Wales) Act 2020, such as the duty of candour.

Llywydd, we also cannot ignore the legislative intentions of the UK Government, which, in the current climate, represent a significant risk to Wales and to devolution. The Secretary of State for Wales has said that 27 UK Bills announced in the Queen's Speech in May are likely to extend and apply to Wales. It is already clear that many of these will contain provisions relating to devolved areas, and this will result in incursions into the devolution settlement. This requires this Government and the Senedd to remain vigilant, consider proposals in detail, and respond accordingly.

Llywydd, despite these many other legislative pressures and the challenging context during the first year of this Senedd term, we have already introduced four primary Bills to the floor of the Senedd. The Tertiary Education and Research (Wales) Bill was passed by Members last week and will put a new system in place for post-16 education and training in Wales. Members will consider Stage 3 amendments to our Welsh Tax Acts etc. (Power to Modify) Bill this afternoon. That Bill will provide Welsh Ministers with carefully delineated and time-limited powers to respond quickly to protect Welsh citizens against sudden and unexpected decisions of the UK Government that could have a significant impact on the liabilities of individuals and on revenue for Welsh public services. We've already introduced the Social Partnership and Public Procurement (Wales) Bill. This unique legislation, delivered in conjunction with our social partners, will ensure the fair rights of workers and lead to more socially responsible public procurement. And, yesterday, we introduced the first consolidation Bill before the Senedd, the Historic Environment (Wales) Bill, which will make the law in Wales relating to listed buildings and the historic environment more accessible in future.

Llywydd, I now turn to those Bills to be brought forward in the coming year. This Government is committed to creating a fairer, greener and stronger Wales. The establishment of a climate change portfolio was designed to make it easier to mobilise the main areas of devolved Government with the greatest impact in this area. There is a moral imperative that we make progress on this agenda, and we will bring forward a number of Bills to make a series of important changes over the next 12 months.

As an early priority, Llywydd, we will bring forward a Bill to ban or restrict the sale of some of the most commonly littered single-use plastics in Wales. This will meet our key programme for government commitment in this area. But, in addition, the Bill will also support our ongoing legal challenge to the United Kingdom Internal Market Act 2020. In the current litigation, brought by the Counsel General, the court has indicated it would find it helpful to consider a practical example, in the form of a piece of Senedd legislation, against which it can test the issues under consideration. This Bill will provide that practical example, and in that context we will be seeking the agreement of Business Committee to expedite the scrutiny of the Senedd on this Bill.      

Llywydd, a clean air Bill is a significant priority for this Government. We want to build on action already under way to reduce emissions and deliver vital improvements in air quality, supporting healthier communities and better environments. Our White Paper set out how we intend to enable ambitious air quality targets and put in place a more robust regulatory framework to support them. This will be accompanied by measures to make sure all parts of society play their part in reducing air pollution, and I look forward to working with Members across the Chamber to develop that Bill once it is introduced.

Llywydd, we have set out our ambition to reform the way agriculture is supported in the future, with an emphasis both on high-quality and sustainable food production and rewarding farmers for the delivery of environmental and associated social outcomes. We will publish an outline sustainable farming scheme ahead of the Royal Welsh Show and the series of summer agriculture events that follow. Llywydd, the timing here is deliberate. It will allow for meaningful engagement on the detail of the proposed scheme ahead of the introduction of the agriculture Bill itself, which will be brought before the Senedd in the autumn.

Members will also be aware that we have made significant progress since establishing our coal tip safety taskforce two years ago. The Law Commission's landmark report, 'Regulating Coal Tip Safety in Wales', was published earlier this year. It clearly concluded that the law as it stands is not fit for today's purposes. The report informed our White Paper consultation and we will introduce a Bill on coal tip safety to establish a consistent approach to the management, monitoring and oversight of disused coal tips throughout Wales. This will protect those communities that bear the legacy of our industrial past, as well as support critical infrastructure and the environment by reducing the likelihood of landslides.

Llywydd, we're also committed to simplifying the consenting process for specified types of major on and offshore infrastructure, and we will, therefore, introduce an infrastructure consenting Bill to provide more certainty for communities and developers alike. The Bill will replace existing statutory regimes for the consenting of Welsh infrastructure projects, and it will rationalise the number of authorisations required to construct and operate a project into a single consent.

Llywydd, the annual legislative programme statement has been typically used to announce the Bills that the Government will introduce in the coming 12 months. However, the Senedd scrutinises legislation in a continuum, and Bills do not fall at the end of a session. Therefore, I want to look a little further ahead to the start of the third year of the programme and to mention a number of other important Bills.

