We move on now to the next item on our agenda, which is a statement by the Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Infrastructure on major international sporting events. I call Ken Skates to introduce the statement.

Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I welcome this opportunity to reflect on what has been an extraordinary year for sport in Wales. I’d particularly like to mention the incredible performance of Wales’s men’s football team in the European championships, and the strong Welsh presence in the record-breaking Team GB Olympic squad. It is now great to see our Paralympic athletes continuing our medal-winning success in Rio.

As our football team successfully begin their World Cup qualifying campaign, it is good to be able to stand here and think that Wales has a realistic chance of qualifying for 2018. In France, the team achieved more than we could have imagined, and those magnificent fans who went to Europe to support the team set a standard for behaviour and sportsmanship that most other countries would struggle to emulate.

We continue to support grass-roots and community sport as the foundation for sustaining sport success. For example, the Welsh Football Trust receives nearly £1 million a year of Welsh Government money to support the development of grass-roots football. This year, they used the European championships as a catalyst to get more people to play football, holding 100 community football recruitment days across Wales and continuing to engage with schools through their Play More Football programme.

The success of Welsh athletes in the Olympics is something that we can all take pride in. Although the Welsh contingent made up just 7 per cent of Team GB, they produced 11 medals, including four golds. Of course, UK Sport are responsible for developing potential medal winners to the point where they can compete successfully at the highest level, but the responsibility for talent spotting and development rests with home countries.

Sport Wales invests over £10 million a year to support national governing bodies’ efforts to develop talent pathways and to provide elite support for promising athletes in Wales. Consequently, we have achieved our best ever results—first in Glasgow and now in Rio. I’m pleased say that ministerial colleagues and I are supportive of the current chair’s review of Sport Wales. It’s vital that we have a sports body that can not only build on past successes but also confidently face the challenges ahead of us.

Just as our sportsmen and women are achieving record-breaking feats on the world stage, at home we have been hosting a thrilling programme of major international sporting events, further demonstrating Wales’s pedigree as a world-class events destination. In March, some of the world’s best long-distance runners pounded the streets of Cardiff in the World Half Marathon Championship, one of the world’s top three athletics events. In May, Velothon Wales returned to the roads of south-east Wales. In only its second year, the event received largely positive coverage, and organisers are currently in conversation with relevant partners about 2017.

In June, we welcomed back the UK leg of the Extreme Sailing Series. Once again, Cardiff Bay provided a stadium backdrop for one of the world’s most spectacular sailing events. In July, the Principality Stadium hosted the British speedway grand prix, part of the speedway world championship. This is one of the great sporting weekends in our capital city, attracting thousands of overseas visitors, and last week, the UK’s biggest professional cycling road race, the Tour of Britain, travelled through Wales with Olympians Sir Bradley Wiggins, Mark Cavendish and, of course, our own Owain Doull competing. Our 2016 programme of supported events will come to a close at the end of October with the final round of the World Rally Championship—Wales Rally GB.

These global events provide a significant boost to the Wales economy. These events alone will attract around 330,000 visitors to Wales, spending an additional £44 million and supporting over 1,000 jobs. They also raise Wales’s international profile through global media coverage, and promote participation. Let’s not forget that we also support a thriving portfolio of arts and cultural events. This year, we are supporting 20 events across Wales that offer a rich and diverse range of cultural experiences. They include: Machynlleth Comedy Festival, Focus Wales, Hay Festival, Gregynog Festival, Pride Cymru and Roald Dahl’s City of the Unexpected, and today it is 100 years since Roald Dahl was born in Llandaff.

Exciting times lie ahead as we prepare to host some of the biggest and most prestigious sporting events in the world. Following the success of our national team in strengthening Wales’s position in world football, next year the Principality Stadium hosts the UEFA Champions League final. This will be another historic first for Wales. With the tournament already under way, the ‘road to Cardiff’ is now very much alive. A few days later, Glamorgan Cricket will host matches in the International Cricket Council Champions Trophy. And a summer of sporting legends will continue as Royal Porthcawl Golf Club stages the Senior Open Championship for the second time. The 2014 event was hailed a huge success, earning praise from world-class golfers, including Tom Watson.

