I'm not quite sure if Mark Reckless was offering that, if we supported this Amendment, he would come across to the issue of independence for Wales. I think UKIP are casting round for a new mission and a new meaning for the word ‘independence’, so—. It seems to mean all kinds of things from Nathan Gill to Douglas Carswell and no doubt something new from Mark Reckless. But we’ll wait and see.

There is no doubt—and there was a cross-party agreement in the committee, it’s true—that, when you’re passing tax legislation, it is better to put the rates of taxation either on the face of legislation or in primary legislation, because we all here should be voting for rates of taxation. We shouldn’t let Ministers decide it. We shouldn’t let them decide over Easter or Christmas, and then suddenly find ourselves in a position where it’s a ‘take it or leave it’ vote on some kind of subordinate legislation.

But we are in a slightly difficult position because we don’t have the full legislative fiscal powers that will come from the 2017 Wales Act. They don’t commence, probably, until April 2018. Now, when they do commence, then I hope—and it’s certainly the intention of the Finance Committee, I hope with the support of all parties in this place—that we then engage and embark upon a proper finance Bill procedure. That’s what happens in the Scottish Parliament. Budgets are taken through by a finance Bill. Tax rates are declared. You see clearly what you’re voting for and the implications of what you vote for. There’s no doubt, as Nick Ramsay, I think, just concluded with his remarks, that that’s the best way forward.

The question we have now, though, is how we treat this Bill without those powers, and without those powers having commenced yet by the Secretary of State. It’s a difficult call, and we certainly put an amendment forward in committee that put rates on the face of the Bill to test what the Government response would be. The Government’s response in effect is to say they promise—and we have a committee undertaking that I think is enforceable in those terms—to bring forward the tax rates and bands by October this year. Now, from Plaid Cymru’s point of view, that gives the sort of assurance that those who are interested in taxation in Wales need. It is a commitment from Welsh Government that we can hold them to account, but it does not mean that we are resiling from the fundamental point that, over the next year or two, we have to work to put tax legislation through this place as a primary, finance Bill approach. That’s something the Finance Committee itself wants to do—take evidence from other legislatures, and see how it’s done other legislatures, and see how it’s done elsewhere through the United Kingdom as well. It’s something we want to work with the Cabinet Secretary on, and, in those circumstances, I think it is appropriate and allowable, if you like, for the Government to proceed with the Bill in the current form, with the undertaking that we’ll hear the full rates of taxation in the autumn. On that basis, Plaid Cymru will not be supporting this amendment.