We now turn to spokespeople's questions, and the first party spokesperson is Suzy Davies. 

Diolch, Dirpwy Lywydd. Gweinidog, the UK Government launched its 'Creative industries: Sector Deal' last month, forecasting a UK gross value added of £150 billion by 2023. They're committing tens of millions of pounds to that. Now, here, progress seems to be characterised by the fact that I'm still waiting, nine months now, for answers about conflicts of interest affecting the media investment fund. I'm wondering whether Creative Wales is real or imaginary. What have you identified as being useful in the UK deal, as complementing or enhancing cultural policy, particularly here in Wales, especially film and television, and what might be adapted for use in your own contribution to the wider Wales creative industries policy, any details of which we eagerly await?

Thank you for the question.

We very much welcome the UK Government's intervention on the creative industries deal. We have developed, and will be announcing, the precise nature of the activity of Creative Wales and its location within Government, which is shared by the Cabinet Secretary and myself. This will become clear very soon, and I'll be very pleased to meet with the Member and to discuss this issue in greater detail, in particular in its application to the Swansea city deal, about which I know she is particularly interested.

Turning to the broader issue of broadcasting, we have the announcement from Channel 4 of their intention to relocate. We are looking here for one of the hubs, because there's already been an announcement of three new nations and regions hubs, to be coming to Wales, and there is also the issue of the location of the national headquarters to be opened in 2019, and we see this as something that certainly we would campaign for, and have already campaigned for as a Government, with the support of the media industry in Wales.

Thank you for that answer. Obviously, we're all quite excited by Channel 4's news and two of the local authorities in my area are already lobbying quite hard on that, although I have to say that there's more to this than Channel 4 and Yr Egin. We are the best part of two years into this Government period now and I would have hoped to have had some clarity on creative industries development, particularly the cultural element for which you are responsible, although of course I understand that you've not been the Minister for that period of time.

I see that you'll be speaking at the launch of Wales Tourism Week pretty shortly. You'll be aware of the recent Federation of Small Businesses report that claims that specific Welsh Government funds for supporting tourism are, 'out of reach' for most small tourism businesses, suggesting that

'the vast majority of tourism operators...would have to plan to double in size' to be in with a shout of getting,

'support from the Micro Small Business Fund', which doesn't sound very micro to me, I must admit.

In the same way that Cadw has been very successful in adopting a more adventurous business model, so could our smaller heritage operators. I'm wondering how many heritage business operators are too small to benefit from these tourism grants, and how do you make sure that Visit Wales targets those who actually are big enough to benefit?

Thank you very much for that further question. I have indeed seen and studied the report by the Federation of Small Businesses. I think it would be very helpful if we had a meeting with them as well in order to assess more clearly what evidence is the basis of their report, because, certainly, as far as I'm concerned, I'm seeking to organise our funds for tourism in such a way as to make them accessible to all who produce relevant business plans for my department, so that we can assess the kind of investment that we can make.

We have placed tourism quite firmly as a foundation sector in the economic action plan of Welsh Government, which emphasises that regionalisation is important to us in terms of the development of the tourism industry. I have retained, with the support of my colleague the Cabinet Secretary, four regions for the purposes of tourism, which is slightly different to the Government's approach on the economic side, because I do believe that the contribution that comes from mid Wales to tourism, and the potential there, is something that we need to support, and that would certainly mean supporting smaller industries.

As regards the current fund, the Government is currently looking carefully as to how we can restructure and bring together some of our pots in a further development and enterprise fund, and the tourism element in that would certainly be available to as wide a section of the economy as possible.

Thank you for that answer. I'm hoping—in response to the last part of what you said there—that when you're talking about tourism businesses, it's not just about accommodation, but about small heritage owners as well, because obviously the combined offer of good accommodation and interesting heritage should actually be an advantage to Wales.

Just to finish on that theme of income generation, if I can put it like that, or business opportunities, the prestigious UK Museum of the Year award shortlist was published earlier this week, and the winner of that prize will receive £100,000, which is a substantial contribution to any museum's business plan, particularly those smaller or specialist museums that have actually won the award from time to time in the past. The prize has only ever been won once by a Welsh museum, 13 years ago. Why do you think that is?

I don't even remember which museum won the prize.

Big Pit. 

Well, that's not a small museum.

No, no, but others are.

Certainly, I have met with the association representing museums. What we are working on emphasising—. If she has read, which I'm sure she has, the remit letter that I sent fairly recently to National Museum Wales, we emphasise the importance of working closely with local museums and with regional hubs in terms of museums. I'm very keen to see how we can develop this further in creating partnerships in the tourism regions I've just described, between museums, so that people can undertake a tour of different museums within a region, so that they can enjoy the offer that we have.