In 2018, the Volvo Ocean Race will arrive in Cardiff for a two-week stopover. This nine-month around-the-world human adventure is one of the longest and toughest endurance events in the world, and Wales will host the finish of the highly prized transatlantic leg. And in 2019, Glamorgan Cricket will once again be in the spotlight with the Cricket World cup—cricket’s most prestigious global tournament.

We cannot rest on our laurels. If we are to continue to build Wales’s reputation as the destination of choice for global event owners, we have to be proactive and strategic about our approach. With that in mind we are currently undertaking a horizon-scanning exercise to identify new opportunities for attracting more major international events to all parts of Wales. We are actively engaging with key partners and stakeholders in the public and private sectors in Wales and beyond to secure their views. This includes all 22 local authorities, Sport Wales and UK Sport. At an international level, our work is being informed by intelligence gathered from our network of contacts representing the entire spectrum of the international sporting event industry. We have identified a range of potential hosting targets and we are continuing to assess the relative costs and benefits of these events. We remain ambitious in our outlook and committed to attracting more major international events to all parts of Wales, but we have to temper that ambition with a touch of realism. We face some stiff challenges. The current financial climate and pressures on public sector budgets is a big challenge for all of us, and we need to work with event industry partners to develop more commercially focused business models and identify new innovative funding streams such as Crowdfunder and Kickstarter.

The other big issue for us is the lack of venues capable of hosting major international events—a key reason why the Cabinet reluctantly decided not to bid for the 2026 Commonwealth Games. The feasibility work that we did for the Commonwealth Games highlighted the need for significant investment in, for example, athletics, aquatics and velodrome facilities. I have announced that we will undertake a review of sports facilities in Wales to help ensure that Wales is in the strongest possible position to bid for and host high-profile sporting events in the future. Taking account of that work we will continue our positive dialogue with Commonwealth Games Wales and the Commonwealth Games Federation in relation to a potential bid for Wales in the future. We want to continue to work with both organisations to explore flexible options for a bid that delivers value for money and benefits for the whole of Wales.

Wales is clearly punching well above its weight in the international events arena. In a short space of time we have become a serious player in a fiercely competitive global market, and we remain committed to attracting more major international sporting and cultural events, which improve the lives and well-being of people and communities across Wales.

Thank you very much. I’ve got a number of speakers. I will attempt to get you all in but you rely on your colleagues to be brief as well. Neil McEvoy.

Diolch, Ddirprwy Lywydd. I’d like to start by congratulating our Welsh Olympians on the way they represented Wales, showing yet again the winning mentality of our country and, of course, I’d like to congratulate the Paralympians currently competing in Rio. I’d like to also congratulate the Welsh football team for their really impressive win over Moldova to get the World Cup qualifiers under way. The players and the fans have already won over Europe this summer with their passion and skill and let’s hope that we can go on to the World Cup—the world’s biggest sporting event. I have high hopes for the women’s team also as they begin their campaign for the World Cup, and I look forward, like everyone, to the Champions League final in the millennium stadium.

Of course, there are some in the Chamber who view our independent football team as petty nationalism, and they’re happy to risk our status as an independent football nation based on their own ideological UK nationalism. It’s time for everybody to get behind our team and our country—Wales. There is no greater honour—no higher honour—than playing for Wales and representing our country. To do what our Olympians and footballers have done takes ambition, which they certainly can’t be getting from the Welsh Government. I’m still astonished, really, that Labour turned down the chance to bid for the Commonwealth Games. It is one of the biggest international sporting events there is, and if you speak to Welsh athletes—Welsh sportsmen—the event they most look forward to is the Commonwealth Games, because they wear the jersey of Wales and the vest of Wales. You can talk about horizon scanning all you want, but the Commonwealth Games is the major sporting event you should have bid for. If there is a lack of venues—as there is—then it shows how much your Government has failed and is still failing. It’s incredible, really.

