National Assembly for Wales

Okay, welcome, everyone, to this meeting of the Equality, Local Government and Communities Committee. We are meeting in private mainly today. We decided that at our last meeting in accordance with the Standing Orders, but we will briefly meet in public to begin the meeting today as we've, subsequent to the last meeting, received some papers that we need to note. So, may I welcome everybody to this committee then? It is being held virtually, but it will be broadcast live on Senedd.tv and the Record of Proceedings will be published as usual. Aside from the procedural adaptation relating to conducting proceedings remotely, all other Standing Order requirements for committees remain in place. We've had apologies today from Dawn Bowden and Mandy Jones.

This is our last meeting of this Senedd and I'd like to put on record, because it's our last meeting, my thanks to the public of Wales and organisations across Wales, who've engaged with our proceedings, with our reports and with our calls for evidence and put us in a position as a committee to produce what I think have been some very important reports, for example, on refugees and asylum seekers, on fire safety, on rough sleeping and homelessness, as well as some very important post-legislative scrutiny. As a committee, we have returned to work that we've done to maintain focus and make sure that scrutiny of Welsh Government is robust and I think that's been a very effective approach. And in all of that, we've relied on organisations and the public to help us in gathering evidence, making recommendations and producing reports. I'd also very much, of course, like to thank all of the committee members, present and past, for their contribution to this work, and our committee clerks and researchers. We've been very fortunate as a committee to have real quality, professionalism, commitment and ability to help us carry out our work, and it obviously wouldn't have been possible without that input and I'm very, very grateful for it, because it very much either makes or breaks a committee's work. We're very fortunate that it made our work so easy for us. So, thanks very much to everybody who helped with that.

Okay, item 2 on our agenda today—. I'm sorry—Delyth Jewell.

Can I just say, and I'm sure I'm speaking on behalf of everyone here, we'd also like to thank you for being such a fair, considerate and just totally supportive Chair? That can also make or break a committee. Laura and Huw are nodding.  

Yes. Hear, hear. I second that.

Okay, item 2 on our agenda today, then, is papers to note. Paper 1 is a letter from the Llywydd to all Senedd committee Chairs in relation to the Welsh Elections (Coronavirus) Bill 2021, and the impact on Senedd committees. Paper 2 is a letter from the Minister for Housing and Local Government in relation to the inquiry into fire safety in high-rise blocks in Wales, and the Welsh Government White Paper, 'Safer Buildings in Wales: A Consultation'. And paper 3 is the response from Welsh Government to the committee's report on the impact of COVID-19 on the voluntary sector. Are Members content to note those papers? Okay, thank you very much.

Item 3, then, is a motion under Standing Order 17.42 to resolve to exclude the public from the remainder of this meeting. Is committee content? Yes. Okay, thank you very much. We will move into private session.