It's easy to see these regulations—wrongly—as part of a policy on culture; it's actually a health measure that we're talking about today, and we will be supporting the regulations on the basis that half a loaf is better than no bread. I heard the eloquent plea by Siân Gwenllian today to go further, and I very much sympathise with it. It won't please them to know it, but Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg have produced some written evidence with which I very largely agree. They say that they recommend a specific stance should be added confirming the rights of both in-patients and out-patients to receive clinical consultation, treatment and care through the medium of Welsh, and Siân Gwenllian has explained why this is very necessary for the very young, for perhaps the very old, and perhaps the not so old, who unfortunately suffer from dementia or related conditions, where the ability to attend a consultation through the language in which you can best express yourself is going to be the language through which you may best be diagnosed and therefore treated. That's a vitally important issue, which needs to be properly recognised.

I fully understand the reasons why the Minister has not felt able to go so far, but I do think that Siân Gwenllian made a good point when she referred to the degree of flexibility that exists within the scheme that has been set up by the 2011 Measure. I do believe that there should be an aim set in legislation for the right to receive face-to-face treatment or diagnosis through the language of your choice, and the explanatory memorandum to these regulations does explain why this would not necessarily come into conflict with the obvious practical difficulties that we have, not having enough professionals able to deal with patients through the medium of Welsh. The evidence that we've seen from the British Medical Association is also an interesting point to add to that: we mustn't have the Welsh language being perceived outside Wales as an impediment to the recruitment of professionals within Wales, and I do believe that that is an important point, which we must always bear in mind. But the explanatory memorandum to these regulations explains, I think, quite clearly, that the scheme that the commissioner is obliged to implement gives her—'her' at the moment, at any rate—the power to be flexible, as Siân Gwenllian said. The commissioner may

'require a body to comply with one standard in some circumstances and another standard in other circumstances',

'the Commissioner may require the body to comply with the standard in some circumstances but not others, or require it to comply with the standard only in some areas.'

Similarly, where there are two or more standards relating to a specific conduct,

'the Commissioner may...require a body to comply with one of those standards only, or with different standards at different times, in different circumstances, or in different areas'.

I think that's a fully comprehensive possibility of introducing flexibility into the scheme. So, I do hope that although we'll support these regulations today—and I know for a fact that the Minister would like to go further and is only inhibited by what she sees as practical difficulties at the current time—that, within a relatively short time, we will be able to go further towards the realisation of this objective. Because I do believe that it's important for people to have the assurance that they can use the health service in a way that is best for them. It is a national health service, and that includes, obviously, Welsh speakers—and, indeed, Welsh monoglot speakers, for that matter—as well as everybody else, and so I think it's important for reasons of inclusivity. It's important for reasons, as we all know, of achieving by the year 2050, if we can, a million Welsh speakers, but it's more important, I think, that we see this as a measure that is going to provide the best possible health service for everybody in our country.