So, with your invitation, Dirprwy Lywydd, I will speak in the two other debates on legislative consent motions for two other Bills this afternoon, at risk of boring everybody here within the Siambr, but such is the extent to which the UK Government is proposing and indeed the UK Parliament is passing legislation now on devolved matters.

Now, I make this point because conclusions 2 and 3 in our first report highlighted our concerns that, despite pre-introduction inter-governmental working on the Bill, which lasted several months, the Bill was indeed introduced to the UK Parliament in a state that meant the Welsh Government, when it laid its legislative consent memorandum before the Senedd, could not recommend that the Senedd give its consent to the Bill. And we noted our disappointment at that time that this demonstrated clear failures in inter-governmental working, and we're not laying that at the foot of the Minister here, but it's a clear breakdown there. 

In our second report, on memorandum No. 3, we acknowledge that progress does appear to have been made in the machinery of inter-governmental relations, to the effect that the Minister has secured some concessions and is now recommending that the Senedd gives its consent to the Bill, so that's welcome. Recommendation 1 in our first report asked for clarity on why instances of failures in inter-governmental working, as originally shown in relation to this Bill, had not been escalated to higher levels in the inter-governmental structures, including by using the reformed formal dispute resolution procedures.

Now, we've noted the Minister’s response that, in her view,

'there has been constructive dialogue with HM Treasury' and, in quotes,

'it has not been necessary to escalate matters.'

However, it does remain unclear to us what would need to happen, or indeed not happen, before Welsh Government would seek to use a formal dispute resolution process—not just within this LCM and this Bill, but in others—for which it advocated in order to resolve serious disagreements with the UK Government. Now, perhaps we'll only learn this in hindsight when the dispute resolution process has been used in anger, and when prior discussions have not resolved disagreements at earlier stages. But we would still welcome, if we could have it, further explanation of when a formal dispute resolution process may indeed be triggered. 

Recommendation 2 in our first report asked the Minister to clarify what she meant when she said to us that the Welsh Government continued to, in quotes,

'advocate that the Senedd and Welsh Government all exercise equivalent powers to those of our UK counterparts.'

So, we were a little bit disappointed with the response from the Minister when she told us that she couldn't give specific details about the exact nature of the amendments that may be introduced, and that her 

'officials have been clear that issues of constitutional concern must be addressed in a manner that is satisfactory to me'— the Minister—

'and ultimately to the Senedd.'

However, this doesn't address adequately in detail the request made in our recommendation. So, I wonder, Minister, if you can reflect on this point in your closing remarks, expanding on what you meant by that statement,

'advocate that the Senedd and Welsh Government all exercise equivalent powers to those of our UK counterparts', because you piqued our curiosity and then left us dangling and expecting more. Diolch yn fawr iawn.