Could I also welcome the new Minister to the post? Also, could I congratulate her for saying that she has an open mind? That has characterised her and her attitude towards politics generally, the fact that she does reach out to people. And we greatly need that, I think, in discussing where we go from here with this White Paper because the debate about the annual report, of course, naturally, on the Welsh language commissioner, is under the shadow of a policy, as it stands now in the White Paper, which talks of abolishing the commissioner. As we've heard already today from the leader of Plaid Cymru, the consensus of opinion in Wales—and as we heard from Siân Gwenllian, that is reflected outside Wales—is that that would be an empty step and would ruin the consensus on the language that has been built very carefully over the last decade. So, I would urge the Minister to think again about the way ahead.

It was interesting, wasn't it, to see the 10 language commissioners across the world coming together feeling so passionately about this, because some of them do admire the progress that has been seen in Wales with language policy over the last few years, but they were concerned, to tell the truth, that there is an error being made here. Commissioners from Canada, Catalonia and the Basque Country and Flanders and so forth were saying that we have to protect the fundamental principle of the independence of the commissioner and that an independent commissioner individually is the best model that works across the board. They talked of the experiences of Canada in the 1970s, for example, where the fact that the commissioner was completely independent of the political process and the Government was a way to protect linguistic rights in that context.

I was trying to understand what was driving this suggestion, which was stupid, in my opinion, to get rid of a structure that is starting to deliver, as we’ve heard through the assurance report already. What was driving that? Some reference—that is, not much of an evidence base, to tell you the truth—to weaknesses in terms of governance. But, if we look at page 108 onwards of the report, we see that there is robust governance—the need for a strategic plan and performance reviews, and a deputy commissioner there as well, a management team, a risk and assurance committee, external audit and so forth. So, in my opinion, there is quite robust governance there.

Now, that doesn’t mean that we are satisfied with the current situation. There is scope for progress, certainly, but I wouldn’t say that the commissioner, perhaps, is to blame for that. For example, on page 58, there is talk of the private sector. It notes that, for example, with the water and sewerage companies, the commissioner has given a response to this consultation. In terms of the bus and train sector, which was mentioned earlier, the commissioner published a standards report on 1 July last year. That is, the Government is to blame that there’s been no progress in this direction. When we look at the gas and electricity sector and the utilities, the standards report was published by the commissioner in February 2017, and it has been on the desk of the previous Minister. So, could I ask the Minister to say whether we can move on now and have the response of the Government to these standards?

There is a reference on page 50 of the annual report to the freedom to use the Welsh language under section 111 of the Measure. It notes that, since the commissioner was established, 14 of the 18 requests under this Measure didn’t align with the definition of the section. So, since the commissioner’s role was established, there have only been two investigations into cases about the fundamental right to use our own language in our own country. So, there is scope for progress. There is scope in the new Bill to provide a fundamental right to people to speak Welsh. That’s what the Government should focus on, not getting rid of a body, which, according to the evidence that we have, is succeeding very well under the framework that exists at present.