The next item is a statement by the Minister for Culture, Tourism and Sport: accessible monuments for all.

Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer. Our heritage and culture belong to us all, and it gives me enormous pleasure to speak to you today about the vital work that is being undertaken to improve access to our very special monuments and here in Wales. Our spectacular natural landscapes and our world-class sites have more than contributed to the record number of visitors over recent years to Cadw sites, which illustrates what our impressive Cadw sites have to offer.

Ensuring that sites attract as many people as possible, as well as making them accessible, has been a real priority for the Welsh Government and Cadw. Many of our sites have recently taken great strides to achieve this. From Criccieth castle in the north-west to Castell Coch in the south-east, I have had the enormous pleasure to see at first-hand some of these improvements. The improvements range from new visitor centres and vantage points to renovations, improved accessibility and cutting-edge displays—all delivered without detracting from how special the original buildings are.

Cadw continues in its efforts to enhance, expand and introduce new schemes and initiatives in order to generate interest among the people of Wales in our history and encouraging them to enjoy and make the most of our monuments. One example of this is free, educational visits to Cadw sites. There is no better way to enthuse and captivate young people than by seeing their history and heritage coming to life. It is important that we encourage future generations to have an interest in our legacy, because, after all, they will be the guardians of our heritage in the future. We are also pleased to say that foster children and the families who care for them can visit all historic monuments in Cadw’s care free of charge, through the partnership with Action for Children.

The timebanking scheme is also very important partnership that enables volunteers who have registered for timebanking programmes, and who work in support of their local communities, to spend credits earned through time given on visits to all monuments in Cadw’s care. We are also running the Cadw rewards scheme, namely supported visits that are offered free of charge to organisations that work with families and individuals with complex needs.

And I'm very proud of the new Cadw monument pass, which will offer holders repeated access to a site. The pass is part of the action being undertaken to cater for every taste. We continue to offer free access to disabled visitors and their carers, children under five, and visitors who attend Open Doors events. 

Once again this year, there was free access to all Cadw sites on 1 March in celebration of St David’s Day, including popular sites such as Caernarfon, Caerphilly and Kidwelly castles—although it was more of a challenge this year because of the snow.

In addition to introducing schemes to widen access to heritage sites, investment has also been made to improve physical access at a number of Cadw sites. Over recent years, bridges have been installed at Caernarfon and Harlech castles, both of which are part of a world heritage site. These offer an alternative means to access the entrance of both castles, as opposed to the staircase, and they improve accessibility to the sites. More recently, a new lift has been installed at Criccieth castle, which provides more visitors with the opportunity to view the interpretation and exhibitions at the new visitor centre.

Of course, providing visitors with an opportunity to understand and learn about the buildings and their historic legacy is just as important as increasing the opportunities available to visit them. Cadw does this by interpreting history through the form of compelling storytelling, which is presented in an imaginative way.

Our aim is to provide more interactive opportunities to visitors. The new interpretation at Beaumaris castle, for example, delivers a digital tour with pictures, text and audio in the form of an app. At the Criccieth castle visitor centre, there are audio-visual films with sound and bilingual subtitles, and interactive hands-on activities. There is a re-enactment film on display featuring CGI images, which is shown at the visitor centre, and a digital points of interest tour delivered through the Cadw app, which is available to all, including those who may not be able to access the most difficult parts of the castle themselves.

Cadw’s compelling events programme also attracts some people who ordinarily might not choose to visit historic sites. Cadw runs more than 500 events and days out across Wales, including large re-enactment events, art exhibitions, outdoor cinema showings and live performances, including theatre and rock bands. As part of these events, it was a pleasure to meet the Man Engine recently at Blaenavon historical ironworks.

It’s also worth noting that the Live the Legends 2017 campaign by Cadw has exceeded the record-breaking success seen in 2016, by attracting more than 132,000 visitors to meet the dragons on their tour of Wales. Every September, as part of the Open Doors programme, hundreds of venues, including those that are normally closed, open their doors to the public free of charge. During 2017, this featured 344 venues welcoming over 44,000 visitors. 

Cadw also has a good track record of working with partners to deliver events that bring our history alive for communities. That relationship will continue, and will be built upon with the National Trust and the members of the Historic Wales strategic partnership, including sharing best practices on digital developments, membership, catering and retail.

We are fortunate in Wales that we have such a rich history and heritage, and despite the good work that’s going on, we have to continue to encourage yet more people to enjoy, understand and learn about our history and the monuments. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Suzy Davies.

Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer, and thank you for that statement.

It's very pleasing, of course, to have such a positive round-up of Cadw's successes in this last year or so. Obviously, I'm not going to say that I disagree with any of these. They've obviously made a difference in many of these cases, and I particularly liked the announcement on foster families. And actually, I thought the timebanking introduction was a pretty interesting one as well.

