Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I'd, first of all, like to thank the Chair and the members of the Petitions Committee for their report, and on behalf of the Welsh Government, I am delighted to accept all 12 recommendations put forward by the committee in today's debate. The way that the debate has been conducted reflects the way that the committee behaved during the course of its inquiry, and I, again, would like to place on record my congratulations to the committee for the excellent work that has been undertaken.

As I said in my written response to the report and the committee's recommendations, the petition that was submitted by Whizz-Kids, seeking action to ensure that disabled people can access public transport when they need it, I think, brought into sharp focus the barriers faced by disabled people when using the public transport network across Wales, and, in particular, the video evidence submitted to the committee in support of the petition was a powerful illustration of the difficulties that disabled people encounter when accessing services that pretty much all of us in this Chamber take for granted.

I'd like to commend Whizz-Kids for the work that they and the Petitions Committee have done to highlight some of those issues. I share the frustration expressed by disabled people and people with restricted mobility when trying to use our public transport system. I did find it quite harrowing at times, learning about the daily challenges that are faced by people who just simply want to be better connected to other people, to other places, to services and to work.

Deputy Presiding Officer, it's my belief that too many train stations in Wales remain inaccessible and that too much of the rolling stock on our network is simply not up to the standard that we should accept in 2018. But, in delivering the Welsh rail services for the future, Transport for Wales will be working with Network Rail and the next train operator to improve access to rail for all people. Change, of course, won't happen overnight, but it must happen.

I welcome the committee's support for our proposals to introduce statutory guidance in relation to the quality of local bus services and for the delivery of local bus infrastructure. We have made some progress in relation to better bus services by using the funding that we provide through our bus services support grant to improve the quality of local bus services as set out in our voluntary Welsh bus quality standards.

Bus operators are installing audiovisual next-stop announcement systems to their buses, and I congratulate Cardiff Bus, Newport Transport and Arriva Bus north Wales, who have all made excellent progress over the last four years in this regard. I'd also welcome the decision by Stagecoach to invest in newer, smarter and cleaner buses that are also fitted with audiovisual next-stop technology. 

Bus services are improving and we need to improve our bus infrastructure. I'll be bringing forward detailed proposals in the spring for how we can plan to address these issues in the future, together with how we can improve taxis and private hire vehicle services through a better licensing regime, tailored to meet the needs of the people in Wales—all people in Wales. As I recently announced, I believe it was in October last year, media reports about disabled access to taxis will be addressed. Disability Wales said people are being ignored and being refused cab journeys, leaving them stranded and humiliated—stranded and humiliated. That is something that no person should ever feel when travelling from A to B.

We were told that better training for front-line transport staff is a critical requirement if we are to address the issues we have discussed today. In December, I published a policy statement with six outcome-focused objectives that are designed to improve access to our public transport network, including organising better training for staff delivering our public transport services. The quality of training is, of course, as Mark Isherwood said, absolutely crucial. We will make sure that the best quality training is provided to transport services.