The next item on our agenda is the business statement and announcement, and I call on the leader of the house—Julie James.

Diolch, Llywydd. Not surprisingly, multiple changes have been made to this week's business. The debates on the regulated services regulations and the Children's Commissioner for Wales 2016-17 annual report, which were due to have been held last Tuesday, will take place this afternoon. The debates on the Official Statistics (Wales) Order 2017 and tackling substance misuse have been postponed until next week. I've also postponed the Stage 3 debate on the abolition of the Right to Buy and Associated Rights (Wales) Bill until 28 November. Questions tabled for answer last week by the education, health and social services secretaries will be taken tomorrow, and questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Transport and the Counsel General will move to next week. 

Finally, Business Committee has agreed that the Member debate and short debate postponed from last week will take place tomorrow, with the Welsh Conservative debate and the committee debate on digital infrastructure being postponed until next Wednesday.

Business for the next three weeks is shown on the business statement and announcement found amongst the meeting papers, which are available to Members electronically.

Can I start by congratulating Julie James on her appointment as Leader of the House and Chief Whip? And can I say how delighted I am to have had the first opportunity since I was elected to this Assembly in 1999 to actually ask a question? So, I was determined I was going to get straight off the mark.

Can I ask you, leader of the house, if you could respond to the latest Trussell Trust figures that show an increase of 13 per cent in the use of foodbanks between April and September of this year—2017—compared with the same period last year? The Vale of Glamorgan foodbank has reported on the plight of a mother they helped recently, with five children, and no food left on a Friday. The Department for Work and Pensions said they couldn't help until the following week. Can we have an update from the Welsh Government on representations being made to stall the roll-out of universal credit, given that foodbanks in areas of full universal credit roll-out have seen a 30 per cent average increase in demand?

Well, can I say how delighted I am to have received my first question from my predecessor in post, who has an enormous set of shoes for me to step into? And can I also say how incredibly grateful I am for all of the advice and support she's given me over the years, and, indeed, over the last two weeks, which has been a real help, in what's been a very difficult time for absolutely everybody, including the family of Carl Sargeant?

In terms of the Trussell Trust figures, I absolutely recognise the extremely important issue that the Member raises. In areas of universal credit roll-out, we are seeing real increases in people struggling, and we really do call on the UK Government to look again at the six-week delay that can sometimes take place. Indeed, I've seen eight weeks' delay as well in people accessing the money that they are entitled to. And I don't know how people are expected to manage without that money going through, and we really do urge the UK Government to look again at that.

Following the Plenary debate on the UK Government's welfare reforms and universal credit, the Minister for housing and regeneration did write to the UK Government to express the concerns of the Assembly, and to call for a halt to the roll-out of universal credit. I'm sure the new Minister, when she's got into her portfolio, will do something very similar.

Analysis for the Welsh Government by the Institute for Fiscal Studies shows that households in Wales will lose around £460 a year, or 1.6 per cent of their net income, on average, if all of the tax and benefit reforms that were planned to be introduced by the previous UK Government, between 2015-16 and 2019-20, are actually implemented. So, we very much hope the Chancellor will have a change of heart in that regard.

We know that lower income families, especially those with children, will lose considerably more on average—around 12 per cent, in fact, of their net income. And large families are, of course, particularly hard hit, losing around £7,750 a year, or 20 per cent of net income on average. And this is an absolute shame in a country as rich as ours, and we certainly do urge the UK Government to rethink its welfare strategies.

In the meantime, of course, we are putting in all of the assistance we can. We're continuing our discretionary relief where possible, our council tax reduction scheme helps, our Families First and Flying Start programmes are very helpful, the pupil development grant, of course, supports our schools in assisting children from families who are particularly hard hit, and we are very proud indeed of our campaign to stop hunger during the school holidays, which we supported last year, and I know many Members in the Chamber supported personally.

I also congratulate the Minister for her new role as the leader of the house, and I'm sure she'll do the better job—or exactly the same—as the predecessor did.

May I ask for a statement from the Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Transport on the delay in dualling the eastern section of the A465 Heads of the Valleys road in my region? The Cabinet Secretary has ordered a review of this £220 million project, and concerns have been shown that it is over budget and behind schedule. Meanwhile, local businesses are suffering because of this delay, and some have expressed concern about their future viability, and businesses are really concerned about this delay, and all this nonsense going on there.

