Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas: I am grateful for the support from my present colleague, Mike Hedges, on this issue. I'm very keen to see the response to the activity of Sport Wales in assessing the first report that it has produced, and there has been a sub-group—the free swimming initiative steering group—on which local authorities, Swim Wales and Welsh Government are represented, which has been undertaking this work....
Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas: I certainly remain fully committed. Indeed, I'm very keen to develop an overall programme of physical activity in Wales, and I do recognise that swimming is a fine physical activity to be encouraged widely, along with other physical activities. What I'm very keen to see developing is the option for more people in Wales to participate. It is not our intention, in any sense, to reduce the...
Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas: I'm very grateful to my friend and former colleague Mohammad Asghar for that question. I thought I'd get that in. [Laughter.] A review of the free swimming programme was completed in September 2018. And, as part of the recommendations of that review, future options for the programme are being developed and I expect them to be submitted to me very shortly. I will then determine the future...
Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas: Sport Wales, our delivery agent, has allocated £20,000 this year to Welsh Cycling to support a range of community cycling projects in the Powys area. In addition, Sport Wales also invest just over £1 million annually into Welsh Cycling to support both their elite and participation programmes.
Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas: The themed years to date have delivered many positive results including £350 million additional spend through marketing. We will measure the Year of Discovery’s impact by continually monitoring our own marketing, evaluating the impact of partner-funded activity, and through ongoing industry feedback and surveys.
Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas: Constructive discussions are ongoing between Welsh Government officials, the National Library of Wales, and BBC Cymru Wales regarding the national broadcast archive to ensure the viability and long term sustainability of the archive from 2024, when it will no longer be supported by external grant funding.
Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas: Mark Drakeford.
Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas: Our central priority is to care for our historic environment through promoting its enjoyment and enjoyment of it. And it's important that we can understand, as far as we can, the past that we're talking about so that we can appeal to people in the present day and in future. Now, the findings that have been made in these early periods in Wales are findings that are of international...
Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas: Thank you very much for the opportunity, Deputy Presiding Officer, to respond to this extraordinary and unexpected debate. One of the advantages of this place, the Senedd of Wales, is that we can discuss, as the legislation that established us states, any matters that affect Wales. But I think that this is the first time for me to hear a debate, the first time for me to take part in a short...
Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas: We do discuss with the arts council how we can combine this support. It has been noted that the council will continue to extend its resilience programme—or 'gwytnwch' in Welsh if you prefer. This programme does provide business support as well as governance support to key arts organisations to meet their individual needs. We are also eager to assist Arts & Business Cymru to continue the...
Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. May I start by thanking the committee members for their work? It's been a pleasure to co-operate with them. They have drawn attention to the financial challenges facing the arts sector in light of the undeniable pressure on the budgets of local authorities, as well as the recent reductions in the income from the National Lottery. We recognise these...
Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas: The lottery funding is not going to be lost, if it is possible for the lottery to provide an extension of time, but I can't myself announce anything to that effect this afternoon. I'm glad you're going to the national library and I hope that you will be able to get further answers on this matter. You're welcome to have all the correspondence here between me and the library and any further...
Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas: Well, there has been a discussion with the HLF and those discussions are ongoing. I’m not in a position to say whether there will be a further extension to the timetable, but I do hope that there will be, which will give us an opportunity to resolve this issue within the next month or two. That is crucial for me, but I must make it entirely clear that I was not content to see any reduction...
Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas: Let me make this very clear: the discussions with the national library have gone on for a year. The exchange of correspondence has been taking place since I took this position, and I certainly agree with you that this battle should have been resolved long ago, and it would have been if we had a proper response—a timely response—to our concerns at an earlier date from the library, and that...
Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas: There is no question of losing the archive. The archive is the responsibility of the BBC, and the provision for its future is one that the library has expressed an interest in. And, indeed, it is true to say that some preparatory work has been done, and there has been correspondence between myself and the library over a period of a year on this issue, trying to put in place firm foundations...
Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas: The Welsh Government supports the proposal to establish a national broadcasting archive at the National Library of Wales. The discussions with the library are ongoing in supporting the planning process. But we do want to ensure that any development is on firm and sustainable foundations, without impacting on any of the current duties of the national library.
Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas: We are, indeed, implementing the report on the impact of poverty on participation and the work of Baroness Andrews, and she is assisting us and supporting us in implementing that report, and I'm hopeful that we will have evidence that this implementation is going to be effective, which I will, of course, bring back to the Chamber. Thank you.
Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas: Thank you for that further question. This relates, of course, to the Government's more general approach towards issues of obesity and of healthy living. And we are looking to trying to establish within the school experience of young people an understanding that participation in physical activity and in the choice of sports activities in school is the foundation stone for a healthy lifestyle....
Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas: I'm very grateful for that question, and I do apologise that I was not here earlier. We are working with Sport Wales as our main agency to ensure that priority is given, both for areas of deprivation and also for age groups where there is a lack of engagement with physical activity. The issue of lack of engagement in physical activity applies throughout the age cycle, regrettably. Some 32 per...
Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas: Developing tourism is a key component of the Valleys taskforce work. The Welsh Government is fully committed to this objective, and, for example, has invested in Rock UK, which will be a major boost to the economy in the Valleys.
