The next item is the 90-second statements and the first statement is from Hannah Blythyn.

Today is International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia. Since 2004, 17 May has been recognised as a chance to shine a light on the violence and discrimination still experienced by LGBT people across the world. The date is significant as it marks the World Health Organization’s decision in 1990 to declassify homosexuality as a mental disorder. Since then, we’ve come a long way when it comes to LGBT rights and acceptance and in Wales and the UK we can be proud of the steps we’ve taken.

Today’s annual Rainbow Europe index published by ILGA Europe ranks the UK third. The UK position could improve by strengthening laws around gender recognition for trans people. So, there is still more we can do to tackle the barriers and prejudice that remain. We cannot, must not and should not be complacent. All LGBT people should be able to live our lives free from fear and everybody has a responsibility to speak up and call out hate. We in Wales can show leadership at home and abroad in the protection, advancement of LGBT rights. This includes offering sanctuary and support to LGBT asylum seekers. I hope that one day we will live in a world where drawing attention to the violence and discrimination experienced by LGBT people is no longer needed. Until that day, our work as a community and a country to break down barriers, and speak up against hate and discrimination, must continue.

Between November 2015 and 2016, the Nature of Our Village project set out to identify the state of biodiversity in Penparcau, which is populated by 3,000 people and covers 190 acres—hectares, I should say—and is where I live. Three hundred and sixty nine volunteers created wildlife records. Some highlights of these records include: three new bumble bees spotted, five other bee species were identified, a palmate newt was spotted on Pen Dinas for the very first time, and a feathered gothic moth was re-found, and identified, for the first time since 1937.

The project encouraged local people to gain the skills to recognise and record the wildlife on their own doorstep, increasing the public understanding about wildlife, and the threats it faces. The project used social media, particularly Facebook, to recruit volunteers and advertise surveys, and also to encourage the community, in turn, to share their own wildlife discoveries.

The national state of nature report highlighted the lack of base data we have for much of our environment, as indeed does the state of natural resources report. So, citizen science, such as this project in Penparcau, and the Capturing Our Coast project, can fill in important gaps and assist public bodies to respond to local needs.

My thanks and congratulations to Chloe Griffiths, who led the project, and Penparcau Community Forum, West Wales Biodiversity Information Centre, and the Wildlife Trust for South and West Wales for their hard work. I now look forward to the next Nature of Our Village report, in 2018

This Saturday marks International Clinical Trials Day. Around the world, people will be celebrating the anniversary of James Lind, carrying out the first randomised clinical trial, aboard a ship, on 20 May 1747. International Clinical Trials Day helps to raise awareness of clinical trials, and honours clinical research professionals and trial participants, by recognising their contribution to public health and medical progress.

Clinical trials are an important way for researchers to test new treatments, improve current treatments, and find different ways to control and prevent disease, such as cancer. Many people’s lives are the better as a consequence of the work undertaken through clinical trials. The experimental cancer medicine centre in Cardiff pioneers early-phase experimental treatments, giving Welsh patients access to novel therapies before they are available as standard care. And late-phase clinical trials into better, kinder treatments for cancers are being carried out at Velindre Cancer Centre. These trials may change clinical practice in the future. The Wales Cancer Partnership will also be highlighting our trial heroes in Wales, through an open afternoon this Friday at Velindre clinical trials unit, and at the concourse of the University Hospital of Wales.

I hope we can all pay tribute on Saturday to the amazing, groundbreaking work of Wales’s leading researchers and scientists, who play a vital role in bringing research out of the lab and into the lives of people, and celebrate the clinical participants in Wales who are changing the future for millions of people.