Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 2:23 pm on 14 June 2016.
Thank you, Minister, for your statement. I would like to raise two issues with you, and I do hope that the Government will be able to respond with statements on these issues.
First of all, we today commemorate the massacre in Orlando with a minute’s silence in this Chamber, and it was noted that the flags of the Assembly and the Welsh Government were at half-mast today and yesterday, with the rainbow banner among them, of course. Can we therefore have a further statement from the Government on its policy on flags? You will recall that I raised this with you last when the Welsh Government actually raised its flags to half-mast to commemorate the death of the King of Saudia Arabia, which was an insult to the people of Wales in my view. Now, the First Minister said at that time that there would be a review of the policy, and rather than slavishly following the advice of the Foreign Office, the Welsh Government would develop its own policy. What, therefore, has been the outcome of that review? Can we have a statement from the First Minister explaining the guidance now in place for Government, in order to decide when flags should be flown at half-mast?
The second question I’d like to raise with you is that this Assembly has a reputation for being innovative in legislating in two languages, and the Government is working in the same way. It was a disappointment, therefore, for me to see that Chris Grayling, the leader of the other House, had rejected calls for the use of the Welsh language in the Welsh Grand Committee in that other place. Those demands, to be fair, had been led by Chris Bryant. Now, the Welsh language can be used at that committee when it meets in Wales. We knew that because I did so myself in Cwmbran some years ago, and it’s about time that the same right should be made available when the committee meets in the House of Commons itself. Could you, therefore, as the business manager in this place, lead the way in providing practical support for the Commons to actually overcome the prejudices that they have against the use of the Welsh language, to provide advice from Government so that that can be achieved, and to report back in the appropriate way to this place?