I don't know why, to answer her first question, the museums in Wales have not benefited from that particular prize, but I will certainly find out in greater detail what the criteria are for this award. But as far as we're concerned, we welcome the collaboration with both local authority museums and heritage sites that have museums on them that are in private ownership. In particular, I have visited a number of privately owned wonderful castles, many of them in parts of the world that will be well known to her in the Tywi valley. I know how much people who care for these particular monuments are pleased to be working with Cadw in terms of the organisation of the place, while also clearly benefiting from the numbers of visitors, who are paying visitors, to their properties.

Thank you. Plaid Cymru spokesperson, Adam Price. 

Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. Cabinet Secretary, this month's edition of Modern Railways magazine, which I know is required reading material for all Assembly Members, reported that future Valleys lines trains will no longer offer toilets on board for passengers. I'd like you to confirm whether or not this is the case. But, before you do that, I'd like to point out that there are two aspects to this question, really.

In the short term, it's suggested that, in order to avoid failing accessibility requirements and disability legislation, instead of proactively upgrading the existing Pacer stock to comply with the persons of reduced mobility specifications, the Welsh Government has opted to lock the toilets instead. Now, you've denied that, but I'd like you to set out in detail how you plan to make the Pacer trains compliant with the legislation.

The second element, looking to the future, is that it's widely believed that light rail trains, which do not normally include toilets, are being considered for some of the Valleys lines as part of the development of the south Wales metro. Can you confirm that it's the bidding companies that will decide whether or not toilets will be provided on board these new trains? As toilets take up significant space, which impacts on revenues, it doesn't take an expert, perhaps, to guess what their recommendations may be.

I can assure the Member that doors will not be locked on trains to get around regulations that require operators to provide facilities for people of limited mobility. The bidders in the procurement exercise have been challenged with demonstrating how they will ensure that rolling stock complies with the regulations that are coming into force shortly, and it will require them to do that without the locking of any doors whatsoever.

Equally, as part of the procurement exercise, we undertook a number of consultations with passengers and the wider public to ascertain exactly what it was that people prioritised when they were considering whether or not to use railways. Public transport and the quality of rolling stock were amongst the most important and significant factors in determining whether to use the train or their own private car. And so, as a consequence, this has become one of the primary areas of concern during the procurement process. We've required the bidders to demonstrate how they will ensure that there are toilet facilities on board trains.

I'd like to turn, if I may, to another transport-related issue. Last week, the Welsh Government afforded opposition parties the opportunity to be given a technical briefing on the proposals for the M4 relief road. I'm grateful to the Cabinet Secretary and officials for that. Last week, you issued a written statement providing us with an update, and in that statement you said that in recognition of the importance of this matter you were committing to a debate in Government time before a final decision is made by Welsh Ministers on whether the project goes ahead. Can you clarify, Cabinet Secretary, whether that debate will involve a meaningful vote on an amendable motion? I think that's the phrase that we use under these circumstances. When it came to the comparable projects at a UK level, the high speed 2 line, Crossrail, the third runway, in all those cases, it was Parliament that made the decision on a motion before the House of Commons. So, can you confirm that that will be the case in our case, and if we decline to give our consent that that will not be interpreted as us having made a consent decision and leading the project going ahead regardless?

Can I thank Adam Price, not just for his question, but also for attending the technical briefing that took place? I've decided to hold further technical briefings on this issue, because I'm aware that a number of Members, unfortunately, weren't able to attend last week, and I'll be sharing details of those briefings as soon as they've been arranged.

In terms of the debate that we have committed to here, initially, as the leader of the house already indicated, the consideration was focused on whether or not it should be a 'to-note' debate. Now, we are now consulting with lawyers not just on the form of the debate, but also on the timing of the debate, and as soon as I'm able to provide full details of what the debate will take the form of and the date of that debate, I'll bring it to the Chamber.

Could I—? Certainly, I think it would be widely shared, not just on these benches, that that has to be a debate on a meaningful vote and an amendable motion, and that the Welsh Government decision must reflect the view of this Chamber.

Could I finally turn to other road projects? There's been talk of a Bontnewydd and Caernarfon bypass for over a decade. The work was originally intended to start in 2016, and to be finished this year, yet here we are in 2018, decision hasn't even been made on whether or not to proceed with the project. Closer to home to me, the Llandeilo bypass that was agreed as part of our budget agreement last year is already running behind schedule: the route appraisals were meant to be completed in the summer of last year; the appraisal only started in January. So, it's at least four months late, and probably will be at least 10 months delayed, even though we were told the construction would start at the end of 2019. Is it not the case, Cabinet Secretary, that the reason for the delays in cases such as this is that the M4 relief road is not just poised to consume the majority of Welsh Government expenditure in this area, it's also been consuming most of your officials' time?

