Diolch, Llywydd. The intention of the Bill is to prohibit the supply and offer to supply for sale or for free the products listed in the Bill to consumers in Wales. Amendments 31, 32 and 33 tabled by Janet Finch-Saunders propose to amend Schedule 1 to the Bill to specifically exempt the use of single-use plastic cotton buds for forensic purposes, as relevant devices used for medical purposes or to be used by a health professional for medical purposes, or for cotton buds to be supplied for diagnostic, educational or research purposes.

As previously noted in Stage 2, our policy intention is to capture cotton buds used in a domestic setting and which are potentially disposed of incorrectly by being flushed down the toilet. We believe sticks with cotton ends used in medical, laboratory or forensic settings, which are disposed of correctly, would be considered swabs. Additional context has been provided to the definition. This ensures that cotton buds used in a medical setting are exempt from the provisions, in line with our policy intention. The supply of these products for research or forensic purposes would be from business-to-business supply and therefore would not be captured by the bans. On this basis, these exemptions are not required.

Amendments 36 and 38 are consequential to amendment 32, therefore these amendments are also not required. Amendment 35 amends the definition of 'health professional' in the Bill. This amendment is technically deficient because it relies on defined terms set out in the Interpretation Act 1978, which do not apply to the Bill. For the reasons I have set out, I therefore do not support amendments 31, 32, 33, 35, 36 and 38.