There are a number of serious questions, actually, that are left unanswered. First, the last time you made a statement like this, I asked you to come down to Grangetown to meet the kids who can’t afford to play football on the council pitches. But, you didn’t actually reply to that, so I will extend the invitation again. Will you accompany me to Grangetown and speak to the children who are unable to afford grass-roots football? [Interruption.] Yes, I agree; there are other places as well. But, in this constituency, just a stone’s throw away, a walk down the road, you can see the reality faced by our communities.

Secondly, while I welcome the success of our elite athletes, I’m concerned about the Government’s support for some of our other sports—or the lack of it, really—and I’d like to see greater support for sports like rugby league and baseball, which is so unique, really, in Wales. I would like to find out what initiatives or support you have for maybe supporting these other sports. In these sports—and I will just talk about rugby league—there are some all-time greats: Billy Boston, born in Tiger Bay. I think we should be doing something to remember people like him and people like the late Gus Risman as well. There is potential in boxing to get some huge events in the city, but I will ask some questions on the Commonwealth Games.

I would like to know: when was the decision made not to bid for the games? It’s interesting that you mentioned Glasgow because, for the Glasgow games, a significant part of the cost was met by local authorities. So, did the Welsh Government specifically ask local authorities if they would be prepared to make a contribution towards the Welsh Commonwealth Games? Did the Welsh Government ask the UK Government for any financial support, given that the former Prime Minister, David Cameron, said that they would provide financial support for any successful UK city bid? When did the Welsh Government let the Commonwealth Games and Sport Wales know of the decision not to bid?

Finally, I want to touch on an event—Pride Cymru. It was our friends across the road again, Cardiff council, who cancelled the event in Coopers Field without actually telling the organisers. I met with them the day before yesterday. I would ask you if you would support requesting that Cardiff council give over a specific date for a Pride Cymru event in the civic centre, and whether or not you would be prepared to add some financial support for that event. It’s a brilliant spectacle for the city. It’s a great event, which breaks down barriers, and it should be supported. Diolch yn fawr. Thank you.

I’d like to thank the Member for his questions and say, first of all, with regard to Pride Cymru, it is a fantastic Welsh Government-sponsored event. We are very proud of that event. It attracts a huge number of people to Cardiff from right across Wales and the UK as well. We wish to see it continue and to grow. In terms of its position on Coopers Field, I have already taken this matter up on the back of a letter from my colleague the Member for Delyn, Hannah Blythyn, who rightly identified that location, in my view, as the best location for the event in our capital city. So, I took it up with Cardiff council. It’s my view that the event should remain at Coopers Field. I’ve been told they have no intention of moving it from Coopers Field, but I would urge the council and the organisers to make sure that a satisfactory conclusion to talks can be reached—one that includes a mutually convenient date for the event to be held in summer, as it always has been. It’s a magnificent event that is attended by a huge number of people. I wish to see it continue on Coopers Field, where it has always been most successful, at the time of year that it is most successful. I’m sure the organisers are the best people to be able to designate when it should be staged.

In terms of spending and cost, let’s just deal with, first of all, sport in general. This Welsh Government, and previous Welsh Governments, better protected spending on sport through Sport Wales, and therefore through the national governing bodies, than was the case across the UK as a whole. But it’s not just about formal sport that we’re here to consider the future today. There are numerous forms of informal sport and physical activity that this Government has funded and is proud to fund, such as street games, or such as those physical activities like walking football that may not be considered immediately a competitive sport or an elite sport, but which make an incredible difference to people’s lives, particularly those with limited mobility, or those who are old or frail.

