Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 2:47 pm on 23 January 2018.
Leader of the house, I had two issues I wanted to raise. Last week, I helped launch a comic book aimed at five- and six-year-olds to encourage more of them, particularly girls—a subject I know is close to the Cabinet Secretary's heart—to study science, called Ada's Adventures in Science. This idea came from my constituent, Dr Edward Gomez, who is a lecturer at Cardiff University. Would it be possible to have a statement about what more can be done to plug the gap that Wales has in terms of the numbers of young people going on to study STEM subjects, particularly at A-level, as there is a big drop-off after GCSEs, and taking up science-based careers?
That was the first one. The second one is that, on Saturday, I held an event in my constituency to encourage people to take up cycling for everyday journeys, short journeys. We had an absolutely fantastic response from the community. Lots of issues came up, such as car-free cycle routes and places to shower when you get to your place of work. Of course, in Cardiff, we are having two big employers moving to the centre of Cardiff—HMRC and the BBC. Hopefully, many of those staff will cycle. So, could we have a statement about what the Welsh Government could do to encourage employers to promote cycling to work and provide facilities for cyclists, such as bike parking and showers?