Could I call for two statements: firstly, on an issue I and others first raised with you 14 years ago, and possibly earlier in the First Assembly when I wasn’t here, and that’s deaf school pupils in Wales? In this UK Deaf Awareness Week 2017, the latest Welsh Government-published figures have shown that deaf school pupils in Wales are underachieving at every key stage with the National Deaf Children’s Society Cymru saying that these pupils face being left behind without urgent action, and the figures suggesting that the attainment gap having temporarily fallen has widened again at GCSE level.

Having launched the ‘Close the Gap’ petition following a poor set of results four years ago, the National Deaf Children’s Society has said the latest figures are unacceptable. Well, deafness is neither a learning disability nor a learning difficulty and there’s no reason why these pupils should be underachieving unless and only because they’re not accessing the appropriate support. As we called for 14 years ago, that means raising deaf awareness, improving acoustics in the classroom and ensuring that deaf children and their families are supported from the start. I hope the Welsh Government will respond with a statement on this very serious issue, having given it deep and serious consideration, and consider how we might now move forward.

Secondly, and finally, could I call for a statement from the health secretary on rare conditions in Wales, once he’s read the spring 2017 edition of Vasculitis UK’s magazine, and an article within it entitled, ‘What’s up with Wales?’? This article, entitled ‘What’s up with Wales?’ says:

‘We, at Vasculitis UK, have a really good relationship with all the leading medical vasculitis professionals in England…. However, in Wales, it is a different situation.’

Having been given a diagnosis and a treatment plan by a leading world expert in England,

‘The advice of the experts “over the border” seems to be resented and ignored’ when we come back to Wales.

‘There are various natural problems in Wales for people with rare diseases…. There seems to be a last century attitude in Wales’ and

‘There seems also to be a general culture of hierarchy and closed ranks.’

Now, even if that’s not 100 per cent accurate, the fact that these people hold those views, based on their experience of treatment in Wales, and put that into a UK magazine, must merit attention, and I hope that will justify a statement accordingly.