Diolch, Ddirprwy Lywydd. Can I just add my congratulations to Joyce as well? I think it is something that we should all be proud of, but you most of all.

The transfer of languages between generations tends to fall to women—not exclusively, of course—but I’m wondering whether there’s something here that could work to the UK’s advantage post Brexit when it comes to acquired modern foreign languages. These skills, which are represented very fragilely in the school curriculum at the moment, are going to be more important post Brexit, where multilingualism will help us be more attractive as a trading partner, especially as the dominance of English as the lingua franca of Europe may change, of course. And, of course, we’re more aware that Commonwealth countries’ own languages are coming more to the fore on the global stage as well.

I think the position might have equalised somewhat recently, but historically more girls pursued modern foreign language study than boys, and as a result, maybe multilingualism and agile communication generally may have found themselves in that category of undervalued skills associated primarily with women. But they are necessary, not just to trade, but to mutual understanding, and that’s the prerequisite to helping equality and enforcement of rights.

I was just wondering whether you agree that there’s a role for women parliamentarians to raise the status of modern foreign language acquisition, not necessarily through formal education, but for the reasons you give—not as many girls as boys study at all—and to use their own advocacy skills to raise modern foreign languages as an opportunity for women across the globe, but particularly in our relationships with Europe and our Commonwealth cousins. Thank you.