Llywydd, as I mentioned earlier, the challenges for both the Executive and the legislature in managing the legislative pressures associated with primary and secondary legislation initiated here, as well as legislation initiated in Westminster, are considerable. To ensure that this Senedd is able to execute its responsibilities and ensure that we have greater capacity to scrutinise legislation, we will bring forward a Bill to reform the Senedd. We're on track to deliver on our commitment set out in the co-operation agreement with Plaid Cymru to deliver that Bill within 12 to 18 months of the special purpose committee's report. This crucial, once-in-a-generation legislation will create a modern Senedd, reflecting the Wales we live in today and with the means to represent and deliver for the people of Wales.

We heard of the importance of transport earlier this afternoon, Llywydd, and transport accounts for nearly a fifth of our carbon emissions, yet we cannot currently plan bus networks to help break our reliance on private cars by making sure people can access services reliably and sustainably. Our consultation on fundamental change to the way bus services are planned in Wales closed last week. In the autumn of next year, we will bring forward a bus Bill, allowing all levels of government in Wales to work together to design the bus networks our communities need.

And early in that third year we will also introduce a local government finance Bill. It will be before the Senedd before the end of 2023, and that Bill will deliver our programme for government commitment to reform the council tax in Wales. Through partnership working and extensive engagement with ratepayers, we continue to explore options for non-domestic rate reform, and that will require a combination of both primary and subordinate legislative action. 

Llywydd, there's a packed legislative agenda ahead of us, but these are the significant building blocks towards the Wales we want to see. To deliver it, we will continue to work across the Chamber to ensure our legislation is the best it can be and improves the lives of all the people of Wales. This statement demonstrates our commitment to a fairer, greener and stronger future, and I commend this legislative programme to the Senedd.

Thank you, First Minister, for your statement this afternoon, and I do put on record my thanks to the Government lawyers and the Senedd lawyers who do assist us in our scrutiny of legislation and bringing that legislation forward. We can disagree on the policy positions, but, ultimately, a great deal of legal brain power goes into these pieces of legislation. The reason legislation is so important is it empowers people to have rights, and that is the fundamental narrative of any democracy—that, in law, we as elected lawmakers can put that on that statute book and give people rights.

I do regret the fact that the statement today doesn't have anything in relation to an autism Act, which this side of the Chamber have, obviously, championed on many occasions through debates in the Senedd here. And I also regret that there's no British Sign Language Bill to be brought forward by the First Minister or the Government today. That's another form of empowerment that I would seek support for from the First Minister, if and when Government time allows, or, indeed, to get behind my colleague Peter Fox's legislative proposal on the food Bill, given that, obviously, the legislative statement includes a reference to the agricultural Bill that the Government is seeking to bring forward in September.

So, I'll touch on the five Bills that the First Minister has highlighted, and rather than looking backwards, looking forward to what the First Minister's Government will be bringing forward in the next legislative session. And the clean air Bill, which he and I have spoken about many times in this Chamber, does now seem to be seeing the light of day, which is something to be welcomed. I have previously offered to work with the First Minister and other politicians across this Chamber so that we can have a speedy conclusion and passage of this piece of legislation, when you bear in mind that 1,600 people die prematurely in Wales because of dirty air. I'd be grateful to understand the First Minister's thinking, now that the Government has had time to work this piece of legislation up, as to what types of targets we might see in this piece of legislation, and whether they will be legally binding targets that we will see in the legislation, so that all parts of Wales benefit from the legislation that the Government will be bringing forward. And when does he anticipate that Bill being introduced into the Senedd over the next 12 months? Because, again, I think that would be welcome, to understand when that piece of legislation will be coming into the Senedd.

The agricultural Bill, the much-anticipated agricultural Bill, which, again, in First Minister's questions and in ministerial questions I've raised various issues on. I know there's been detailed consultation with the sector on this particularly important piece of legislation, the first piece of legislation on agriculture in Wales since the Agriculture Act 1947, which will obviously transform the landscape that agriculture operates in. I'd be grateful to understand exactly how the Ukrainian crisis has impacted on the creation and the formation of this Bill, which I think has been cited as one of the reasons why the Government has taken a little longer to bring that Bill forward, and in particular whether the Government's thinking has moved more to supporting, through this Bill, measures to increase food production here in Wales via the support that might be enabled through this piece of legislation, as the 1947 agricultural Act achieved when it was brought in all those years ago.

The single-use plastics legislation is something that we've been calling for for many years now. Indeed, in England, obviously, a piece of legislation was passed in 2020 outlawing certain single-use plastic items. In Scotland, it has just been enacted, on 1 June, with a comprehensive ban in Scotland. I noticed from the First Minister's statement that he seems to be favouring more the English model because he alludes to some parts of the single-use plastics' use not being covered by the Bill in his statement today. Could he confirm if that is the case? It's my understanding that those single-use plastics that wouldn't be covered by the Bill would be predominantly medical devices and medical applications that wouldn't be covered by the legislation, because I think it would be important to understand how the Bill will discriminate between medical and day-to-day use that we have in our everyday lives.

