I want to pick up on the points that Janet Finch-Saunders made towards the end of her contribution, because I'm sure you're aware, Minister, of the serious concerns raised by Welsh Women's Aid about the impact of the Act, in its current form, on Welsh specialist VAWDASV services and, by extension, on survivors. Whilst supportive of many of the positive elements of the new Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016, including changes that will have direct benefits for survivors of VAWDASV, they go as far as to say that the Act doesn't take account of the unique position of refuge accommodation and, as Janet said, will be responsible, if not reviewed, for breaking the VAWDASV refuge system in Wales. So, I'm sure you'll agree that these are serious claims from an organisation that represents services that have the best interests of some of the most vulnerable of people, women and children, fleeing violence and abuse at the heart of everything they do.

They point to concerns around local authorities' role in implementing the Act, including a lack of capacity, consistency, accountability and equity in duties to survivors of VAWDASV under the Act. Local authorities are not at all likely to have the expertise or capacity to grant extension requests for VAWDASV accommodation promptly, they say, and, due to a lack of any detailed guidance for local authorities around their responsibilities under the Act, services have had it confirmed to them that local authorities will follow very different policies and processes in this regard. There are extremely serious concerns also around safe refuge management, such as the creation of disparities between different survivors' rights and the expectation placed on specialist services, alongside a weakening of refuges' abilities to safeguard survivors, children and staff.

The Act, they say, will likely push services' capacity beyond their limits. During a recent Welsh Women's Aid webinar on the Act, of the 22 member chief executive officers and refuge managers present, 91 per cent reported that they were either very concerned or extremely concerned about the impact of the Act on their services and also how it'll place additional pressure on the already stretched capacity and resource of specialist services, especially at this time of economic crisis. For example, under the Act, services will need to seek an extension to the relevant period of licence agreement for every survivor in refuge for longer than six months.

Due to the disparities between how specialist VAWDASV services are expected to manage contracts, depending on when and what type of refuge survivors access, services will need to be very carefully tracked according to which sections of the law they need to follow. In practice, this, of course, will mean that they will need to carefully monitor the variations of each survivor's licence agreement in order to adhere to varying extension timelines to avoid significant penalties, perhaps, and even, possibly, court action. So, there is deep and expressed worry and concern about how these processes will be managed by the capacity in the current teams of the specialist services.

So, given these valid concerns, Minister, will you commit to an urgent review of the impact of the Act upon survivors and VAWDASV services, specifically around safe refuge management, which would include direct consultation with Welsh Women's Aid and Welsh specialist domestic abuse and sexual violence services? If the impact is as detrimental as Welsh Women's Aid predict, would you commit to act to mitigate this unintended consequence of the Act? Women's Aid have advised that this could include introducing secondary legislation, an amendment or statutory regulations to create a clear exemption for refuge accommodation and/or reclassifying all refuge accommodation as temporary accommodation, and creating statutory guidance also for local authorities regarding their responsibilities in the implementation of the Act for refuge accommodation specifically.

Another option, of course, Minister, would be to stagger the implementation of the Act to delay these potentially serious impacts on VAWDASV services. This would prevent any damage being done to the protection afforded survivors in the interim. Can you explore, perhaps, bringing forth an amendment to the Act itself or statutory regulations to establish a clear exemption from the Act for all refuge accommodation, and specifically the requirement to issue supported standard contracts to those in refuge accommodation after six months, by the end of the year or before the Act applies to VAWDASV services? Thank you.