In terms of the Commonwealth Games, the decision was reached in the summer, after a considerable piece of work was undertaken by people who were at the very centre of the Glasgow games—people who have immense credibility and who have a full understanding of the costs and benefits of hosting an event such as this. That decision was taken in Cabinet in the summer, and we subsequently informed Commonwealth Games Wales. Local authorities have been part of our steering group throughout, but are unable to contribute to the cost of the games at this stage. In terms of UK Government, we received in writing from the Secretary of State confirmation that in those areas that it has responsibility for—such as visas—it could provide support, but there was no indication of willingness to spend money to actually build the facilities that are necessary for the games.

I do believe that a bigger ambition for Wales would be to influence change at a Commonwealth Games Federation level, so that not only Wales, but other small Commonwealth countries could host the event where currently they are unable to. It would be fantastic to see not just a Welsh Commonwealth Games, but perhaps a Commonwealth Games of the Caribbean islands taking place, but right now that is simply not possible. So, I’ll be working with other Commonwealth countries to influence change at the highest level so that the games can be bid for and secured not just by us in the future, but by those countries who are yet to host them.

Thanks to the Minister for his statement. The success of Welsh teams and performers in the international arena is very welcome and is to be applauded. Such success is a great advert for Wales and will initially have an effect in encouraging greater sporting participation here. There is also much commercial merit in Wales staging major international sporting events. However, there is sometimes a major disconnect between what a nation achieves in elite sport and the lack of general participation at grass-roots level. By ‘grass roots’ I don’t refer to aspiring Olympians, but rather to ordinary people who are never likely to grace an international arena.

Here in Wales we produce world-class footballers like Gareth Bale, we have Olympic-medal-winning cyclists and swimmers such as Becky James and Jazz Carlin, and many other notables, but at the same time, like other regions of the UK, we are facing unprecedented levels of child and adult obesity. Clearly this is a major contradiction. Clearly the one thing, international sporting excellence, does not lead automatically to the other thing, a generally high level of health and fitness. Does the Cabinet Secretary acknowledge this seeming paradox, and how does he seek to deal with it?

In Wales as a whole, more and more councils are putting leisure centre management out to privately run companies. We must ensure that this policy doesn’t impact on the ability of ordinary people to access gyms, swimming pools and badminton courts at reasonable cost. How is the Welsh Government helping to ensure this? We need to encourage more sporting participation among the young, beginning with actually getting them to walk to places rather than always going in their parents’ car. I appreciate that these are fairly fundamental problems of the UK as a whole.

We need, too, to encourage the middle aged and the old in their sporting endeavours. There has been a shocking rise in bowling club fees in Cardiff in recent years, which is surely counterproductive. If old people become more inactive, they end up costing the economy more in terms of medication and treatment in the long run.

The First Minister has earlier today given his reasons for withdrawing a Welsh bid for the Commonwealth Games, and I appreciate that there may be some sound reasons there. I’m not going to criticise that. I also agree with your own statements about joint bids because there was a Commonwealth Games in Kingston, Jamaica in 1966—now, it would be impossible for Jamaica to host it. And, the Commonwealth Games tends to go on a sort of triangle between the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and that’s it. So, we need to encourage more participation in that sphere. So, I welcome your efforts at the Commonwealth level.

Perhaps we could also consider making moves towards ring-fencing some of the funds earmarked for the Commonwealth Games project, now abandoned, and put them into encouraging grass-roots sport instead. Thanks.

I’d like to thank the Member for his well-informed contribution and I would agree entirely with it. I think, in terms of the triangle of movement of the games, he’s absolutely right; that needs to be addressed. In my view, as I’ve already said but I’ll repeat, in my view, big ambition is about having the determination to innovate. That’s why I wish to see change take place, not just so that we can capture the games just for once in a lifetime, but potentially on many occasions over the course of a lifetime.

The Member is also right when he talks about the games—or for that matter, elite sport in general—not necessarily leading to an increase in levels of physical activity across a population. In order to achieve this, we need an entire culture change, which is why we’re developing the Getting Wales Moving physical activity strategy and why the chair of Sport Wales also wishes to review the remit of the organisation to make sure that the organisation doesn’t just focus on participation in sport but general physical activity.