I fully support the coal tip Bill, which I hope the Government will bring forward speedily. I know from being a representative of South Wales Central, which covers three of the valley areas that show great concern on this particular issue, this would be a welcome piece of legislation. But I'd be grateful to understand how this piece of legislation will provide critical infrastructure and support the improvement of the environment that the coal tips and the communities that live under the coal tips will see via the introduction of this piece of legislation. The statement does touch on the critical infrastructure improvements, so I'm interested to know why you need the legislation rather than the tools you've already got to make those improvements in the infrastructure.

The local government finance Bill that the First Minister touched on, it would be good to understand whether the Government's thinking of wholesale reform of local government taxation and doing away with the current council tax operation as we see it as the moment, based on, obviously, the valuation of properties, or whether the Government is thinking more along the lines of moving to a local income tax. Because I think the First Minister would have borne the scars from the last revaluation, as most politicians tend to in this particular fraught area of policy. He was then a senior adviser to the then First Minister, when the last revaluation happened back in the early noughties. So, if you could explain in a little more detail what the Government's current thinking is on that local government finance Bill, and whether we are going to see a wholesale change in the way that local councils raise their revenue, so that we can understand the changes that might be coming forward.

On the Senedd reform, well, he and I disagree over that, but at the end of the day, he got the endorsement from his own conference on Saturday, and I understand through, obviously, Plaid Cymru, that there is the two-thirds majority within this Senedd Chamber. We, on this side of the house, whilst disagreeing with the need for more politicians, have tried to engage in the process via the special purpose committee that was set up, over the voting mechanism and, indeed, what constituencies might look like. So, people can have confidence that there is genuine cross-party consensus; whether you sit on the centre-right, the centre or the centre-left, you can actually believe that that has had all political persuasions come to it. Regrettably, we had to pull out from that committee because of the statement that was made by the leader of Plaid Cymru and the First Minister, but I would be grateful to understand from the First Minister, in drafting that piece of legislation, how comprehensive it will be in dealing with the way the boundaries will be created and, in particular, the confidence that he has—. As someone who has a complete gender balance in his own household myself, having two daughters and two sons, I can fully appreciate how important that gender balance is. [Laughter.] I have to say that my daughters win the argument more than my sons tend to win the argument, and anyone who knows my two daughters would fully understand why that is the case. I would be pleased to try and understand from the First Minister, because there has been a genuine question mark over whether there is competence here in the Senedd to pass such legislation, which would see what has been talked about in the agreements that have been tabled and whether that will make it into the legislation that the First Minister's Government will be introducing to the Senedd.

And just one other final point, I think I'm correct in understanding the timeline for the delivery of that piece of legislation, but I think it would be by the end of 2023. If the First Minister could confirm that. I think I've understood from the statement this afternoon that you are looking to have it introduced and passed through the Senedd by December 2023 to allow a bedding-in period prior to the 2026 election, which we all know is slated in legislation for May 2026. Thank you, First Minister. 

Llywydd, can I thank the leader of the opposition for the constructive way in which he has engaged with the statement this afternoon, and for his offers of further constructive engagement on a number of the Bills that we'll bring in front of the Senedd?

He was right to point out a gap in my statement, because I didn't refer, I realise now, to backbench legislation and, indeed, committee legislation in the previous Senedd, which also adds to the legislative load that Members of the Senedd have to carry. The Welsh Government will continue to engage with those Bills that are brought forward in that way. We don't always agree, as he pointed out in relation to the autism Bill, where we believe that our national autism service and other measures provide a more effective way of improving services to people with autism, as we debated during the introduction of that Bill.

In relation now, briefly, Llywydd, to the particular questions that the leader of the opposition raised, on the clean air Bill, we will intend to include ambitious air-quality targets within the Bill and to place them within a more robust regulatory framework, so that those targets can be properly supported.

As far as the agriculture Bill is concerned, I think when I mentioned it in my statement, the first thing I said about the agriculture Bill is that it would support sustainable food production here in Wales. And our plans for the reform of agriculture have always had sustainable food production as an integral part of the way in which we see the future of agriculture here in Wales. And, as we have discussed, indeed, previously, the crisis in Ukraine does shine a new spotlight on the need to be able to have a supply of food available without the need to import, and that has been influencing our thinking. But, the Bill will continue to provide a framework for supporting farmers in Wales, both for the work they do in sustainable food production, but also in those other public goods that the public is prepared to find money to support. I look forward to being at the Royal Welsh Show and being able to discuss these things alongside the Minister. 

