Can I thank the Minister for his statement and for advance copy of the statement, which I received this afternoon? Like him, I was very unimpressed to see the lack of ambition in some of the local education authority proposals and plans that were published. I was very pleased to welcome the rapid review that he announced earlier this year, which has now been completed by our former colleague in the Assembly Aled Roberts. We all know that we’re not going to achieve the ambitious target of securing 1 million Welsh speakers here in Wales without actually growing the number of young people and children in Welsh-medium education. So, absolutely, we need to drive that ambition up, and I’m looking forward to being able to see the new strategic education plans, which are coming forward from the local authorities in due course.

The Minister made reference to the fact that he had had some correspondence with local authorities about those plans, and I wonder, Minister, whether you would publish for the record that correspondence, so that we can see exactly what you challenged those local authorities about, because I think, in the interest of transparency, so that we can all agree with him and perhaps support the suggestions that he was making, it would be good to see that on the public record.

I also note, of course, that the Minister has made, quite rightly, a reference to the proposal to establish a board to see the improvements through and has suggested that that board will include representatives from all sectors of education. I was particularly pleased to hear him refer to the nursery education sector, the ‘cylch meithrin’. In fact, I would go so far as to say that I was at my local ‘cylch meithrin’ in Abergele, which was celebrating its fiftieth anniversary on Friday, and I can see just how valuable that is and what an asset that is to the local community. It’s the success, at that very early age, that then encourages parents to get those children moving on into primary education through the medium of Welsh and, indeed, gives them the confidence to allow those kids to go on into secondary education.

One area that you haven’t talked much about, actually, in your statement, is the role of the further education sector, and I wonder if you could tell us to what extent they’re engaging with local authorities, because, obviously, one of the weaknesses that Aled Roberts did identify was the need to ensure that there was progression enabled, if you like, and that there was a significant growth in further education through the medium of Welsh. We know that it’s not where it should be at the moment, and we’ve got children and young people leaving their secondary education wanting to go on to further education through the medium of the Welsh language, and they simply can’t get it. Where it is available, it’s a sort of phony provision, because very often it simply means doing exams through translators rather than actually being able to do the whole gamut of their courses through the medium of Welsh.

You’ve also made reference in your statement to the valuable role of youth work—Welsh language youth work—and I know that one of the things that we’ve been looking at in the Children, Young People and Education Committee is the provision of youth work across Wales, and one of the concerns that we flagged up in our recent report was the need to ensure that there is access to Welsh-medium youth work provision. Given that faith communities across Wales are the single largest provider of youth work in the country, can you tell me what activity is going on in terms of engagement with your Government? What sort of levels of engagement do you expect the local education authorities to have with faith communities, given that they’re such significant providers? And where there may be a need to support some of those faith communities to introduce more Welsh into their provision, is that something that the Welsh Government would be interested in doing?

I note, also, that you made reference to the anticipated population projections in Wales for school populations, and that the Welsh Government expects it to be fairly static over the next 10 to 20 years. We know that local development plans are rolling forward across the country, many of them with significant housing growth. In north Wales, I think if you tot up the individual local development plans, it’s around 100,000 new homes that are planned over the course of those plans being implemented. That’s a huge—. Sorry, 100,000 in population terms, rather, that we’re going to expect to grow that population by, just in north Wales alone. I suspect that similar levels of growth are planned for elsewhere. Can you tell us whether you take into account that growth within your estimated population figures, and also advise on what you expect local authorities to do in terms of those section 106 moneys that might become available as a result of that growth, for investment in the capital infrastructure to support the growth of Welsh-medium provision in the communities that might be affected?

I am concerned, frankly, that the existing Welsh language impact assessments, which local authorities are required to undertake with regard to developments over a certain size, are not always looking for opportunities through their section 106 agreements to extend Welsh-medium provision in their communities, and I think that that is something that perhaps there’s been a bit of a blind spot to, and perhaps you can tell us whether this is something that is emerging as a theme from some of the draft WESPs that have been presented to you.

Finally, just on the subject of the timetable for any legislation that might emerge, obviously, once the board is established, I presume that you will task it with exploring how the legislation can be best framed and to bring proposals forward to you. But, clearly, we need to make some rapid progress in this Assembly in terms of trying to set the path going forward so that we can achieve the ambition that’s in ‘Cymraeg 2050’, and I for one would like to see a very clear timetable for that board to work to, so that we can hold you to account as a Government Minister for delivery against that timetable. I wonder whether you’ve any idea at the moment in terms of an indication as to when you expect that board to be able to report back to you—I know it’s not been formed yet, but to report back to you in terms of the timetable for any legislation for the framework that might be required. Thank you.