Some of the activities that the Member highlighted are those that we support at present. Through the emerging programme for government, there will be a Wales well-being bond that will be piloted, as well as social prescription, and of course a challenge fund. The challenge fund is being specifically designed for community arts and community sports organisations.

But for those who say we should have progressed with a £1.5 billion bid for the Commonwealth Games, I’d say, ‘Just take a step back; you may have talked to elite athletes, but have you talked to those children who can’t access those sports facilities?’ I would certainly go to those sports facilities with any Member and invite you to explain to them why you’d rather see £1.5 billion spent on facilities designed not for the people of a country, but for an event that is for just two weeks. Our view is, you first of all look strategically at what the nation requires in terms of facilities and then you shape the games around your own facilities. You don’t do it in reverse.

Because there are too many examples of games, be it Commonwealth or Olympic, that are littered with facilities that were glitzy when they opened, but which now stand rotting. Why? Because they were designed not necessarily for the population, but they were designed for the event. You have to get it the right way around, which is why I announced a facilities strategy and said that a future bid for the Commonwealth Games is very much on the cards. But we also need, as I repeat, we also need to see, in my view, some innovation and change at the highest level to enable, potentially, joint or multi bids to be received, and also national bids. I’ve heard some say that it was wrong that this Welsh Government should have considered an all-Wales bid or a north-south bid. Why? If you’re going to spend £1.5 billion as a Government on an event, it should benefit the entire population and all four corners of the country and everywhere in between. So, we make no apology for wishing to see a major event benefit all of Wales.

Thank you very much, we have about six minutes and I’ve got four speakers. So can I appeal for—

We haven’t had a spokesperson yet.

Sorry?

Just saying we haven’t had a spokesperson yet.

No, I’m coming to you now. I’m just saying, ‘Can we appeal for some brevity and some brevity from the Minister in answering as well?’ Andrew R.T.

Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. Cabinet Secretary, thank you for your statement. I’d like to put on record my appreciation and congratulations to all the sporting men and women who have performed on various pitches in various cities in various sports, across the globe in fact, throughout a summer of sporting excellence and brilliance that I think we all thoroughly enjoyed. And that really is the point, that the sporting dynamic behind all these major events has radically changed over the last 20 years with the advent of satellite tv and cable tv, which does demand these multi-venue destinations to obviously portray that platform for which tv dollars or tv pounds—call it what you will—pays into the coffers of those respective sports.

It is disappointing that, regrettably, we will not be bidding for the Commonwealth Games. I’ve heard what the Secretary has had to say this afternoon. I would ask if perhaps the Secretary could make available a briefing session for Assembly Members with the consultants who provided the report so that Assembly Members can question them in some depth over some of the conclusions that came forward. I would say to the Cabinet Secretary that, in my conversations with Ministers and Secretaries of State up at the other end of the M4, there was support for a bid coming from Wales and that support would have materialised in financial backing as well. They did have to have some idea of what the finances were that you were going to be seeking and, as I understood it, no requests or no detailed responses were put before Secretaries of State or Ministers at the other end of the M4 for them to consider. So I would ask the Cabinet Secretary to give it some consideration, because, as I understand it, it is not too late to submit a bid for the Commonwealth Games. That window is still open, and I do believe that there is an opportunity for this decision to be revisited—albeit that I do hear what you say about the impact on grass-roots sports, and that is a consideration that does have to be taken by Government, because my next point that I was going to make about the statement you’ve made today is, highlighting on grass-roots sports, which you mention in the statement, that many councils across Wales have taken double- or triple-digit increases in the sporting fees that they levy on amateur clubs to play on a weekly basis, and this, in many instances, has made those clubs either have to amalgamate or shut their doors. So, I would be grateful for an indication of what discussions you have across Government as to how the Government can work with local authorities to make the fees affordable to many voluntary clubs the length and breadth of Wales. This isn’t one specific area, this is happening across all local authorities for obvious reasons—financial constraints on their budget.