Our approach in the single-use plastics Bill will be more akin to the one that Andrew R.T. Davies mentioned in England. It will specify a list of specific single-use plastics, the use of which will no longer be possible in Wales. There were 60 such examples identified in the consultation, and we will not bring all 60 of them before the Senedd in the Bill, but we will hope to include a regulatory power for Ministers to be able to add further single-use plastics to that list as the evidence around them matures, and those will then be scrutinised through the Senedd's secondary legislation procedures.

As far as coal tip safety is concerned, the essence of the Bill will be to establish a new supervisory authority—that is what the report of the Law Commission advised us—to oversee a new regime to make sure that there are proper management arrangements in place for the highest category of tips—those tips that have the highest risk to the communities in which they are to be found—and then to compile and maintain a new national asset register. We've learnt a huge amount more than we knew two years ago, when this work began, about the number of coal tips in Wales and where they are to be found. There are over 2,500 disused coal tips across Wales, now with 327 of them in the highest category D designation. We want to make sure that we build on all of that work by having that national register for the future, which in future can go beyond coal tips, because there are many other forms of spoil tipped in Wales, particularly from metal mines. We won't be able, in the first instance, to extend the Bill to the wider range of tips that cause concern in Wales, but we will, through the Bill, open up the way in which that can be done in the future.

As far as local government finance is concerned, we will not be able to bring forward in this Senedd term proposals for a fundamentally different form of local government finance. I wish we were in a position to do that, but the depth of work that is required to move from the current council tax system to a different system—a local income tax system or a land valuation system—is so significant that the background work to enable that to happen will need to continue not just as it was in the previous Senedd term, but during this Senedd term as well. What we will look to do in that Bill is to make sure that we modernise the council tax system, that we make it as fair as we can make it, and that it should become more progressive in both its design and its delivery.

And finally, Llywydd, as far as Senedd reform is concerned and the boundary issue, it will identify boundaries for the 2006 election; it will establish a boundary commission for Wales—

Twenty-six.

For 2026; I beg your pardon.

Not 2006. [Laughter.] 

That would be retrospective. We're not in favour of retrospective legislation, as you know. [Laughter.]

For 2026, and it will establish a boundary commission for Wales, which will be able to review those boundaries in the next Senedd term and fix them then for elections beyond the next one. When the proposals come forward, there will be a solution to make sure that we can pursue our ambitions for gender parity here in the Senedd, and other forms of equality, without running the risk of the whole enterprise being derailed because of competence matters.

Can I just end by continuing to offer to the leader of the opposition an active part in the discussions that will form the Bill? Now that we have concluded the work of the committee and the work of political parties, there will be a lot of detailed work that will need to go into the Bill, which we will bring forward within the 12 to 18-month framework that we've agreed with Plaid Cymru. As that detailed work goes on, I think it would be strengthened by continuing to have a cross-party interest in that, because it will be about the workings of this place beyond the next Senedd term. And people in all parts of the Chamber will have an interest in making sure that that can be achieved in the most effective way possible, and to the extent that the Welsh Conservative Party is able to take part in those discussions, I wish to make sure that that offer is extended to you.

Thank you for your statement, First Minister. Starting with the context that you set out, it has been very challenging recently, partly because of COVID, but also the impacts of Brexit, as you explained. But, there is another a dimension that is also challenging, of course, namely the broad range of—the 27—Bills in another place—in another Parliament—that have, more and more, permeated our areas of responsibility. It feels, occasionally, that there is more legislation happening in Westminster in devolved areas than there is even in this place. 

One of the questions I'd like to ask at the very outset is: how do we cope with the difficult political and legislative environment that we face? We, as a point of principle, have been opposing legislative consent memoranda as a symbol of our dissatisfaction with the totally undemocratic situation, in our view at least. But, how do you believe we can strengthen and safeguard our Welsh legislature against a deliberate attempt to undermine our powers here and the democratic settlement?

We, in Plaid Cymru, in the past, have introduced a self-determination Bill in order to set out the right of Wales, like all other nations under the UN charter—the right to self-determination—as a core part of our political values and our political and legal framework. Are there other ways in which we could collaborate in order to ensure that we do withstand this attempt to undermine our democracy—some Welsh version of the claim of right, for example, which, again, encapsulates this right to self-determination?

In moving to the proposed legislative programme for the coming 12 months, generally speaking I think we welcome the content. There is an environmental thread running through all of this, and many of these Bills—the coal tip safety Bill and the clean air Bill—have been long awaited, and our hopes for this legislation are clear. Plaid Cymru looks forward to scrutinising it carefully and to push the boundaries in terms of its impact as much as possible.

