The next item on our agenda is the business statement and announcement, and I call on the leader of the house, Jane Hutt.

Diolch, Lywydd. I have a few changes to report to this week’s business. The statement on the future of youth work delivery has been postponed to 4 April. In its place, the Cabinet Secretary for Communities and Children will make an oral statement on park homes commission rates—next steps. Finally, the time allocated to the Counsel General’s oral Assembly questions tomorrow has been reduced and business for the next three weeks is as shown on the business statement and announcement found among the meeting papers available to Members electronically.

Leader of the house, can we have a statement from the Cabinet Secretary for health, please, on paediatric rheumatology services in Wales? Sadly, in Wales, we do not have any paediatric rheumatology services—dedicated services—and in particular we do not have any teams to help young people who are diagnosed with arthritis at very young ages, very often at school age, and this causes a huge amount of problems, not only just from the pain side of managing the pain of arthritis, but also the ability to engage fully in the education system and be able to support children going through the education system so that they can reach their full potential. I'm led to believe, through a meeting that I had yesterday, that many people are diverted into the centres that are located in England, of which there are 12. In Scotland, there are two, and, in Northern Ireland, with a much smaller population than Wales, there is one dedicated centre, whereas at the moment there is just merely a consultant service here in south Wales, which doesn't provide the full service that a team approach would develop, where—. If you look at the standards that should be in place, there should be a consultant, there should be two nurse specialists, one physiotherapist, and an occupational therapist, to help develop the services here in Wales. I'd be grateful if we could have a statement so we can see whether the Government has any intention to bring forward what I would say is this missing link in the provision of healthcare for young people who suffer the pain—the chronic pain—of arthritis and the help that they must require.

Andrew R.T. Davies raises an important point. Of course, the fact that we have now got a children's hospital here in Wales, which, of course, is taking forward innovative treatments and care pathways—and I think that what we need to look at very carefully now is, in terms of paediatric rheumatology, what care pathway is available, and, of course, the Cabinet Secretary has heard the point that has been made today.

I wonder if we can find time for a statement on the impact of the changes to work and pensions conditions for the employment support allowance that are kicking in on 1 April, and the impact in Wales in particular. The Work and Pensions Select Committee, a cross-party committee, has questioned the very principle behind these cuts to employment and support allowance from 1 April. They've been justified on the grounds that they will actually remove person-centred incentives discouraging people from returning to work. But the committee states the evidence is at best ambiguous and in fact carries the risk that, in their words, it will affect disabled people's quality of life and the likelihood of moving into work. So, I wonder if we can find time for some assessment or some statement on the impact of that in Wales, because it's of material impact on the lives of my constituents.

Well, that's very helpful, Huw Irranca-Davies, to hear from a cross-party select committee, the Work and Pensions Select Committee in Westminster, for responsibilities of the UK Government, and that scrutiny and monitoring. Of the impacts of those changes that come into being on 1 April, we remain deeply concerned about the changes for employment support allowance claimants assigned to the work-related activity group, commencing from April this year. This will see new claimants receive approximately £28 per week less than existing claimants.

Leader of the house, two weeks ago I asked the First Minister a non-partisan question on behalf of my constituents. I welcomed the growth in passenger numbers on the T9 bus service to Cardiff Airport, and I asked whether the Welsh Government had looked at diverting subsidies to other bus services across rural Wales. Now, at no point did the First Minister answer my substantive question—rather he just sought to make a series of party political points completely irrelevant to my question. Now, constituents have raised this with me, and asked me to express concern at the way in which the First Minister answers important questions brought in this Chamber. Perhaps you could review the record, and will you encourage your colleague the First Minister to answer questions in a more informative way?

I’m intrigued—we suddenly leap from Cardiff Airport, indeed in my constituency, up to your constituency, in terms of what seems to be a very genuine question, Russell George, about provision of rural bus services, which, of course, the Cabinet Secretary for economy and transport is also extremely concerned about, which is why he spearheaded and led a bus summit, which I’m sure you would have engaged in, because this is about accessibility of public transport across the whole and in every part of Wales, all parts of Wales, and particularly in terms of access in rural areas.

