Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. I am delighted to open this debate on the Petitions Committee’s report on disabled people’s access to public transport services in Wales. Can I acknowledge at the outset that the Welsh Government's response to the report and its recommendations has been extremely positive?

The petition that led to this report was submitted by young people from Whizz-Kidz, an organisation that supports young people with disabilities, and I want to start by paying tribute to everyone who was involved for their commitment to campaigning for improvements to public transport services in Wales. The young people the committee met with, and those who provided their views to us in a video, helped us to better understand the challenges that disabled people face every time they try to use public transport to go about their daily lives. I thank the petitioners for bringing these issues into focus for us, and warmly congratulate them on the way they have pushed their petition forward.

The petition calls for disabled people to have the same rights to access public transport as anyone else in Wales. One of the young people we spoke to described his aspirations in the following way: 'I’m 13 now, I would like to be like everyone else, go around without telling someone 20 times, so I can get to where I’m going and come back with no problems.'

In their evidence to us, the petitioners outlined their experiences with a range of public transport and raised a large number of issues. These included difficulties travelling at short notice or when it is not possible to request assistance in advance, and poor infrastructure, which can prevent people from travelling at all. There was also a lack of support from some staff, which can make people feel vulnerable or burdensome. The committee heard that these problems can make it more difficult for people to access education, employment and social opportunities. This can have a major impact on people’s independence, confidence and self-esteem. A number of petitioners mentioned that they wanted access to public transport on demand, not having to book some time in advance. They wanted to turn up and go, the same as their able-bodied friends.

The petitioners have described their experiences of using trains, buses and taxis. As a result, we held evidence sessions with organisations involved in providing these modes of public transport. We would like to thank everyone involved for the evidence they provided. Full details of this work is naturally contained in our report. Having heard this evidence, we made 12 recommendations. Time will not allow me to speak about all of these today. However, suffice to say, we concluded that improvements were required across all modes of public transport, and I wish to highlight some of our key recommendations.

In relation to rail services, we believe that improvements need to be made to stations, trains and the support provided by staff. In our report, we recognise that elements of this are not devolved or are currently in the process of being devolved. Nevertheless, there is clearly a lot that the Welsh Government can do, and I particularly want to highlight the opportunity the Welsh Government currently has through the process to award the next Wales and borders rail franchise. The potential exists to ensure that the next franchise agreement contains requirements for significant improvements to be made to the accessibility of rail services, which would benefit people across Wales. The Petitions Committee has also proposed that accessibility should be included as a performance measure in the next franchise, and I am pleased that the Cabinet Secretary has accepted our recommendations on this.