Diolch, Llywydd. It might be worth recapping the background to this issue for the benefit of those Members who've not been so closely involved in the passage of the Bill as the members of the scrutiny committee and me. As Peredur set out in his opening remarks, during the committee stages of scrutiny, concerns were raised by some parties in relation to the role of Wales TUC as the body that will provide nominations to the First Minister for worker representatives to sit on the social partnership council. Those concerns were based on an assumption that, in this role, Wales TUC would, or perhaps even could, only nominate individuals from trade unions affiliated to the TUC, with the result that some professions or sectors would be excluded from the SPC, simply by dint of their members not being in unions affiliated to the TUC. I have clarified during previous stages, and in discussions with Members outside of committee, that this is not the intention of sections 4 and 5 of the Bill, and that Wales TUC will be able to nominate worker representatives from non-affiliated unions. As the explanatory notes to this part of the Bill make clear, the intention is

'to create a diverse group by providing for a wide range of workers to be represented on the SPC'.

I should also remind Members that, again, as stated in the explanatory notes, the First Minister is under no obligation to appoint all or any individuals nominated by Wales TUC Cymru to be a worker representative, and that

'the First Minister could decide not to appoint one or more Wales TUC Cymru nominees and ask for others to be nominated.'

Our Wales TUC colleagues fully appreciate the nature of this role, and have confirmed in their letter, which I shared with committee members last month, that it's their intention to seek nominees from all trade unions in Wales, not just those affiliated to the TUC. I would just like to take a minute to quote a few lines from the letter for the benefit of those Members who will not have seen it:

'Wales TUC is the only suitable structure to work with the entire union movement to conduct elections for the worker representative nominees to the Social Partnership Council…. This is a role we already hold for the trade union delegation to the Workforce Partnership Council, where we take the role of secretariat for all trade unions recognised in the devolved public sector (including trade unions which are not affiliated to the TUC, such as the RCN, BMA and ASCL).'

The letter goes on to say,

'we will establish a SPC union side as the democratic group to determine union-side nominations to the SPC, and protocols for how those with SPC seats engage with the wider union-side and existing sectoral arrangements. This will include arrangements to ensure that smaller trade unions are not excluded', and concludes with an expectation that

'non-affiliated trade unions [will] be included as part of the list of nominees presented to the First Minister'.

Before I close, I would also like to mention specifically in relation to representation of the health and social care sectors that the purpose of the SPC is not to replace those existing, well-established social partnerships such as the NHS Wales partnership forum, but to build strong and effective relationships between current structures and the SPC.

So, in conclusion, whilst the Government is satisfied that the written commitment we have from Wales TUC provides sufficient guarantee that nominations to the social partnership council will include representatives from non-affiliated unions, I can assure Members that if, for any reason, this agreement was to prove insufficient at any point in the future, we would, of course, be willing to revisit the matter. So, whilst the Government will not be supporting amendments 2 or 27, as I said at Stage 2, we do appreciate the spirit in which they have been tabled.