May I ask for an urgent statement on this matter, which potentially could have a devastating effect on the economy in my region, please?

Well, thank you for that very important question and your kind remarks at the beginning. The Cabinet Secretary has released a written statement on progress quite recently, but I will ask him to look again at the issue in the light of your remarks.  

I’d also like to welcome Julie James to her new role and congratulate her on her appointment and also thank Jane Hutt for the way in which she has dealt with all parties in this Chamber over many years. I very much hope that that tradition will remain in place.

I have a few questions for Julie James, if I may. First of all, I note, differently to your predecessor, you have other responsibilities around infrastructure and violence against women, and so on. I would like to know how Assembly Members will be able to question you in light of your ministerial responsibilities, rather than your responsibilities as leader of the house, and I would like to you to confirm how that is going to happen.

Secondly, I’d like to know whether it’s the Government’s intention, today, to make a statement on children’s services in Powys. This is the twentieth day since the inquiry was carried out by the Care and Social Services Inspectorate Wales, and they are supposed to be publishing their improvement plan today, and that’s been confirmed to me by the inspectorate yesterday. I haven’t seen anything published as of yet and I would like to know whether Government has received any improvement plan and whether the Government will be making a statement before the Assembly, or a written statement, on that plan, in order for us to understand whether it is robust enough, should we improve it, and whether the Government is going to take further steps to tackle what has happened in Powys County Council.

Finally, if I could draw the leader of the house’s attention to the no named day motion No. 6563, which is in my name. That motion deals with the relationship of Wales with Catalunya and what has been happening recently in that nation. We know that the Speaker of the Catalan Parliament has been imprisoned for some hours, that many Ministers remain in prison and that the Catalan Prime Minister is having to deal with the situation from another country—Belgium. It’s clear that many Members here are interested in what’s happening in Catalunya, and particularly from the point of view of the relationship between one Parliament and another; never mind whether you’re in favour or against the political decision, it's a Parliament speaking to another Parliament. And, as the motion has been tabled, will the Government make time available, even if it’s only half an hour, for that motion to be discussed in this Assembly?

Well, thank you very much for your kind remarks at the beginning and for that series of questions. 

The first one, which is very much the easiest of them to answer on your first day in a job, is that we will be making a question time available in the normal way for me to be questioned on portfolio responsibilities, and Assembly Members will have the opportunity to table questions in the normal way. The Llywydd and I have already discussed the possibility for that and that will be a perfectly straightforward way of doing it. 

In terms of the other two: the new Minister with responsibility for children is sitting in the Chamber, and I think heard your remarks and will be able to take them forward with some despatch and will be taking us through the annual report shortly. So, I'm sure he'll be able to address that. In terms of the third one, the absolute truth on my first day in the job is that I have absolutely no idea. I will, however, undertake to discuss this with the people responsible for Government business and come back to the Member in due course. 

I'd also like to welcome the new leader of the house to her new role. Her position is due, as we know, to a fairly major reshuffle. What we in UKIP would like to request is a statement on what are the projected costs to the public purse of this reshuffle. It is a biggish reshuffle. As stated, the number of Ministers has risen from 12 to 14. Given that there will be a cost in terms of spin doctors, as well as the actual extra ministerial salaries, can we have an outline of the need for the extra posts and of the projected additional costs, and where that extra money will be found in terms of the Welsh Government's budget? Thank you. 

The First Minister has an absolute right to organise this Government as he sees fit and he has done so. 

Can I welcome the new leader of the house to her post, and also thank Jane Hutt for the tireless and detailed way that she’s answered questions in this session, and the great help she’s been both inside and outside the Chamber? Could the leader of the house arrange for the Minister for health and social services to make a statement about progress into the inquiry into the contaminated blood scandal? I think we all welcome the fact that the Government in Westminster has announced that there will be a statutory inquiry under the Inquiries Act 2005. We know that the Cabinet Office will be running the inquiry, but we don’t yet know who will chair the inquiry, and I wondered if the Minister for health and social services could report on any contact that he has had from the Government in Westminster, and whether he will be consulted or will be any part of the decision making about who will lead this inquiry, which is so welcomed by so many people here in Wales.

The Deputy Presiding Officer (Ann Jones) took the Chair.

