Diolch, Lywydd. Thank you, Presiding Officer, and can I start also by thanking Dai Lloyd for bringing forward this proposal and also for the constructive dialogue that I’ve had with him in recent weeks? There is no doubt that historic place names are an important part of our heritage and bear witness to the linguistic, social, and historical changes that have shaped our nation. Dai recognises this and so do I. They constitute a rich legacy for the present and for future generations and, as some in this Chamber may recall, this is not the first time that the Assembly has given consideration to recognising and to promoting the importance of historic place names.

Indeed, during the passage of the Historic Environment (Wales) Act, historic place names were a subject of debate, both here in the Chamber and in committee. The Assembly considered a number of options for their protection and I’ve always been clear that a formal consenting regime is very complex: it’s costly to administer and near impossible to enforce. But, I do understand and appreciate the desire to protect the historic names that mean so much to all of us. That’s why I was very pleased to respond to the constructive debate that we had during the passage of the Historic Environment (Wales) Bill and to successfully introduce a Government amendment to place a duty on Welsh Minsters to create and maintain a list of historic place names for Wales.

In May, Wales will have the only statutory list of historic place names—a first, not only for the United Kingdom, but a world first. This groundbreaking list is being developed by the royal commission under the guidance of a steering group that includes representatives of the Welsh Place-Name Society, the Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies and the National Library of Wales, and also, as an observer, the Welsh Language Commissioner.

The list will be freely accessible, not only online, but also through the Welsh historic environment records. It will record historic names and variants of geographical features, settlements, thoroughfares, farms, houses and fields. Indeed, the only criteria for the inclusion of a place name is that it can be confidently identified and mapped for reliable historical evidence. At launch, as Dai Lloyd has outlined, the list will contain over 350,000 place names derived from historic Ordinance Survey maps, nineteenth century tithe maps, and apportionments and earlier evidence. However, that will only be the beginning. The list will continue to develop and grow as other sources are added and further research adds greater depth to the records of our historic place names. The list will not attempt to identify a single authoritative historic place name for each feature, locality or property. That would be an impossible task given the sheer volume of names and their sometimes complex transformations over many centuries. Rather, it will present the evidence to show how a place name has changed over time. Researchers will, of course, find this an invaluable tool, but it will also be something that members of the public can easily use if they are curious about the history of their property or their local area. As such—.