Well, can I start by saying that I suppose it's very clear that the Member hasn't read the legislation, otherwise she might have more concerns about the way in which it is proceeding?

The first part of it is to say that I had meetings with Mr Rees-Mogg before the change in Prime Minister, and I've had a recent meeting as well, specifically to discuss the Bill. The issues that I think concern us, first of all, are that what has now appeared—and it appears to be the result of a very unfortunate and ill-thought-out comment that was made during the Prime Ministerial leadership election—is that, suddenly, we would get rid of all this stuff by the end of December 2023, without any real consideration of what the implications of that were. So, that is something that is a major concern because there are 2,400 of these. We could be sitting non-stop, every hour, every second, every minute of the day for the next five years and we would not properly be able to consider 2,400 items of legislation.

Secondly, it does not deal also with the issue of devolved legislation. And, also, what it does not do is actually delineate what the aspects are of those 2,400. All we actually have is a schedule listing all those items. So, firstly, there is an enormous amount of work, which Scotland has also raised, I think, and we have raised, that actually has the potential to derail the whole legislative processes of the Scottish Government, the Welsh Government, and indeed the UK Government. So, it's most unfortunate that it is being presented in that particular way. Nevertheless, we will be looking at that to address how we might be able to deal with it. We have to do that. 

The second thing is that there is some provision for an extension of the sunset in certain areas. At the moment, that is only with the UK Government. So, we have made a number of very important points. Firstly, in respect of the power to extend, it should be one that Welsh Ministers should also have. We've also said that the power to assimilate, restate and revoke, clearly, will be something for Welsh Ministers as well. The ability to actually intervene in any legal proceedings where there's the issue of the status of EU law should also be with Welsh Ministers, both in respect of devolved legislation, but also UK legislation that has an impact on devolved responsibilities.

So, I suppose the other point as well is that, of course, we have an approach that is one where we actually want to know what the implications would be of point-blank revocation in terms of standards in so many areas. And the difficulty is, at this stage, that it is impossible to evaluate what all of those are.

So, having had the meeting with the Minister on 28 September, I've sought assurances. I can say that the meeting was very positive. I think there were very positive commitments that were expressed in respect of this not overturning any devolved powers or responsibilities; that we would be in a position to retain the legislation that we wished to retain; that any changes to legislation in devolved areas will remain with us. Now, as we know with the UK Government, I take that in the spirit in which it has been offered, and we'll wait to see what that means in detail.

But, whatever happens, what it does not do is get us away from the fact that this has an enormous cost in terms of legal resources. It'll have a financial cost, an enormous financial cost, and an enormous legal resource cost as well. We will certainly need to look at whether there are areas whereby—[Interruption.]