In ensuing years, we will look forward to seeing the co-operation agreement bearing fruit in some of the areas that you've mentioned, such as Senedd reform and a Welsh language education Bill. We must not forget secondary legislation and the Welsh language standards programme, which is going to be reintroduced in the next weeks. We would also like to see legislation in terms of nature targets, and we look forward to collaborating in terms of making council tax fairer.

Generally speaking, one general criticism I would make is that the programme for the next year still looks very thin as compared to the legislative programmes that we see in Scotland, for example, and that has generally been true. It's an average of four, five or maybe half a dozen Bills—that's what we've been delivering, on average, in this Senedd—as compared to around 15 a year in the Scottish Parliament. The Northern Ireland Assembly, when operational, has something in the region of 14 pieces of primary legislation on average.

Of course, the issue of the capacity of this place is very relevant, and Senedd reform responds to this. We have seen a lack of pace in legislating. There were pledges going back four years in terms of legislation around environmental governance. So, there are implications to this. Are there other areas of capacity that need to be addressed—not only in terms of increasing the capacity of this place in terms of the number of Members, but what about the capacity of the rest of the system? The leader of the Conservative Party referred to the good work that's done by civil servants in drafting legislation; as we increase the capacity of this place, do we also need to look at lifting the cap on the number of civil servants, certainly in terms of those who have specialist skills, in order to ensure that we increase and accelerate the legislative process?

Just finally, can I echo your comments on the importance of Member Bills and committee Bills? Again, we haven't been doing as well in this legislature. Only 7 per cent of Welsh primary legislation has come through Member Bills, as compared with 10 per cent in the Scottish Parliament and 16 per cent in the Westminster Parliament. So, are we all agreed that part of Senedd reform is to increase capacity for Member Bills and committee Bills? Because that has an important role to play in a Parliament that is balanced in terms of the power of the executive and the legislature.

The Deputy Presiding Officer (David Rees) took the Chair.

I thank Adam Price for those comments. I do agree, of course, with what he said about the challenging context. I talked about COVID and Brexit, but it is true what the Plaid Cymru leader said about the context in respect of the current UK Government.

I don't agree with him and Plaid Cymru about the point of principle that he raised regarding opposing LCMs. When things appear before the House of Commons and we can see that that's a quicker way to do things than we can do them on the floor of the Senedd, then it just makes sense to me to do it in that way. But the most important thing is that that decision is a decision that should rest in our hands. If we see things and we want to be part of that, well, that's fine, and I don't see the case for not doing things when they work for us and for the people of Wales. What isn't right is when the Government in Westminster presses ahead and legislates in devolved areas without getting our agreement, and that's where the important work is to be done.

I am grateful to Lord Dafydd Wigley for the Bill that he has published, and the opportunity to discuss matters with him. I've written with a copy of his Bill to Michael Gove to be part of those discussions that he has agreed to have on the Sewel convention, and how to undertake that in a better way than what we've seen in recent years. There are other ideas that are available as well on how to strengthen the legislative system, where we can use the opportunities that arise in Westminster when they arise, but without the risk that we see today.

I thank Adam Price for drawing attention to the Bills that are to come after the third year of this Senedd term, and the important things that will come before the Senedd in the fourth and fifth years as well. Of course, I don't agree when Members describe the programme as being a very thin programme. We have worked so hard with the capacity we have to do everything that we can in the next year. I can say to Members in all parts of the Senedd that the next year and a half will be very difficult and will be full of work for us all—in the committees and for Ministers. I don’t think that people are going to think after that experience that they’ve had an easy time.

In terms of comparing what’s happening here with what’s happening in Scotland and Northern Ireland, well, the responsibilities in Scotland are different to the responsibilities that we have here and the way that they legislate is different as well. The tradition that has been developed here is to have a number of Bills that are major Bills, which are full of things, and in Northern Ireland, I think—I haven’t studied this in detail—there is more legislation, but it is small-scale legislation, not on the scale of the Bills that we will put before the Senedd.

Of course, I agree that there are a number of things in terms of the capacity of our system and the capacity of the Commission if we are going to legislate more in the future, and capacity on the policy side, and capacity in respect of those who do the legal work and those who draft things for us. But everything costs money. I have to say that. Every week when I stand here and hear from all parts of the Chamber calls for greater investment in transport and health and education and whatever we’re discussing, as a Government, the principle that we’ve operated is that we don’t give ourselves more money as a Government than we can give the public services that depend on the funding that we provide. When we do it in that way, there is not much funding available to increase capacity in any aspect of the work that the Government is doing, and that includes the legislative programme as well.

Bringing forward the 20 mph regulations has been very warmly welcomed by my constituents when it was announced last week. I obviously also welcome your announcement of the clean air Bill and the bus Bill in the autumn of next year, and I wondered if you can say little bit more about the measures you hope to take to make sure all parts of society will play their part in reducing air pollution. It would be useful to have a little bit more detail on that.