Last week I spoke at an event organised by the British Deaf Association to give deaf school pupils a taste of future careers and to help them to fulfil their absolute potential. This event coincided with British Sign Language Week. I wondered if it would be possible to have a statement from the Welsh Government about what their views are on making British Sign Language an official language. Also last week, the children’s commissioner raised the issue of mothers having to pay £350 in order to learn British Sign Language in order to communicate with their deaf children, which is obviously quite a financial burden, and whether there’s any statement that could be made about how this issue could be addressed—.

I thank Julie Morgan for that question. This issue has been discussed and brought forward, in fact, to cross-party groups over the years. We did establish, as a result, indeed, of a petition from the public and disability groups in particular, a framework for action on independent living—it was mentioned earlier on in response to a question to the First Minister—and it is about ensuring that we can, across Government, act on and take forward those important issues that have such an impact on people’s lives, rooted, of course, in the social model of disability. As the First Minister said earlier on, we’re actually taking the opportunity to develop a refreshed framework for action by the summer, and we have a disability equality forum, and I think these questions, particularly looking at the opportunities that we have to move forward with British Sign Language, will be—both the consultation and the forum will provide an opportunity for this to be considered again.

Leader of the house, can I call for a further update statement from the Minister for Skills and Science on the roll-out of superfast broadband, particularly in north Wales? I had a public meeting yesterday in Llanarmon-yn-Iâl, and there were representatives there from Eryrys, Graianrhyd and Tafarn-y-Gelyn in my constituency, all of which are facing significant problems with their telecoms infrastructure, which I think is an impediment to the roll-out of superfast broadband in their areas. I’m very concerned that BT Openreach are simply not improving their own infrastructure sufficiently well for superfast to be delivered across their network, and are using this as an excuse for not delivering to some households. These are sizeable communities, albeit rather small compared to many of the urban communities that Superfast Cymru is serving, but, nevertheless, the lack of access to broadband is a significant problem to those communities, and even over the copper network they’re currently only getting 0.5 Mbps when the speeds on the internet are telling them that they ought to be getting 7 Mbps or 8 Mbps, even over the copper network. So, I’m very concerned about this and I feel that the Welsh Government needs to hold BT Openreach to account for improving and investing in its own infrastructure outside of the Superfast Cymru project in order for these individual householders and businesses in those areas to take advantage of the programme. I would appreciate a statement on that matter.

I think the Member knows that many parts of Wales wouldn’t have had access to superfast broadband without the intervention of Superfast Cymru. As a result of that programme, 194,199 premises across north Wales, and I’m focusing on your region, now have access to fast fibre broadband and, of course, households are gaining access every day as the roll-out continues. Of course, our aim is to provide fast, reliable broadband to every property in Wales. Superfast Cymru is building that infrastructure. Whole counties, such as Conwy, Gwynedd, Blaenau Gwent, Pembrokeshire, Ceredigion, and others, would have been left without any access at all to superfast broadband without the intervention of Superfast Cymru. But, going back to the situation in terms of where we are now, to date, over 621,000 premises across Wales are now able to receive Superfast Cymru. But it is looking at how we reach those final few premises once Superfast Cymru comes to an end this year with an investment of £80 million, and that is establishing, premises by premises, where superfast broadband is available and that, of course, is going to inform the next scheme as it moves forward.

The leader of the house will know that Public Health Wales this morning has confirmed that multiple sources of evidence show that pre-exposure prophylaxis is highly effective at preventing HIV infection. PrEP is already prescribed in the US, Canada, France, Norway and Israel. So, can I ask the Cabinet Secretary for health to bring forward a statement, confirming the earliest point at which he expects to be in a position to make a decision on access to PrEP in Wales, and confirming that, in light of the clinical evidence, he will now look to approve access to the drug to the highest-risk groups to support HIV prevention in Wales?