I do note that you do, in your statement, list a series of events that have gone on around Wales. One of the jewels in the crown, I would suggest, of facilities that we have in Wales, which isn’t naturally considered as a sporting venue in the first instance, is the Royal Welsh showground in mid Wales. That has increasingly been used as either a stopover or a start or a finish point for many of the rallying type of events. I noticed last week that the chief executive of the Royal Welsh Agricultural Society was talking about trying to attract more of this type of event to mid Wales. I’d be grateful if the Cabinet Secretary could give an indication: are the Government engaged with stakeholders like the Royal Welsh Agricultural Society in developing what wouldn’t traditionally be seen as a sporting venue to add to the armoury of destinations that we do have to offer international and domestic organisers of these events?

I would also ask the Cabinet Secretary to try and inform us, as regards the horizon scanning he talks about in his statement, as to what type of events he believes, going forward, in the next 18 months to two years, we might reasonably expect Wales to be in a position to bid for and, indeed, secure the rights to host those events.

Importantly, my final point is around infrastructure more generally. I had a conversation with the FAW recently, at the last international, and they were talking excitedly about the Champions League final that’s coming next May, but obviously they were highlighting the real issues around simple things like hotel beds, for example, and the availability of the local infrastructure to accommodate such big-ticket events. Many people will be leaving straight after that event because the local infrastructure will not be able to accommodate the mass of people who are coming, and in fact they’ll be pushed back over the Severn bridge to Swindon, to Reading, to Bristol, because those cities have a bigger infrastructure to support provision for travelling fans. So, it is important that, from a Government point of view, you work with operators, you work with providers to provide that infrastructure just on transport as well as hotel accommodation and sporting promotion. Thank you.

I’d like to thank the Member for his questions. First of all, with regard to the Champions League, of course, one of the big challenges there is that we won’t know which two teams are going to be in the final until about three weeks before the final takes place. So, depending on which teams are in the final, there will be very different dynamics at play in terms of people accessing Cardiff, and also in terms of how long they stay here for. We do have a steering group that’s established—in fact, the next meeting, I believe, is on Thursday—to look at all of the challenges that are being presented in terms of infrastructure. Hotel rooms are one of the major points that we have been examining, rail as well, as I’m sure the Member will be aware, as well as road access and hospitality at what is a very busy time of the year right across Wales and beyond. So, these are issues that we’re exploring with key stakeholders, all of whom are very keen to see that the Champions League final is a great success.

In terms of the types of events in our horizon-scanning exercise that we could expect bids for in the future, we’re looking at those that offer the biggest return on investment as well as those that drive up participation in sport and physical activity, as well as those that are spread out equally and fairly across Wales. This is why I think the Royal Welsh showground has great potential, because, in mid Wales, it’s one of the primary facilities for the visitor economy. I think as we look at the—and I don’t want to make any promises, but, as we look at the facilities strategy alongside the horizon-scanning exercise for major events, I certainly see the potential of mid Wales to host more. In terms of those specific events, I think it’s reasonable to expect a bid for a European grand tour, and, for those Members who aren’t sure what that is, it’s a cycling event, be it a grand tour of France or of Italy.

In terms of pitch fees, the Member raises a query that is also being shared by many Members in this Chamber, and it’s one that I’ve raised with the WLGA. It’s one that has been addressed in some parts of Wales but I am aware that in certain regions there are greater pressures for sports clubs and organisations than in other areas. In this term of Government we will be introducing, as I mentioned to the Member earlier, the Wales well-being bond and social prescription, which I would hope will see an increase in participation levels, not just in informal forms of physical activity, but also increasingly in formal sport. That will then ensure that sports clubs and organisations are more sustainable as well. One of the big challenges that sports clubs and organisations face at the moment is reducing numbers of members in many sports. This is a problem particularly—. I think it’s fair to say golf saw its heyday perhaps a decade ago, but in terms of membership now of clubs it’s been on the fall. We need to arrest that and so it’s important that golf clubs are flexible, that golf clubs innovate as well, and that the game innovates to attract more new members.