I obviously welcome the agriculture Bill and your emphasis on sustainable food production. In the context of the insecurity of current food supplies because of Brexit and the war in Ukraine, it's obviously a really important issue.

And lastly, I wondered if you could say a little bit more about the  infrastructure consenting Bill. It's probably not something that everybody is going to ask you about, but in the context of households struggling to pay their energy bills, and the rise and rise of gas prices, obviously the speed with which we can make the transition from fossil fuels to renewable allergy is essential to the future wealth and well-being of our country. So, I would be very keen to understand how this infrastructure consenting Bill is going to shorten the timescale for getting renewable energy proposals, once they've managed to pass scrutiny, up and running. I have to say that I need to—

Thank you, Jenny. You need to conclude now.

Okay. I just wanted to declare the interest I have as my partner works for Bute Energy and I've also got investments in Awel Aman Tawe.

Thank you to Jenny Rathbone. I tried in my statement, Llywydd, to put more emphasis this year than in earlier statements on the significance of secondary legislation and the workload that that creates here in the Senedd; it is huge. We put a lot of our energy into passing primary legislation. I think of the local government Bill that my colleague Julie James took through the Senedd in the last term; the first successful attempt to reform aspects of local government in Wales. But the Bill itself provides a framework, and then there is the huge job of the detail that comes forward in regulations, and Jenny Rathbone drew attention to the regulations that the Senedd will take next week in relation to 20 mph zones.

I won't say much more on the clean air Bill, Dirprwy Lywydd, because we've already had a clean air plan, and a clean air White Paper, and most of the measures that the Bill will reflect can be found in the work we've already put in front of the public. 

The bus Bill, though, Jenny Rathbone is absolutely right—the bus Bill is part of our efforts to produce clean air, as much as it is to make sure that we have a comprehensive and reliable public transport system. We want to make sure that people are able to leave their cars at home, and we want a bus fleet, as I said in answer to an earlier question today, that runs in the cleanest way possible, and the bus Bill will help us will all of that. 

Can I thank Jenny Rathbone for drawing attention to the infrastructure consenting Bill, because, actually, it is a very important Bill in this programme? We have the powers, as Members will know, to consent to energy-generating projects, electricity-generating projects, up to 350 MW, other than onshore wind, where we have full legislative competence. The tension here is between making sure that we can move ahead with novel technologies that give us the prospect of, for example, harvesting energy from the marine environment, while at the same time protecting that very fragile environment as well. The consenting Bill will allow us to develop a consenting regime in Wales that is quicker and slicker than the current one, that will allow renewable energy projects to move ahead so that they can help us with the climate emergency, but will, at the same time, recognise our obligations to not do things that could put that very fragile environment at risk. And that will be the debate, the balance between those two aspects, which I have no doubt we will have as the Bill makes its way through the Senedd. 

Thank you, First Minister, for your statement. I didn't realise we were short on time on this one, but I'll try to be brief. I think, as Adam Price pointed out, there is a Bill that is missing—that's the environmental governance Bill, which I think would be a very key aspect of the legislative programme. A Wales-specific environmental governance arrangement is going to be really important moving forward. And the other Bill—and I thank my colleague Andrew Davies for raising it—is my own backbench Bill, and I thank you for your acknowledgement of backbench-led legislation. It is important that those of us on the backbenches who bring legislation forward, or proposals forward, do get the chance to work them up, and I'm very pleased I've had the support to do that. 

I was slightly disappointed that your colleague the Minister for rural affairs suggested in the Chamber she won't be supporting the Bill, and that's disheartening when you're trying to bring something forward and there is a closed mind to it, because I think it is quite fundamental. We have an agricultural Bill looking at farming support and a public procurement Bill promoting social, responsible procurement, but what's missing is a framework to join all of this up, as well as the Government's various strategies. Together we need to ensure that public bodies are more proactive in monitoring the health and accessibility of the food system in Wales, as well as having greater scrutiny and accountability built into the system. 

You need to ask a question now.

Yes, sorry. So, First Minister, can I please urge that you consider how you can work together with me to bring about the changes we all need to see, and the many stakeholders across Wales that I've engaged with have asked for? Thank you.

Llywydd, I can give the Chamber an assurance that there will be an environmental governance Bill brought in front of the Senedd during this term. We have temporary arrangements in place, and the account I have is that they are working satisfactorily as an interim measure, but we're committed to a Bill on environmental governance. It won't be in the second year of the programme, but it will be in front of you during this term. 