I did want to ask you, though—. These are Cadw properties. I'm going to make my perennial plea for Neath abbey, of course. I know you can't be everywhere, but Neath is an area of high deprivation, and an area of under-exploited tourism potential as well. While free entry to sites is great, they're actually pretty free at Neath abbey because there's no visitor experience there. So, if you can give me any update on that, that would be great.

I would have liked to hear a little bit more, as well, about how access to heritage—. Even though it inspires younger people, it also has a place in a strategy for the local economy, particularly for my region, based on skills and tourism, effectively. So, when we talk about access to monuments, I think we need to be talking about access to work as a result of access to monuments as well. So, I don't know if you can fill me in a little bit on that.

My next question is about cash. There's no reference to money in this statement at all. While I commend Cadw's—as far as I know—very successful attempts to raise money through its charging system, I'm not clear whether this is a bit of a virtuous circle and whether this primary income, and indeed the secondary income that's raised from visitors who come for free, are ploughed back into Cadw's coffers or whether they're ploughed back into the Welsh Government's general pot, or, if they are ploughed back into Cadw, whether that's used as a reason by Government to reduce the amount that Cadw then gets centrally from the budget.

Then, my final point is: not all monuments, of course, are owned by Cadw. Arguably, I think where the help might start to be needed now is with monuments in the ownership of local authorities. Because I'm not convinced, from the Cadw sites I've visited, that they're still doing their very best to promote other monuments, or other sites of interest, actually, within the immediate area that might be owned by local authorities, or—and I'm glad you pointed this out in your speech, actually—owned by the community or possibly, even, private owners. When visitors visit an area, they visit an area. They don't necessarily hop from Cadw site to Cadw site to Cadw site around the peripheries of Wales. So, if you can update us on what Cadw's doing in terms of access to monuments that they don't own, I think that would be very helpful.

I just wanted to say briefly as well, in supporting and encouraging community ownership, I'd really like to hear perhaps from you separately on that in the future, because I think it's a great idea. Thank you.

Diolch yn fawr. Thank you for those questions. As regards Neath abbey, I'm very happy to make a visit there with you, if that would be helpful, and then we can see what we can do further with that particular site.

In terms of the impact on the local economy, Cadw does have apprenticeships and does develop training of all kinds for the skills that are very valuable to it, as indeed does National Museum Wales. I've recently been able to meet with the various apprentices that have been trained and have developed skills, which means that the substantial skills that we have in the restoration of heritage buildings is available not only to the public sector, but to Wales more generally.

Now, as regards the expenditure and income of Cadw, I note that there has been no significant reduction in the level of expenditure that is allocated and has been undertaken by Cadw over the period since 2013 through to 2017, but there has been a significant increase in the income that Cadw has generated, from about £4.8 million, right through to £7 million—£7.537 million actually—at the latest count. The figure I have here is, in fact, for 2017. Now, that £7.5 million income of Cadw is income that is gained by Cadw, and I can assure you that we are not in the habit, in a small and perfectly formed department, like the one that we have, of sharing our gains with the rest of Government. We have not been asked to turn the Cadw profit into the overall Government coffers, but, in fact, this will return to ensure that the further work will be undertaken on the restoration and maintenance of heritage. Diolch.

May I thank the Minister for his statement on accessible monuments for all? Now, of course, accessibility to monuments isn’t a new challenge. The castles of the middle ages naturally were built to prevent accessibility, and it was quite a challenge to survive that. It cost a great deal at the time to prevent people from accessing these sites. Notably, Owain Glyndŵr had a few successes in overcoming the lack of accessibility to a number of castles here in Wales, which naturally builds a route for the work of the Minister in improving the accessibility of those monuments from the middle ages. Of course, things have now changed, and castles that once suppressed now attract visitors. The question that follows on from that is: what exactly are you as Minister doing to promote the real history of oppression of our nation, more than just encouraging people to look at these monuments through an architectural orbit only?

Later in your statement, you mentioned Live the Legends 2017, and in considering that, I’m reminded of that time when someone had the wonderful idea of having an iron ring at Flint castle. I don’t know what analysis has been done of that initiative or who had that absurd idea in the first place. You mentioned towards the end of your statement, and I agree with you, that we must encourage community ownership of our monuments and heritage in order to secure their future for years to come. 'Hear, hear', I say.

And, of course, local historical place names play a crucial part in our heritage. Indeed, our historic place names in and of themselves are part of the story of accessibility to monuments. Without a name, where does one go? Given the failure of my Bill last year in this place to safeguard historic place names, as you will know, there is no statutory safeguarding for our historical place names now, unlike other issues: certain plant species have greater protection than our historical place names. So, what steps will you be taking to safeguard historical place names here in Wales? Thank you.