Look, I would urge caution in calling for concrete to be poured as soon as possible in road projects that are in individuals' constituencies and yet urging caution and restraint on building M roads and other major pieces of infrastructure. We need to be able to demonstrate that we are approaching every piece of infrastructure development in a dispassionate way and in a way that is objective, and that's the reason why we're setting up the national infrastructure commission for Wales, to be able to inform decisions in a depoliticised way with the assistance of experts.

I can tell the Member that, with regard to the Caernarfon to Bontnewydd bypass, this has taken up considerable amount of resource in terms of the independent inspectorate and in terms of Government officials' time, but I have sufficient officials to be able to deal with both this and the M4 and, indeed, many other projects, and I'll be making a decision in the coming three weeks on that particular programme. But the reason that it has taken time—and it's right to take time over such a project, given not just the cost but also the number of people who have engaged in the process of consultation—the inspector considered 20 expressions of support, but he also considered 160 objections, and in addition to this, there were 20 alternative routes that were proposed as part of the inquiry process. It's absolutely right that we uphold our statutory duties in giving careful consideration to an inspector's report before reaching a final decision, and certainly before pouring that concrete as the Member wishes us to do.

Thank you. UKIP spokesperson, David Rowlands.

Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. Could the Cabinet Secretary give us an update on micro-hydro schemes in Wales?

Well, this is a subject that is of concern across the Government. It forms part of 'Prosperity for All', it's a subject that I'm working closely with, not just with my colleague the Cabinet Secretary, but also with the Minister for Environment, working to ensure that small-scale energy schemes, and, indeed, larger-scale energy schemes, deliver benefits to local communities. That's why ambitious targets have already been set out by the Cabinet Secretary.

In 2015, Chris Blake of the Green Valleys (Wales) said his company had identified at least 500 sites in Wales suitable for micro-hydro projects. The Guardian in that year highlighted a hill farmer in Wales who said the installation of his 18 KW generator had doubled the income of his farm and was effective 24 hours a day. Given the parlous state of our hill farmers due to common agricultural policy policies, surely it would be a goodwill gesture by the Welsh Government to subsidise such schemes for our hill farmers, with the obvious added bonus of cutting carbon emissions? Of course, we do have some community hydro schemes in Wales, but, with more Welsh Government help, there could be many more. Surely, Cabinet Secretary, it is time to take a serious look at the these small hydro schemes, especially in the light of the appalling comments on the Swansea bay project yesterday by UK business Minister Lord Henley?

Absolutely. I couldn't agree more, but we are already helping farmers and other people living in rural areas to develop micro-hydro schemes, funding schemes and also offering advice. I'm particularly pleased to see UKIP having converted to supporting sustainable methods of generating energy, and renewable energy at that.

Well, Cabinet Minister, it appears that one of the major obstacles to these micro schemes and the larger community schemes is—. According to Western Distribution in 2015, the grid for rural Wales was at full capacity. Is this still the case, and, if so, is the Welsh Government able to do anything to alleviate this problem?

Scotland is now a world leader in renewable energy, and part of this success is that hydro power increased last year by 9 per cent. Does the Cabinet Secretary have figures for Wales? And, Cabinet Secretary, Wales is one of the wettest places in Europe. Surely we have the potential to emulate Scotland in hydro schemes, which, after all, are far less obtrusive in our landscape than those wind and solar farms? It appears that hydro power has, for far too long, been the cinderella in the mix of renewable energies in Wales.

I don't mind the Member talking about Wales being the wettest country in Britain in this Chamber, but please don't tell any of the tourists who are thinking of coming here.

I'll ask the Cabinet Secretary for environment to write with details concerning the uptake of projects in relation to micro-hydro plants.FootnoteLink The national grid is a responsibility of UK Government, and both I and my colleague the Cabinet Secretary have met very recently with the National Grid, and I can confirm that your assertion is absolutely right: the grid needs to be strengthened, and that requires additional infrastructure spend by UK Government. There are huge opportunities that National Grid can offer and are looking at, in particular a scheme on Deeside industrial estate that could see a particular plant that they have there become a centre of excellence in research and development. But underlying all of this is the need to strengthen the grid as a whole. Actually, one of the problems that we're facing with the roll-out of superfast charging points for electric vehicles is the lack of strength within the existing grid, and to bring the grid up to a sufficient standard requires a huge amount of capital spend. So, again, it's absolutely vital that UK Government looks favourably on the proposals that are being put to it by National Grid for what I believe would be 50 superfast charging points across the UK in strategic points, and that we get delivering those points as soon as possible.

Information further to Plenary

Thank you very much. We now return to questions on the order paper, and question 4—Russell George.