On backbench legislation, I wonder if I could just say gently to Members that backbench legislation can be influential in more than one way, and it isn't always by making sure that the Bill ends up on the statute book. By bringing a Bill in front of the Senedd, Members create a debate, they create an influence, they shape other aspects of Government policy. So, I don't think the measure of success has to be that a Bill makes its way through the whole of the legislative programme. There are many other ways in which Members bring forward pieces of legislation that are influential and make a difference.

Rhys ab Owen. Rhys ab Owen? Can someone unmute him? Thank you.

Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer. Adam Price is correct. Within the past five years, there were 44 UK Bills within the devolved settlement, as compared to 21 Welsh Bills. And many of those UK Bills have been passed without the consent of this Senedd, and many of them give power to UK Ministers to change the devolved settlement. So, how can we reform the LCM process, in order to give this Senedd a greater role?

I'm very concerned, Prif Weinidog, that we are sleepwalking into a very different Senedd—a Welsh Parliament by name but with much weaker powers. Your answer last week to Adam Price that if we elect a Labour Government, that's the way to protect devolution in Westminster—what happens if we don't have a Labour Government? The answer cannot be in Westminster, it has to be here in Wales. What protects Welsh legislation from being repealed again and again, like we see in the indication about the Trade Union (Wales) Act 2017?

Well, Llywydd, I share the anxieties that Rhys ab Owen has expressed. We have faced, since December 2019, a very different UK Government to any that we have seen in the devolution period. Until 2018 the Sewel convention had never been used once to override the will of the Senedd, and I think we've now seen it five times in the last couple of years. Now, this tells us that something very different is happening, and we have a Government with a very different set of attitudes at Westminster. And that is a challenge to us—I don't dispute that. When I said that the best way to resolve the challenge is to have a different Government, though, I was making a serious point, really—that that is the way in which we can find a way to entrench devolution so that future Governments of the current persuasion cannot, as the current has done, seek to reverse decisions made previously and endorsed in referendums successively here in Wales.

In the meantime, we continue to look with colleagues elsewhere in the United Kingdom, and in the UK Government, to find better ways of proceeding. In the new inter-governmental relations structure, colleagues will remember that there are two main committees that sit below the committee of First Ministers and the Prime Minister. One of those committees met last week; the Sewel convention was one of the two items on that agenda. And there are a series of practical ways in which the Sewel convention could be made to operate in a way that offered us greater confidence and greater ability to defend the devolution settlement. The risk, and the risk that I put to UK Ministers, is this: that unless they are prepared to respect the current devolution settlement, or the responsibilities that rest in different parts of the United Kingdom, it ends up not undermining devolution, it ends up undermining the United Kingdom itself.

First Minister, I've challenged you and the Counsel General before to give us a programme full of made-in-Wales legislation. I think this current Senedd of 60 Members will have its hands full in the year ahead, I have to say—there is plenty to get our teeth into here. There isn't everything for everybody, but there is a lot in here. And you'll be pleased to know I will not be talking about the one that's causing our own committee excitement, the consolidation Bill on the historic environment, although that's going to keep us busy, nor am I going to talk about the Senedd reform Bill, welcome as it is and welcoming your comments about everybody being involved in now shaping this going forward, everybody in this Senedd—it's actually about the clean air Bill. Could I ask you to commend the campaigning of people, now over many years, to bring forward a clean air Bill here in Wales, and the work of the cross-party group—many Members of the Senedd here are members of that group, but all the campaigners on it? And will he commit, along with Lee Waters, his Minister, who's been very available to this group, to work with the cross party group in the Senedd to help shape this, including the ambitious targets that the First Minister has described as necessary to be in that clean air Bill? 

Well, I thank Huw Irranca-Davies, Llywydd, and given that he has mentioned the Historic Environment (Wales) Bill, and the only person so far, maybe I should just say something about the significance of that Bill. It is the first consolidation Bill of its sort to come in front of the Senedd. It will do a really important piece of work in making legislation here in Wales accessible to the people who have to use it, whether that is members of the public, but certainly those people who work in this field. And it might not break new ground in the way that some other pieces of legislation will, but it will certainly make the current law more effective in Wales.

I certainly agree with what the Member said about those people who've campaigned on the issue of clean air and the work of the cross-party group, and as that Bill is introduced in front of the Senedd, of course we look forward to go on working with Members across the Senedd, but those beyond who have an interest in it. I'm on record previously, Dirprwy Lywydd—. I've said I can't think of a single Bill that has not been improved as a result of the process of scrutiny that Bills undergo here on the floor of the Senedd, and I'm sure that that will be true of the clean air Bill, as much as it would be of any other piece of legislation. 

Can I thank you, First Minister, for your statement today on the legislative programme? First Minister, in yesterday's Welsh Government press release on addressing high numbers of second homes, which, of course, is part of the ongoing legislative programme, you stated, and I quote,

'Tourism is vital to our economy'.

