Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Thank you, Angela. First of all, on the community consent, I do think that one thing that we need to avoid is to open up and to find that the communities, locally, are hostile to the people who are coming in. That would be the worst place to be, and so, we do need to develop that community consent. We speak very regularly to local authorities about the feelings within their communities and,...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Thank you, Joyce. I think we probably recognise that, if we were to open the tourism sector, then it would be very difficult not to move away from the localism situation. Of course, people who will be travelling there or would be going from there, it would be very difficult to ask people to travel to somewhere and then not to move. It would be very, very difficult to police. So, I think we...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Thank you very much. Just to say that I have had a number of discussions with the Minister for Education on this issue, and I'd like to make it clear, I think, that as we are a bilingual nation, I think it makes a great deal of sense that we place Welsh and English on the face of the Bill. That's what you would expect in a bilingual nation. What is important is that there are opportunities...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Thank you very much, Darren, and thank you for championing the cause of the Welsh Mountain Zoo once again. Just to confirm that it is correct that zoos have not, in Wales, been required to close, but, as you said, it's probably not commercially viable for them to do so whilst localism and that local approach to fighting coronavirus is in place. So, obviously, we'll have to wait to see what...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Diolch yn fawr, Lynne. I think that's a wonderful initiative—to undertake a superheroes game or challenge during this time, and it's great to hear that. And it's absolutely right that there are people from non-Welsh-speaking homes who are really keen to make sure that they keep up their Welsh during this time. And certainly, when the education Minister made her statement on 'stay safe, stay...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Thank you, Mohammad. And just to underline the point that we will reopen our tourism sector when it's safe to do so. We've made clear our traffic lights system, where what we'll be looking at first of all is the signal that accommodation without shared facilities will be the first to open. And we are just preparing the ground for that to be possible now. But we will not move until the...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Diolch yn fawr, John. Certainly, we are very aware that a lot of people seem to be spending a lot more time outdoors, particularly in the lovely weather that we've had. But you're absolutely right to underline the fact that what we've got to do is to encourage those people, in particular from deprived areas, that perhaps don't usually undertake sporting activities, to really start to take...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Thank you very much, Suzy. This is something that we are highly aware of—that there are risks that people won't have the opportunity to practise their Welsh language skills, particularly if they have children in Welsh-medium education, and they will now have had three months without that opportunity to practise their Welsh. It's good to see that children have returned this week, and we have...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Well, there was a whole host of questions there, Suzy, and I won't have an opportunity to answer them all. But just to pick up on some of them—of course we will need to reconsider the way that we provide support, and we will have to consider how we can think again about providing opportunities for people to practise their Welsh language skills. There are ways of doing that online, and I...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: I think that if you look at what the arts council has done in terms of its funding, they've restructured that, they've understood that there is a crisis within the industry, and they have ensured that it's possible for people to apply for funding through the process that they've established. I'm very grateful that Dafydd Elis-Thomas has led on that work. And, of course, there is an...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Thank you. Certainly, I think that S4C has been of great assistance, particularly to those from non-Welsh-speaking households, giving them an opportunity to listen to the Welsh language, particularly the younger children who get so much joy from watching Cyw. Certainly, as a parent, I know that that was a means for me to have a break from time to time when I was responsible for childcare....
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Of course, I do meet the education Minister regularly to discuss issues related to education and the Welsh language. I know that she is highly aware of the importance of ensuring that children have an opportunity to practice their Welsh language skills during this difficult time. But I would say that guidance has already been provided—not just from Government, but we have also asked...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Well, I'm really aware of the extremely challenging situation that many businesses in Wales are facing, especially as a result of COVID and Brexit, so I've formed a trade policy advisory group to help me determine the key trade challenges facing Wales. And this includes working with a number of representative bodies and holding sector meetings with businesses.
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Thank you very much. And you're absolutely right: Tiny Rebel has been a great example of a company in Wales that has spread out overseas and is really flying the flag for our country abroad. Of course, a lot of the trade exports have been massively impacted by coronavirus. One of the things that we're doing now to address this issue is that we're having a complete refresh of our export...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Well, because this is a whole new area—not just of course for the Welsh Government, but for the UK Government as well—we have massively increased, as has the UK Government, the number of people involved in this space in terms of trade, to make sure that, as you suggest, our voice is heard loud and clear. Not so much with the EU negotiations, where the approach and the discussions have...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Well, just to be clear that we're not just starting the negotiations here. We have been discussing with the UK Government since February and March, feeding into what we think those negotiating mandates should look like, and I'm glad to say that we've actually had an influence there. So, the text has been amended, for example, in relation to the Japanese text, to make sure that there's a...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: An integrated impact assessment for the curriculum and assessment Bill has been undertaken. This includes an assessment of its impact on the Welsh language, and the integrated impact assessment was published alongside the White Paper on the Bill in January 2019.
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Well, I would just say that I do have quite intensive discussions with the education Minister on this particular issue. Of course, I would be hugely concerned if there were to be any detrimental impact on the Welsh language. So, it is important to ensure that it's possible to continue to provide immersion education in the Welsh language and that there's no difficulty in that area, and that we...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: I am reviewing how we deliver the international strategy in light of the COVID-19 pandemic and will be producing a series of action plans during the autumn. These will set out how we can strengthen our international relationships, including through our priority countries and regions and our work in Africa.
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: I and my officials are working closely with the Department for International Trade to ensure that the UK Government represents the interests of Welsh businesses and consumers in negotiations. The ministerial forum for trade has met twice and I have regular contact with Greg Hands, the Minister of State for Trade Policy.