Thank you for those kind remarks, and I would just like to reiterate the remarks about my predecessor, Jane Hutt, who I’m extremely grateful to, myself, for her advice over the years. I know the Member has worked tirelessly in this campaign to get this inquiry under way, and I pay tribute to her efforts in that regard. We of course also welcome the inquiry being placed on a statutory footing, not least as a result of her efforts and the efforts of her cross-party group in expressing the views of the people of Wales. We agree that the inquiry should be led by a very senior judge, and that the terms of reference should be as wide as possible to get all of the answers that people want. I’m sure the Cabinet Secretary will delighted to come back and give an update as soon as he has anything to report on. I’m not actually sure whether he has anything new to report on just yet. I’m sure he will do so as soon as he does.

Thank you. Finally, Nick Ramsay.

Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. Can I also congratulate you, leader of the house, on your appointment—well deserved—and also congratulate Jane Hutt on her maiden speech in this Chamber as a backbench AM? I’m sure that you’ll have many more, and a long career as a backbencher.

I’d like to support Mohammad Asghar in his comments earlier about the A465, specifically between Gilwern and Brynmawr. I attended a meeting of residents recently—I see the Member for the other end of Clydach gorge also smiling at me—I attended a meeting recently, and whilst there was great support for the project, and great support for the development of this stretch, there is concern about a lack of consultation between Costain, the developers, and local residents. There have been occasions where road closures happened without the statutory notice, and also where design changes have been made to that stretch of road without adequate consultation. So, could we have a statement from the Welsh Government, from the Cabinet Secretary responsible, outlining how he’s making sure that this project is kept on track, and that local residents are fully involved at each stage of the process?

Thank you for that, and thank you for your kind remarks as well. The section between Gilwern and Brynmawr currently under construction represents a major investment in Welsh infrastructure. Draft Orders and an environmental statement for the section between Dowlais Top and Hirwaun have recently been published, and these could result in a public inquiry next spring and the start of works at the end of 2019. The Cabinet Secretary did recently talk in this Chamber about the A465, but I’m sure the very specific points you’ve raised will also have been heard by him and his officials, and he’ll be able to address them in due course.

Sorry, I shouldn’t have had that half-term break. Finally finally, then, this time—well, now there are two people who are going to jump up here. Finally finally finally, then, Darren Millar.

Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. Can I also welcome you to your new role and pay tribute to your predecessor? Can I call for two statements, please? The first is a request for an update on special measures at the Betsi Cadwaladr university health board. The Cabinet Secretary and leader of the house will be aware of the fact that an update report was published last week on the situation following the Tawel Fan scandal at the board, and unfortunately it would appear that there have been further delays to the follow-up work that has been conducted at the health board at the moment, and that reports will not now be published until next March, some three and a half years after the publication of the first report that was made available to that health board. Clearly families are looking to try to get some closure on the problems that they have experienced, and of course staff need some closure as well in relation to their positions. Indeed, some staff have moved on and potentially may have escaped some natural justice. So, I wonder whether we can have an update on that particular issue.

Can I also call for a statement from the Cabinet Secretary for environment and rural affairs on the single environment grant? Concerns have been raised with me, by both Conwy and Denbighshire local authorities, regarding the top slicing of this grant and the reduction in its value this year and the impact that that might have on their refuse and waste collection services in particular. I understand that the reductions are around three times the reduction compared to last year's grant and that that is causing them some significant concern. So, it would be good just to have a discussion on that and an opportunity to question the Cabinet Secretary about the rationale for it.

Thank you. In terms of Tawel Fan, the Health and Social Care Advisory Service and Donna Ockenden are now at the report-writing stage and they've confirmed the work can't be completed before early next year. The timetable published reflects that, so I'm sure the Cabinet Secretary will come back to us once that work is complete. I think that work should be allowed to be completed before that happens.

In terms of the environmental grant to local authorities, local authorities have had their money freed up quite considerably this year with a lot of previously hypothecated sums taken away in order to give them maximum ability to manage their own finances. I'm sure the new Minister for local government and public services, who's in the Chamber to hear your remarks, will take them on board when he first addresses this place.

Thank you very much, leader of the house.

Item 4 and item 5: I propose, in accordance with Standing Order 12.24, to take the two motions that are grouped for debate. Does any Member object? No.