However, it's not clear to me, from your legislative programme and, indeed, programme for government, what support for the sector is going to be included, as you describe being a vital part of our economy. Indeed, what we do see on the horizon, of course, is a proposed tourism tax, this blurred issue between self-catering businesses and second homes, and with the current detrimental 182-day holiday let regulations, my understanding and assessment from this sector is that these measures are likely to cripple the industry and force many hard-working and local businesses to go bust. And, of course, you will know this is the same tourism sector that supports and sustains many of our communities with tens of thousands of jobs, supporting a vast number of businesses through the supply chain, and, of course, welcoming tens of millions of visitors to Wales every single year. So, in light of this, First Minister, which part of the legislative programme announced today is supporting this vital industry? 

Well, Llywydd, I've heard the demise of the Welsh tourism industry predicted by Welsh Conservatives for the last 20 years. They do the sector no favours at all by the way in which they constantly talk it down. It is a very resilient sector, it is a very successful sector, and part of that is the very considerable support that it already receives from the Welsh Government, and that goes far beyond legislation. There are legislative aspects to that. We are, I'm pleased to say, changing the basis on which holiday lets can be registered for either the council tax or for business rates, to make sure that only genuine businesses making a significant contribution to local communities are able to take advantage of the business rate system, and there will be a visitor levy reform brought in front of the Senedd during this term. And that too will strengthen the industry, because it will allow local authorities to raise modest sums of money, as are raised right across the world, from people who choose to visit Wales, so that that money can be reinvested in those communities, supporting the conditions that make tourism a success. 

I wrote to you recently, as Chair of the Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee, asking you to include legislation on environmental governance in your statement today. Clearly, that hasn't happened, although the Welsh Government said, I think back in 2018, that you will use the first possible opportunity to legislate on this issue. We're still going to have to wait into next year, from what I understand from a previous response, and also into the the next year after that. You made reference to the interim arrangements. There is no statutory basis to those arrangements. The interim assessor doesn't have enforcement powers. The rest of the UK has acted on this, and that means, of course—and I would ask you whether you would acknowledge—that Wales is now the nation with the weakest environmental governance in western Europe. Surely that should make it more of a priority for your Government.

Well, Dirprwy Lywydd, as I've explained, when you create a legislative programme, you have choices to make. We have chosen to bring forward the Bill, as the Member mentioned. That's not in the next year, but the Bill is on its way.

And finally, James Evans.

Diolch, Deputy Lywydd. I'd like to thank the First Minister for his statement. There's a lot in there I welcome, and a lot in there I've yet to be convinced on. But, on other matters, First Minister, you said during the statement that you do work constructively with the UK Government to legislate on certain areas—something like building safety and the Environment Act—where the Senedd does have competency to create its own legislation, but, if you can work constructively, due to time constraints here, it does make sense. But I do think it is important that the Senedd does have the opportunity to scrutinise any legislation that's put forward, even if you are working with the UK Government, where you are legislating on devolved issues. So, can you outline, First Minister: are there any areas that aren't in your programme that you are working with the UK Government on to legislate in devolved areas? And if you're doing that, how will you ensure that this Senedd is able to scrutinise those things properly, so we're able to make sure that policy is developed in the best interests of the people of Wales, which I'm sure you and I both want?

Well, there is a whole series of areas, Llywydd, on which we will work with the UK Government—sometimes because we choose to do so, sometimes because they put forward proposals in which they seek to legislate in areas that ought to be the province of Members here. Now, the internet safety Bill—I hope I've got that title correct—is an example of a Bill where we believe that there are advantages to Wales of taking powers that will protect people here in Wales. So, we initiate those discussions and we work with our UK colleagues. There are others where our conversations are inevitably more designed to ensure that any powers that the UK Government seeks cannot be exercised unilaterally and without the involvement of either Welsh Ministers or the Senedd itself.

The way in which the Senedd finds out about these things, Dirprwy Lywydd, of course, is through the legislative consent process. We have to lay a legislative consent memorandum that sets out for Members what we are discussing and what we intend to do, and then we have to lay a legislative consent motion. Now, my aim, working with the UK Government, is to be able to put as many legislative consent motions in front of the Senedd that we can support as possible, because that will mean that I am confident that the actions that are proposed are to the benefit of people in Wales. So, that's my starting point: I'm looking to be able to put an LCM that we can say that the Senedd should support. Where we are unable to support it, the Sewel convention is surely plain: if the Senedd refuses consent, the UK Government should not legislate. That's a position we have not secured under the current Government. We did under previous Conservative Governments. We need to get back to that so that the Sewel convention plays the part it needs to play in defending the devolution settlement, but also, as I see it, making sure that it strengthens the United Kingdom.

Thank you, First Minister.