Questions now from the party spokespeople. UKIP spokesperson, David Rowlands.

Diolch, Llywydd. Leader of the house, last Tuesday, I attended the cross-party group on human trafficking. It was gratifying to note the progress being made in combating this evil trade. Whilst we may differ on the causes of these manifestations, we all find this scourge on our society, and its attendant human misery, an abhorrent one. Leader of the house, can you assure us that your Government will remain committed to ending slavery in all its forms in Wales?

Yes, absolutely. We are the first and only country in the UK to appoint an anti-slavery co-ordinator, as I know David Rowlands is well aware. We've established the Wales anti-slavery leadership group to provide the strategic leadership and guidance on how we tackle slavery in Wales, and to provide the best possible support for survivors. We're in the process of the sharing the learning from Wales with other partners, including UK Government departments and with the UK independent anti-slavery commissioner, and we're starting to gain an international recognition for our work on this agenda.

I thank the leader of the house for that comprehensive answer. For the year 2016-17, over 10,000 adult survivors and nearly 4,000 children and young people were provided with support by domestic abuse services in Wales, which include refuge and community-based advocacy. Figures show the national domestic abuse helpline received over 28,000 calls. It is therefore extremely disturbing to hear that at least 500 women in Wales could not be accommodated by refuges because there was no space available. As these refuges afford one of the most important elements in helping domestic abuse victims, why is it that from 2016 to date there have been cuts to refuge services that mean no new refuges are being provided and existing ones may even have to close? Does the leader of the house believe this is an acceptable situation?

No. We're working very hard indeed to make sure that services for people fleeing domestic violence or any kind of sexual violence across Wales are fit for purpose. We have, as David Rowlands knows, the rapid review of gender equality currently under way. I'm due to discuss that on Thursday morning of this week. One of the aims of that, and of the violence against women, domestic abuse and sexual violence Act in Wales, is to do a proper needs assessment across Wales so that we can properly respond to the need and to make sure our resources are well targeted.

I thank the leader of the house for that answer as well. In case you were having withdrawal symptoms, leader of the house, my last question concerns digital infrastructure. So, given that there are still a number of communities, such as Llangenny village in Powys, that are not able to benefit from the Superfast Cymru digital roll-out, is the leader of the house in a position to indicate how the new delivery plan will be designed to include those who are not connected in what we have to say was a very successful first roll-out phase?

Yes. We're in the process at the moment of procuring the second phase of Superfast Cymru. There are a number of tranches to that. It is specifically designed to pick up those communities with the least good service, either of mobile data services or poor broadband download speeds. In addition to that, we have a particular pool for communities who wish to get together to get a solution for their whole community of whatever sort, and we're very happy to talk to any community that wants to come together to get a bespoke solution for them.

Plaid Cymru spokesperson, Siân Gwenllian.

Thank you. Yesterday, we had a statement from you on Wales as a nation of sanctuary for refugees and asylum seekers, and I responded to the debate expressing Plaid Cymru’s support for that ambition. I also highlighted one of the major challenges, namely the prejudice that exists towards refugees and asylum seekers, and the misinformation that is distributed. I called for a constructive debate in order to create cultural change. If you look at my Twitter account, you will see that there are responses that are highly prejudicial that appeared as a result of my speech yesterday, and, unfortunately, this does prove why we need to challenge that prejudice at all possible opportunities. My party will continue to make the case for the creation of a nation of sanctuary. Will you commit today to give specific attention to the action that needs to happen in order to deal with this clear prejudice that exists? 

Yes, I share Siân Gwenllian's horror—an appalling reaction to it. I had a similar issue with my own Twitter feed, and I follow Siân Gwenllian on Twitter, so I'm very well aware of what she speaks. Part of the point of the plan is to do exactly that, to combat the prejudicial, prejudiced responses from people who really haven't understood at all what people from other countries bring to the culture and to the service of our country. And, as I said yesterday in the debate, and I very sincerely mean it, it's a two-way process. We assist people who are fleeing all kinds of issues in their home countries, and, in turn, they enrich our country with their art and culture and food and society and skills, and for that, we're very grateful. 

