We as Plaid Cymru do support these amended regulations. You mention that they were rejected by the fourth Assembly. I wasn’t here personally at that time, but they were weak, and a number of concerns were raised by student representatives and by Plaid Cymru at that point. There was some further delay prior to Christmas—just a week, I hasten to say—at the request of Plaid Cymru once we’d seen the draft regulations at that point. I’d like to thank the Cabinet Secretary for that opportunity to express a view, and I am pleased to see that he did listen and that many of the concerns that we raised have now been addressed.

The amended regulations do include a number of rights for Welsh students: the right to express a desire to have Welsh language accommodation; to use the student intranet through the medium of Welsh; the right to the allocation of a personal tutor who is a Welsh speaker; the right to see the Welsh language on all signs in HE and FE colleges in Wales; and to use the Welsh language at arts centres. In looking at one of these—the right to a Welsh-speaking personal tutor—I think this is crucial to the success of a Welsh-speaking student in institutions that can often be quite alien places for young people when they arrive there first. Having a consistent relationship through the medium of Welsh with a member of staff is sure to enhance the student experience and will, therefore, lead to enhanced academic attainment.

The standards are, therefore, a step forward—there’s no doubt about that—although there are some gaps that remain. As I said, we will be supporting them today, but I would endorse the call of the Welsh language committee in doing that. I thank the committee for its detailed scrutiny work in contributing to where we are today. We endorse the committee’s demand that we should keep a very close eye on the implementation of these standards, and that they should be reviewed again to deal with any gaps that emerge.

We will also need workforce planning within institutions in order to deliver these regulations, and that, in turn, will contribute towards the million Welsh speakers strategy in due course.

I’ve also looked at what Colleges Wales had to say in their evidence and support what they had to say, namely that the regulations must go hand in hand with plans to expand Welsh-medium education in our education institutions, because without having the educational content available through the medium of Welsh, much of this is simply superficial. In bringing the two together, particularly terms of FE, we do now need to see progress in including far more Welsh-medium courses in FE and, perhaps, bring that sector under the auspices of the Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol, too. But, there’s no doubt that these regulations will make it easier for students to live their lives through the medium of Welsh while studying, having left school, in the years to come.