I would be happy to facilitate briefing sessions. I believe that a briefing session is already being organised with Commonwealth Games Wales, and I believe that it is next week. If the Member is dissatisfied following that briefing session then I’d look to arrange one with the consultants. In terms of the cost of the event, I detect from what the Member is saying that there might actually be a new willingness to support a bid with money by the UK Government. This is certainly something that I would like to explore with them, because, based on correspondence that we received over this, that wasn’t the case prior to Cabinet reaching the decision. If there is a change of heart, if there is a willingness to support it with money, then that would be very much welcomed.

Okay, thank you. Julie Morgan.

Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. Very swiftly, because I know we’ve got very little time, I want to congratulate all our women and men sportspeople who’ve made us so proud. I’m very pleased that the Cabinet Secretary is emphasising grass-roots and community sport, and can he assure me that any money that is given from the Welsh Government will be used equally to benefit women and men? Because I think he mentioned in his statement that £1 million a year of Welsh Government money has gone to encourage grass-roots football. I spend quite a lot of time on football fields on a Saturday morning and a Sunday morning and I don’t see many girls playing, to be quite honest. It’s mainly boys and just the occasional girl. I know there is much more emphasis on girls’ football now and women’s football and much more publicity and much more acknowledgement that it is very important that women and men benefit from sport, but I wondered what monitoring is actually being done by the Government to ensure that the money that we give from the Government is going equally to both sexes.

On the Commonwealth Games, I was very disappointed that we didn’t bid for the Commonwealth Games, because I felt it was a huge opportunity. I went to Glasgow and you could see the transformation of the city that happened during that period and through the lasting legacy, so I’m pleased to hear that in the future we would consider bidding for the Commonwealth Games, and hope that we would be able to involve the local authority members to do a bid that could bring so much to Wales.

I’d like to thank Julie Morgan for her questions, and, with regard to women’s sport, actually it’s a fact that with regard to women’s football there are more than two under-18 women football players registered with the Welsh Football Trust than adult women players. With regard to men, it’s one to one. There are actually more girls playing football—double the number of girls playing football—than women. There’s about the same number of boys as men. So, actually, in terms of the growth in football, it is going to be driven by the women’s game. It’s something that Sport Wales and the national governing body has also recognised. There is a need to ensure that funding is made available equally for men’s sports as well as women’s sports, but also made available through Disability Sport Wales for people of limited mobility.

In terms of the £1 million that we spend each year through the Welsh Football Trust, they offer 4,000 training opportunities every single year, and this is incredibly valuable for those people who wish to acquire the employability skills and social skills required in adult life.

I think, in terms of the Commonwealth Games, I’ve pretty much given all answers as far as the current bid is concerned and any future bid, but what I would reiterate is that in the future I think it would be very helpful—and I think it would be very beneficial to the Commonwealth Games Federation—if national bids could be considered and potentially dual or multi-centre bids.

Okay, thank you. I will call the final two speakers, but if they can just have questions, because I think all your spokespeople or people have spoken from the parties. So, Suzy Davies.

It’s slightly tricky one here, but thank you very much, Dirprwy Lywydd. Cabinet Secretary, I appreciate that this statement is about major sporting events, but I wonder if you could give us some indication as to where there’s common ground with major cultural events, particularly in terms of sustained legacy, and on which I hoped your statement would have been a bit more detailed, actually; you only really mentioned it in reference to the Commonwealth Games, and that in a rather negative way.

Legacy, of course, isn’t purely financial and, to demonstrate that, perhaps I could draw your attention to the first of the annual Kynren events, which took place in County Durham this summer. It’s a colossal adventure organised in conjunction with the town of Puy du Fou in France, and, as a result of their work, there’s an inclusive economy—not just a short-term tourism economy, but an inclusive economy and social fabric that’s been secured by this sort of event. I think that it’s a principle that could be extended to the sporting events that you’ve been talking about today. I think in terms of—. While it’s great that the Welsh Government supports these sporting events, I think, like sportspeople themselves, we need to be ambitious about creating opportunities and seizing on those opportunities to fulfil ambitions.

