Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Well, thank you very much for that invitation; I’ll certainly take you up on that. I think that there’s a huge amount of activity already being undertaken in Bridgend. You’ll be aware that, earlier this week, the Cabinet met in Bridgend, in solidarity partly with the workers in Ford. But one of the key sectors that we're hoping to promote in the international strategy is quality tv and...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Promoting exports and international trade is a priority in the international strategy, and we've enhanced our support for Welsh exporters and we're working with a number of businesses across Ogmore to help them export.
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Thank you once again. It is the United Kingdom that takes the lead on foreign affairs, but I have already written to the Foreign Secretary to ask what representation they've made to the Spanish Government about the prison sentences handed down to the Catalan politicians. And my understanding is that we'll be having a further question on this during topical questions.
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Well, this is one of the reasons why I was particularly pleased to hear Dominic Rabb say yesterday that he was going to suspend issuing further arms exports, because, actually, it's very difficult for us to do anything unilaterally in Wales. We come under the UK Government, we have to comply with those rules and those laws, and that's why I was delighted to see that that action was taken on...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Well, thank you very much, and I'm glad that you referred to the fact that we have written to Dominic Raab, but I think it is worth underlining the point that, actually, foreign affairs is an area where the UK Government takes the primary responsibility. But I think we are super sensitive to the fact that there is a large Kurdish community within Wales, who have real concerns about what's...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: It is a challenge to recruit teachers across the world currently, and I have been working very closely with the education Minister to ensure that we look at how we can help to attract more people into following a Welsh teaching course, and a lot of money has been going into it. For example, we have provided an additional £150,000 to ensure that more people undertake Welsh A-level because we...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Well, the partnership council provides expert advice to us on the Welsh language. The minutes are published now and, certainly, the work that they do for us is a great assistance to ensure that we are on the right path to achieve our aim of a million Welsh speakers. One of the things, for example, in the last meeting, was that we were talking about the economy and how we look at the economy...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Thank you. A lot of work has been going into the communications plan across Government. You are aware that during the Eisteddfod we launched the 2050 project. This was a plan to ensure that we can mainstream the Welsh language across Government, but I hope there will be, during the next month, a plan coming forward, and this, of course, is work for the Permanent Secretary to bring forward...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Thank you. Last week, I sent a very clear notice of the remit of those offices to the responsible committee to set out exactly what our expectations are of those overseas offices. We've got a much more robust method of ensuring that we are looking at the performance of those offices. In fact, we have appointed a new performance manager who has to come up with bespoke plans for each of those...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Well, I think it's really important to underline that in no way are we moving away from encouraging investment into Wales, but it's pretty clear at a time of this kind of economic flux, where we don't know what our relationship will be with our nearest economic partner, that it makes sense for us to focus on exports, as indeed the Foreign and Commonwealth Office has done and the Department...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Thank you. We're making good progress implementing the recommendations. For example, I have focused on growing exports in the international strategy, and an export growth strategy is part of that work. You will have noticed, I'm sure, that the first recommendation, establishing a specific post both for international relations and trade and a post on Brexit, was one of the first acts of the...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: The Wales for Africa programme is part of our international relations work and promotes an outward-looking Wales that is informed, engaged and globally responsible. The programme focuses on establishing links and partnerships to support and help improve the social, economic and environmental wellbeing of sub-Saharan African nations.
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Welsh Government has not made any representations to the UK Government because the UK’s position on settlements is clear. The UK consider the settlements as illegal under international law, present an obstacle to peace, and threaten the physical viability of a two-state solution.
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: South-west Wales is an outstanding visitor destination and I am delighted that our industry barometer showed that the region had a strong summer season in 2019. We have continually invested to improve the quality of the local offer, and are committed to continuing to grow tourism to this area.
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Well, of course, we already have a department. What we’re trying to do with this new project is to ensure that this is something that is cross-governmental. Therefore, it is a different approach, yes, but we are seeking to achieve the same aims as that process. So, the task of the 2050 project will be to co-ordinate the work of planning on our journey towards 1 million Welsh speakers, from...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Of course.
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Thank you very much. First of all, may I thank the committee for their work during this inquiry and for their careful consideration of the evidence presented? As I've already noted in the Government's written response to the committee, we accept or accept in principle all of the recommendations contained within the report—noting, of course, that not all of the recommendations are...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Well, I'm pleased that you're able to do so. Of course, what's important now is that we encourage people to use the service and that we see an increase in the number of people doing so because, at present, only 58 people sat the theory test, which is 0.07 per cent. And, of course, one can understand why that happens, but we hope that we will see an increase in that figure. The next step, of...
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: The Welsh Language Commissioner has confirmed that theory tests are available in Welsh in every centre in Wales and that the DVSA intend to publish an online version of the revision materials before the end of the year. The revision material is also available in Welsh already in hard copy.
Baroness Mair Eluned Morgan: Thank you. I think I should probably emphasise it's not a Peter Mandelson kind of dome; it's about a 9 ft dome. It's not quite as expensive as that one, but I think it will attract a huge amount of attention. What we've done is to get people actually sponsoring the dome and it's an all-embracing facility where things are projected onto the walls and it's very exciting. Lots of companies have...