I thank Jeremy Miles for that question. The Welsh Government commissioned Public Heath Wales to examine the latest evidence. Of course, that will help to inform the appraisal to be undertaken by the All-Wales Strategy Medicines Group, our independent expert body that provides advice to Ministers in Wales on new medications not yet considered by NICE, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, next month. It will consider the clinical and cost-effectiveness of the medication. So, it’s inappropriate to comment further at this stage, but, of course, the Cabinet Secretary for Health, Well-being and Sport will update Members once he’s received and considered advice from the All-Wales Medicines Strategy Group.

This morning dentists in England have been expressing extreme concern about the rise in dental decay in five-year-olds in England. I wondered if—. Obviously, we have Designed to Smile here, which has led to a noticeable reduction in the number of five-year-olds suffering tooth decay in Wales. But, nevertheless, one child with tooth decay aged five is far too many. What discussions have you had with the UK Government about their intention to introduce legislation to tax sugary drinks, as well as the conversations that have been had with the producers of sugary cereals that children are encouraged to eat in the morning, which are obviously the link between the numbers of children with tooth decay and something that we could easily do something about preventing?

Well, I’m glad that the Member for Cardiff Central has drawn attention to Designed to Smile. It has been mentioned on the media over the last 24 hours, recognising that England falls behind Wales in terms of our initiative. I think it’s worth just looking at that reduction as a result of Designed to Smile, which is what we have taken forward: the 2014-15 dental survey of five-year-olds shows a further 6 per cent reduction in the proportion of children with experience of dental decay in Wales when compared with the previous survey undertaken in 2011-12. That’s the first and significant sustained improvement in dental caries prevalence experienced by children in Wales since records began, and it is attributed to the focus and effort of the Designed to Smile programme. And, of course, it needs to go beyond that particular initiative, which has seen that welcome reduction, and has actually dealt with issues in terms of health inequalities. But we have to go beyond that, to look at prevention in the wider public health perspective, in terms of reducing that access to sugary drinks and cereal. I always remember when we introduced the pioneering free school breakfast programme in Wales—which wasn’t supported by all parties in this Chamber—but when we established that breakfast it was based on nutrition standards, which meant that they looked at the cereal with no sugar in terms of a nutritious start to the day. It wasn’t just a free school breakfast, it was a free nutritious school breakfast. And I’m sure that has also contributed to the success in terms of reducing dental decay in children in Wales.

Leader of the house, I am currently being inundated by complaints about the problem of littering on trunk roads and the verges of trunk roads and lay-bys in my constituency. I know that other Assembly Members are experiencing similar complaints. I know that, often, the responsibility for maintaining the cleanliness of trunk roads is delegated to, in my area, the South East Wales Transport Alliance, or to local authorities, but that the Welsh Government does have an overall responsibility for our roads, and you do have a responsibility for tourism. I’m very concerned about the image that is being portrayed of Wales to tourists who are coming to visit, and I would like it if the Welsh Government could look at what could be done about this as a matter of urgency, particularly in the run-up to the summer season. I wonder if we could have a statement or response from the Welsh Government on how you’re ensuring that local authorities and local consortia do maintain their responsibility to keep our trunk roads and motorways clean so that we get the very best possible image of Wales portrayed to those people visiting our country.

Well, of course, we would all wish for that to happen. Part of this is about awareness raising with the public and those who use our roads. I think we will all experience the situation where you drive along a road and you see people chucking rubbish out of their window, so there has to be a public awareness programme, as well as who then deals with the impact of that littering, as you say, which destroys our environment. And this is something that is not just an issue for Wales, of course—it’s an issue across the UK and, I’m sure, further afield. So, it is certainly something that we would look at in terms of how we could develop that kind of public awareness and enforcement approach.

Thank you, leader of the house.