The Member’s right—there is actually a great crossover between sporting and cultural events, and many of our biggest sporting events also have a cultural event attached to them. For example, the Champions League final will have numerous activities of a cultural nature promoted around the city next year. In terms of some of the major events that are classed as cultural, we have some of the most successful in Europe, such as the Hay Festival and the Green Man Festival, which give enormous opportunities again for people to volunteer. So, the crossover is there, but it’s something where we are promoting growth directly and through the national sponsor bodies—Sport Wales and the Arts Council of Wales—and I am aware that talks have taken place between the leading chairs of both organisations to ensure that, where major events are taking place with a particular focus either on sport or the arts, there are opportunities for the other side and other organisations from the other body to be able to participate and to promote what should be a mixed event for all ages.

In terms of looking at the future as far as sustainable major events are concerned, we also wish to see our domestic events family grow. We have a good number of major events operators in Wales, but through funding smaller events strategically across Wales, we are able to place them on the escalator of growth and make sure that we have a good number of Welsh-based major events companies that grow and take advantage of the larger events in doing so.

I should also have added that the target list of major events moving forward includes a cross-section of sport and cultural events and will also be placing a particular focus on women’s events as well, be it in sport or in culture.

Thank you. Finally, Rhun ap Iorwerth.

Diolch, Ddirprwy Lywydd. I am grateful that you’ve allowed me time. I’ll keep it brief—just one question with a little bit of context before. There are several reasons, of course, why we want to hold major sporting events. First, there’s the sporting legacy—the participation, which we would all support. Secondly, there’s the showcase Wales, if you like—the bells and whistles showing Wales on television screens around the world; showing us in good light. And the more of these events that we have, the merrier, apart from the fact, of course, that it’s a limited budget that the major events unit has and we have to be very, very careful. It’s not great looking at the 2016-17 list of major-events-unit-sponsored events; they’re spread around Wales—you know, north Wales isn’t particularly well represented. The other one is the economic impact at the time—the money spent in hotels and so on when an event is on.

The other point, which is what my question is about, is the longer lasting economic effects. We have to look, I think, at how we use the major events unit budget in order to bolster our own industries here. Many of these events that you’ve talked about are put on by companies who come from outside Wales with their own staff and resources, lock, stock—major multinational companies like Lagardère, for example. What ambitions do you have, as a Cabinet Secretary, to use moneys from within the major events unit budget, to make sure that we invest in our own events companies, to make sure that we develop our own home-grown events industry that we can then export and leave a lasting economic impact?

The Member raises a really important point, actually, in the context of the Commonwealth Games, as well, because, in many instances, when we attract major events to Wales, we don’t own those events. Therefore, the event’s owners will stipulate who takes part in terms of arranging the logistical solutions to the problems that the events can often present. So, it’s essential that we also grow and attract not just events that are equally spread around Wales, but that are also of varying size as well, so that our indigenous events organisers are able to take advantage of them at every level, and, as I said in my answer to the previous questions, are able to get on that escalator of growth, as well, and take advantage, year on year, of bigger major events.

In terms of north Wales, I think, actually, this again highlights why we took the right decision on the Commonwealth Games. We’d have loved to have been able to host Commonwealth Games that would benefit the whole of Wales, but had we proceeded with a Commonwealth Games that is geographically confined to the south-east, then, of course, that would’ve had an impact on north Wales. I know that the Member is very keen to promote the potential bid of Island Games and also the Sandman Triathlon as well, which takes place in my colleague’s constituency. It’s absolutely imperative that we share the wealth; that we make sure that major events benefit people right across Wales. But in utilising our precious resources for just one event in one area, we simply will not see that.

Thanks very much. Thank you, Cabinet Secretary for that.