One way of dealing with prejudice is by allowing refugees to play an active part in communities and the workplaces around them. And to do that, of course, they have to be able to get fluency in both languages of our nation, both Welsh and English. Families from Syria who have been welcomed to my area have had an opportunity to make swift progress in acquiring language skills, and recently I had a conversation in Welsh with two young refugees, as well as hearing them speak English fluently, too. But doing away with the minority ethnic achievement grant, which was specific funding for responding to the needs of pupils from minority groups, is going to slow that process of teaching languages to refugees, and will make it very difficult for teachers to give specific attention to this area. Will you commit to try and convince the Cabinet Secretary for Education to reintroduce this grant? I raised this point yesterday and I didn’t get a response on it.

Apologies. You did indeed raise it yesterday. I think there were a series of questions and I neglected to answer it, so apologies for that, Siân Gwenllian. We haven't abolished the grant. It was subsumed into the overall grant, but I take your point. There is a real tension, if you like, between hypothecated and unhypothecated funding across local government, given the austerity agenda still being visited upon us by the UK Government. What we're looking to do is give local authorities flexibility in their funding so that we don't have rigid lines about what they know locally they need to fund. But at the same time, we do need to make sure that our priorities are being met, and so we're looking at a protocol of working with them, which we're reviewing this autumn, and I will undertake very much—in fact, I'm having constant conversations with my colleagues across Government, not just the Cabinet Secretary for Education, because there are a number of grants caught up in this—to make sure that we target the same people, but that the local authority has the flexibility to make sure that the service locally benefits that. And, of course, we have given additional money specifically to cover off some of the issues that the MEAG grant conversation with local government raised.

I share her concerns. We're very keen to hit the right balance between hypothecation, which sometimes has unintended consequences, flexibility, and making sure that the money reaches the communities that it was intended to benefit. 

Thank you for that. It is important that there aren’t unintended consequences happening as a result of changing the way this funding is distributed.

Another group that is suffering extreme prejudice is the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community, and a report published today demonstrates that 45 per cent, almost half, of members of the trans community fear identifying themselves in terms of their gender identity, because that would lead to discrimination. I’d like to ask for an update from you on the plan to create a gender identity scheme here in Wales. I spoke to a person who was working in a gender identity clinic in London, and he said that there were many people travelling there or were travelling to Leeds in order to receive services. The delay before establishing this service in Wales is unacceptable, and it was part of the deal struck between your party and my own at the beginning of this Assembly, but that is two years ago now.   

We've got a number of things happening on that front. We fund Stonewall Cymru—. I just want to start off by saying that, obviously, that kind of discrimination is appalling, and I too was appalled by some of the reports that the BBC was carrying this morning about some of the discrimination. I'm very proud, Llywydd, that the Commission has been recognised for its work in this area, and, clearly, we want to be an exemplar, and make sure that, as part of our economic action plan, we push those kinds of values out.

But there are very specific things that need to be done, so we fund Stonewall Cymru, and that does include funding for a new transgender engagement officer post, specifically to lead on transgender equality issues. And then, in terms of the health department, we absolutely feel that transgender people should have their healthcare needs met as close to home as possible, and we are absolutely committed to doing that. The Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Services has outlined the improvement agenda for identity services in Wales. They are being implemented in a step manner, and supported by an additional £0.5 million. Following detailed discussions, and exploring a number of options, all parties agree that the favoured approach is to develop a service that encompasses both a specialist provision and a bespoke primary care network of prescribing general practitioners. So, in terms of progress, the business case for the Wales gender team was agreed in April, and the senior clinician lead took up post on 1 June. He's taking a lead role in the implementation of the service, and our expectation is for health boards to commission an integrated gender identity service in Wales from April of next year. 

The Conservative spokesperson, Russell George.

Diolch, Llywydd. Leader of the house, during an exchange a few weeks ago, you said, and I quote here from the Record of Proceedings from 16 May:

'The mobile phone operators...will tell you that all they need is to be able to build bigger masts and everything will be fine.'

And they want to be allowed

'to build any size mast they like, anywhere they like'.

You also said, and I quote here again:

'they want me to get my Cabinet colleague to allow them to build any size mast they like, anywhere they like, and take all the tariffs away...and then they'll build a whole network right across Wales.'

Now, I understand Welsh Government officials were due to meet with operators yesterday to discuss the mobile action plan, so I'm sure you'll be well briefed in this area. Can you tell me which mobile operators have told you this?