We do have a lengthy register of historical place names, which is available online, as the Member knows. It was decided not to pursue a legislative approach in this area, but that resource is clearly available, and, indeed, the desire to use indigenous, Welsh, Celtic or Latin names on lands and sites and holdings and houses in Wales has increased as compared with the use of English names over the past few years. But I’m not going to pursue that particular issue any further because I am mainly discussing monuments today.

The good news is that we are looking forward, in Cadw, not only to maintaining our current castles and monuments—and I assume we will have to make a contribution to this—but to take ownership of more castles in the future, including a castle built by Dafydd ap Gruffydd ap Llywelyn with income from the then English monarch. But later, Dafydd ap Gruffydd ap Llywelyn actually made a pact with his brother, and he then became the last Prince of Wales to build castles in Wales. Our intention, therefore, is to produce particular material for visitors that will focus on the historical monuments that have been built or invaded and occupied over a lengthy period of time by the Welsh princes. That, of course, includes what we’ve already done on Owain Glyndŵr in Harlech castle. If you haven’t had the opportunity to visit that castle recently, and particularly the interpretation provided there, it is a national interpretation, as it should be, by the Welsh Government, and Cadw on behalf of the Welsh Government, of what has happened there.

I’m not going to make any comment on what was done by Ministers in this post before me who made decisions, and decisions that were ultimately changed. I don’t think that would be appropriate.

But may I just say one other thing on Criccieth castle and Owain Glyndŵr? Certainly, Owain Glyndŵr succeeded in burning at least some of the stones in Criccieth castle. I had the privilege of seeing the remains of that fire recently, and I’m sure it would light a fire even in the heart of an old nationalist such as the Member who asked those questions.

I'd just like to follow up, as Dai Lloyd started his questions, by asking the Minister whether he agrees with me that history is not something that should be read but should be experienced by each generation so that it understands how it fits into the continuum of a nation's history. That's absolutely vital to the success of any nation. As Alexis de Tocqueville wrote nearly 200 years ago, as the past ceases to shed its light on the future, the mind of man wanders in obscurity. Therefore, national monuments and accessibility to them is absolutely vital in the education of any civilised person, but also it's essential to the understanding of how the nation has developed as it has and where we all fit within it. 

And so I'm delighted to welcome the success of Cadw and its events programme and to laud the extent to which Cadw has been able to popularise its monuments and its activities through re-enactments and art exhibitions and live performances. History, when I was young, was taught as a kind of dry-as-dust subject and it's vital that we get away from that if we are to enthuse the younger generation to understand the importance of these things, not just for the economic value, although that's vitally important as well, as Suzy Davies pointed out earlier on, but the revenue that is raised is for a purpose, and that is to bring the monuments that we inherit from the past into a better state of repair and also to make them even more accessible to future generations than is the case in ours.

I realise it may be a little premature for the Minister to make any comment on the recommendations of the culture committee very recently on the historic environment, but the collaboration with the National Trust is a very important element, I think, of Cadw's success for the future, to increase its revenues and improve its digital interpretation tools across historic sites in Wales, and I wonder if the Minister is able to give us any further update upon what Cadw intends to do in this respect.

My second and last point is to welcome the last part of the statement, where the Minister mentioned Cadw's track record of working with partners to deliver events that bring history alive for communities and his affirmation that these relationships will continue to be built upon. In our report of the culture committee, in recommendation 10, we requested that there should be a clear timeline of progress, measurable milestones, for the development of the Historic Wales partnership, and I wonder whether we're in a position as yet to give any indication of what those timelines and measurable milestones might be today or in the near future.

Thank you, I'm grateful for those questions. I just want to say I will be responding in detail to the issues raised in the committee report and there will be a full Government response in the usual way to those recommendations and I would prefer to deal with that through that particular response. But I would like to take advantage of some of the points he's asked to reply more specifically to one question that Suzy Davies asked earlier, which is what Cadw does to promote non-Cadw sites. There are displays, of course, and information is produced about other sites on all Cadw sites—other attractions that are privately owned. There are reciprocal arrangements for discounts and for promotions between museums and castles. There is also a promotion run alongside, with the National Trust, where visitors can get half-price entry on a Cadw or National Trust site if you visit two sites on the same day and you've paid full entry price to one. Now, I'm not sure whether that's sufficiently widely publicised, but that does happen.

Sites that are not cared for by Cadw are included in Cadw's north and south maps, of which 60,000 are distributed in various attractions. Where I've had the opportunity to visit castles that are in the ownership of landowners, particularly recently in Carmarthenshire, I can say that the arrangement always is that where Cadw can assist with promotion and advice on the conservation of the buildings, and where there is an opportunity to charge, or there is a facility for part of the season to charge, then generally that benefit is shared between the landowner and Cadw—it's usually about a ratio of 60:40. So, that's how Cadw operates alongside those who have the responsibility for private sector attractions.

Diolch yn fawr—thank you.