There are issues raised in some of the specific recommendations in the report, and in the Government’s response to them, that I would like to mention, and I hope the Minister will respond to these in his contribution to the debate. Therefore, if we look at some specific recommendations, recommendation 5 called for additional help and support for private sector employers and businesses to develop and expand their Welsh-language provision. The Welsh Government accepted this recommendation and said that further details would be published in the strategy. Could the Minister tell us what additional support and help is to be provided?

Recommendation 6 was one of the key recommendations. It called for an urgent assessment of the additional resources that will be needed to achieve 1 million Welsh speakers, including the profile of spending over the early part of the strategy and the comparative cost of the various interventions that will possibly be required. Although the Welsh Government accepted the recommendation in part, pointing to the additional £10 million that has already been committed to start to deliver the new strategy, there is still no strategic assessment of the level of resources that will be needed. Indeed, the response said that there were no financial implications to the implementation of the strategy beyond the £10 million that has already been committed. So, I wanted to understand whether that is likely to be the case. Will more than £10 million be required to implement the policy in this area? Has the Minister carried out an assessment of the resources that will be required, how it is profiled and when he will make further announcements on additional resources?

If I turn to recommendation 11, which called on the Welsh Government to set out in detail how it intends to move schools along the language continuum, and how this will address any concerns from parents and the wider community. The Government response, quite rightly, focused on the role of local authorities in planning for school places and for developing Welsh-medium education through the Welsh in education strategic plans. However, the response also said that the Welsh Government intended to review the regulations and guidance for WESPs to encourage, and I quote, movement along the language continuum’.

Could the Minister update us on progress in terms of that work and how local authorities will be encouraged to move schools along the language continuum?

Recommendation 14 called for the Welsh Government to set out clearly the number of additional teachers that will be required in order to teach through the medium of Welsh and teach Welsh. I am pleased that the strategy notes specific targets in that regard. For instance, the number of primary teachers who can teach in Welsh will need to increase from 2,900 currently to 3,900 by 2031, and to 5,200 by 2050. Likewise, this was reflected in the Welsh-medium sector in secondary schools. I would be grateful, however, if the Minister could provide a little more information on how these targets will be achieved, and particularly how this very significant increase in provision will be funded.

Similar questions arise in recommendation 15, in terms of how the supply of Welsh-speaking students entering the teaching profession can be increased. Again, could the Minister provide greater detail on how this will be achieved and what resources will be required?

Recommendations 17 and 18 were concerned with securing improvements in Welsh second-language teaching, where there is a wide consensus that outcomes are not as good as they should be, in terms of that education. Could the Minister provide us with an update, therefore, on progress made in the introduction of one continuum of learning Welsh for all pupils in Wales as part of the new curriculum?

Before I conclude, I want to say that I broadly welcome the Government’s ambition for 1 million Welsh speakers by 2050. May I also say that I’m pleased that the strategy has begun to answer many of the practical questions about how that ambition can be realised? It almost goes without saying that there remains a great deal of work to be done in this area, but I look forward to working with the Minister in that regard.

The last census showed a small but significant decline in the number of people able to speak Welsh. In this context, 1 million Welsh speakers by 2050 is a very ambitious target. However, if we are to halt the decline in the number of Welsh speakers, and reverse the trend of the last century, then we need to be bold and ambitious. So, I commend what the committee has done, and thank all members of the committee in the context of the fact that the staff have worked very hard on this too. We support this ambition, but we need to understand clearly how that’s going to be delivered. Thank you.