Essential to that, Dirprwy Lywydd, are discussions over the UK's future customs relationships with the EU, and we continue to push for full and unfettered participation in the single market, simply because it is vital to Welsh interests. Sixty per cent of identifiable Welsh goods exports go to the EU, and this figure in 2017 rose to over 77 per cent for food and drink exports and 90 per cent for exported lambs. The imposition of any tariffs on non-tariff barriers would be very disadvantageous to Welsh businesses, placing them at a competitive disadvantage to EU-based competitors.

The EAAL report asks us to press the UK Government for preferential market access to safeguard the interests of farming, fishing and food. So excited was Dr Lloyd at that prospect that he repeated a series of canards to go along with it. We know that we have to continue to make the case for the interests of Welsh farming, fishing and food and for credible proposals for future customs arrangements in every available forum, and the report adds weight to the case for a positive evidence-based approach to our future economic partnership with the European Union. Customs arrangements are central to that prospectus. The UK Government's claims that future customs partnerships or maximum facilitations or innovative solutions will minimise disruption to the UK's economy simply do not stand up to scrutiny. It's not to say that they don't have a contribution to make, but the idea that they will solve the problem and solve the problem, most crucially, on the island of Ireland simply is not credible. We will continue to urge the UK Government for those more credible customs proposals, both formally through the existing Joint Ministerial Committee architecture and in bilateral discussions to protect the Welsh economy, because Wales needs to stay in a customs union. The evidence, as David Rees said, points unambiguously in that direction.

Dirprwy Lywydd, the report makes a series of recommendations that revolve around future practical arrangements between the UK and the EU. In line with recommendation 6, for example, we continue to make the case that Welsh businesses, Welsh public services and Welsh universities rely on our ability to attract people from beyond our own borders to make their future here in Wales. To cite just two examples: all meat inspection occupational vets in Wales—every single one of them—are non-UK, EU graduates, while more than a quarter, 27 per cent, of those employed in Wales's food and drink production sectors were born in the European Union. 

The committee's report highlights the emphasis being placed upon citizenship rights by the European Parliament Brexit taskforce, and rightly points out that agreement on this issue is in everyone's interests. The Welsh Government will continue to engage with the UK Government on timescales for the publication of its long-awaited immigration White Paper, in the hope that it will present a credible proposal, allowing businesses and others time to respond and adapt to any future unwelcome restrictions. The UK Government's performance in this area has been especially uncertain. The immigration White Paper was originally scheduled to be published in the summer of last year. That was delayed to the late autumn of last year and then put off even further to the end of this year. The migration advisory committee was commissioned to produce a report by September of this year. That at least held out the possibility that policy would be informed by evidence. I now see reports that the new Home Secretary intends to publish a White Paper in August, making a mockery of all the efforts that so many businesses and others have made to provide information to the migration advisory committee exercise.

Dirprwy Lywydd, I turn now to what the report says about the essential issues of public protection and public health arrangements after Brexit. As the committee recognised, pan-EU co-operation is vital to Welsh security and prosperity. In health, disease does not recognise national borders. The report highlights the unequivocal benefit that the UK's continued membership of, or involvement in, agencies relating to the field of disease prevention and public health in Europe brings for all concerned. If any future deal reduces the scope for Welsh NHS collaboration with the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, for example, it could cause delays in reporting and disease tracking, hamper outbreak response, reduce the effectiveness of pandemic preparedness planning and response, and lead to significant intelligence gaps for infectious diseases. 

Of course, our interest in continuing co-operation with the EU goes well beyond health matters. Innovation services, for example, also hugely benefit from access to EU agencies and programmes, allowing cross-border collaborative research and partnerships that enable Welsh research institutions to play their part on the world stage. The report makes a number of recommendations in support of continued Welsh investment in key EU programmes and networks. But Government support of these recommendations in principle simply reflects the unknown nature of some of the important technicalities that surround membership eligibility. We just do not yet know, for example, if sub-national state investment in some future EU programmes will be allowable post membership. That's why, in our response, we emphasise the advantages to the whole of the UK of a UK Government effort to secure participation in the successor programmes to Horizon 2020, Erasmus+ and so on.

In the meantime, and in order to support the participation of Welsh organisations in European programmes and networks, the Welsh Government has established the European transition fund. This resource, supported by an initial input of £50 million by the Welsh Government, will allow us to support future engagement following the conclusion of the transition period. The fund will be developed in partnership with Welsh businesses, public services and other key organisations, of the sort identified by Jane Hutt, for example, in civil society in order to provide support that is targeted and tailored to the needs of beneficiaries. I hope, Dirprwy Lywydd, that we will announce very shortly the first tranche of projects with more to follow in coming months.