There has been a range of meetings with them. I haven't actually met recently with the entire network, but we're in the process of arranging that, and there was a meeting in Llandrindod Wells yesterday. So, we are very much under way with that.

What we're trying to do, as I keep saying—we're out to consultation at the moment on the permitted development rights—what we're trying to do is hit the right level of masts and protection of our countryside. So, my colleague the Cabinet Secretary with responsibility for planning has a consultation out at the moment. And I will reiterate what I say all the time: this requires a concerted action from people to cover off things where there is market failure, particularly in rural areas. So, there isn't a particular problem in the conurbations or the heavily populated areas of Wales, because there are a lot of commercial customers. But we can't be expecting tourist destinations in mid Wales, for example, as I've said to you many times, to say, 'Come to my marvellous tourist establishment, but don't bother if you're not a customer of this one provider that provides a mobile service here.'

So, there's a very big conversation going on—it's not just the things that you just outlined, and I was perhaps being a little tetchy that day, as a result of some of the conversations. But it is about a balance between having a shared network, or roaming, or some agreement with them, to make sure that we have better mobile coverage—(a) in some places in Wales that have one provider, and (b) for everyone who wants to come and visit Wales and spend their tourist pounds in Wales to be able to use the provider of their choice, so either roaming, or to have a deal with the networks. So, I'm looking for compromise between permitted development rights, and the consultation, as I say, is out, and we'll be looking to see with interest what comes back from that, and compromise from the mobile phone operators, who have a duty to more than just their commercial need in terms of their customers.

Thank you, leader of the house. I think you are confirming perhaps you don't now agree with what you said to me in May.

No, I wasn't saying that.

Well, perhaps I would ask you to take the opportunity to look at the record of what you said to me last time, and then perhaps correct the record if you feel that's appropriate. But the mobile phone operators do feel that you misrepresented—they were misrepresented in your comments a few weeks ago.

Now, the issue of taller masts is, of course, just one consideration if operators are to overcome the challenges that we have in rural Wales, with low density of population, and the higher costs as well, in terms of delivering power supply and transmission links. But I would ask you: do you now recognise that the extension of permitted development rights, like what's already happened in England and Scotland, is a way that would give greater service reach, meaning that fewer—fewer is the point I'm making here—shorter masts will be required in any given area? And would you agree with me that bringing outdated regulation into the twenty-first century is now what we need? In terms of mast sharing—mast sharing, of course, is already happening in other parts of the country and that's what operators are doing already. It's this that will reflect the importance of digital communication in today's Wales. 

The Deputy Presiding Officer (Ann Jones) took the Chair.

Well, no, I don't agree with quite the way he characterises that. I don't think there is a silver bullet. Permitted development rights after the consultation may well be one thing in an armoury of things that we need to bring to bear on some of the really poor provision that we have, and, bear in mind, this isn't a devolved issue here. And I reiterate a conversation Russell George and I have had on a number of different occasions. There is a real issue here with treating something that is effectively infrastructure as if it's a luxury product that is at the mercy of the market. He and I have a real political disagreement about the way forward for this. But, in the end, it's not devolved to us, would that it were, or I would be doing a number of things that I think would improve the situation for users of the networks much better in Wales than just allowing the commercial interests of the operators to take the reins. 

Well, leader of the house, you have previously accused the mobile network operators of land banking and said that, and I quote again, 'One operator owns Wales'. So, I would say that instead of criticising the mobile network operators, what plans does your Government have to respond favourably to Mobile UK, as  the body that represents the mobile industry, who are calling for—and these are their words—decisive action from the Welsh Government to support mobile infrastructure by using the devolved policy levers at your disposal, and commit to a public date in which reform should be delivered? I wonder whether you will commit to this date today, and when will that date be? 

Well, as I've just said, that's just talking about the planning permitted development rights. I was talking, when I was talking about one operator, about spectrum. So, there's a big issue with the way that the UK Government sells spectrum. And if the spectrum isn't being used by the person who purchases it, then it just sits there doing nothing. So, we can't do anything about the fact that we have no fourth generation services in some parts of Wales, if the operator that owns the spectrum isn't prepared to roll it out there. I don't have the power to do that, would that I did.