Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. Today I am publishing ‘Language, Work and Bilingual Services’, the report of the working group on the Welsh Language in local government administration and economic development. This report was commissioned in December 2015 by my predecessor, the Minister for Public Services. This was in response to concerns about the Welsh language raised by Assembly Members during scrutiny of the Local Government (Wales) Act 2015. I wish to extend my thanks and appreciation to the chair of the working group, Rhodri Glyn Thomas, and to the members of the working group for drafting this report in such a short period of time. This gives the Welsh Ministers a timely opportunity to consider the conclusions of the report at the start of a new Assembly term, and within the framework of our duties under the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015. I was especially glad to be able to meet Rhodri Glyn Thomas last week and to hear directly from him about the way in which the group set about its work and came to its conclusions.

I think it’s important to set out the context of the report, as its authors perceived it. As they say in the introduction:

‘We have been asked to look specifically at the Welsh language in its traditional heartlands in west and north Wales, through the lens of Local Government. Local Government has been central to the implementation of national policies and, particularly, to the provision of the Welsh-language education system. We owe an enormous debt to Local Government. Local Authorities in west Wales—the Isle of Anglesey, Gwynedd, Ceredigion and Carmarthenshire—have been proactive in their support for the language, but good practice is evident in all parts of Wales.’

Against that background, the report identifies the different ways in which the role of local authorities is key in numerous ways. Local authorities are in the front line of promoting and facilitating the Welsh language. They provide essential services in Welsh-medium education and teaching Welsh in schools. They have wide-ranging responsibilities for children and families, for childcare and nursery provision, for social services and support for older people. Local authorities support resilient Welsh-language communities through their planning, economic development, housing and regeneration functions, and local government is a significant employer in all parts of Wales, providing high-quality jobs and professional careers for local people and also an opportunity to work through the medium of Welsh and to serve the public in Welsh. The role of local government, therefore, is to secure the future of the language through education, to ensure the presence of the language every day in work and services, and to ensure the resilience of the language in prosperous communities.

The report includes 14 recommendations, which its chair describes in his foreword as ‘challenging but practical’.

Mae'r argymhellion, Lywydd, wedi'u grwpio o dan nifer o benawdau. Mae'r rhain yn cynnwys arweinyddiaeth, ar y lefel cenedlaethol a lleol, gan gyfeirio at gyfrifoldebau Llywodraeth Cymru, comisiynydd y Gymraeg a thimau arweinyddiaeth mewn llywodraeth leol. Mae'r adrannau ar weithlu a hyfforddiant dwyieithog yn ymwneud â'r gallu i siarad Cymraeg yng ngweithlu'r gwasanaethau cyhoeddus. Mae'r adran ar dechnoleg yn ymdrin â'r cyfleoedd cyffrous y mae technolegau cyfieithu digidol yn dechrau eu cynnig ac, o dan y pennawd newid ymddygiad, mae'r adroddiad yn archwilio cyfleoedd ar gyfer defnyddio cipolwg ymddygiadol a hwb damcaniaethau yng nghyd-destun y gweithle a'r defnydd o wasanaethau yn Gymraeg. Mae adran olaf yr adroddiad yn ymwneud â swyddogaeth llywodraeth leol mewn datblygu economaidd ac mewn creu a chynnal cymunedau cydnerth.

Actions from the recommendations fall to a range of bodies to take. Legislation would be the responsibility of the Welsh Government and the National Assembly. Recommendations about recruitment and workforce planning would fall to local authorities, whilst those relating to training touch on the functions of the National Centre for Learning Welsh. There are a number of recommendations concerning research and the evidence base that identify actions for our universities.

Not all the recommendations were unanimously supported by all members of the working group, but all are quite certainly of direct interest to those who provide local authority services and their partners. It is for this reason that I am publishing the report today for a period of engagement over the summer.

Presiding Officer, the scope of the report is wide and it touches on policy areas across Government. I welcome the opportunity to listen to the views of local government and other stakeholders as we consider the conclusions of the report, and before we publish a Welsh Government response in the autumn.