I am pleased to be contributing to this debate today, after the insightful and eye-opening report on poverty in Wales by our committee. As you know, it is our committee's third strand of work on this exceptionally important issue, and the report stands by the need for the Welsh Government to streamline policy and set forth a clear, creative strategy to tackle poverty and to ensure that people in Wales have access to good-quality work and income.

Nearly a quarter of people in Wales live in poverty, and in my own constituency, in Conwy, specifically, 20 per cent of adults between 16 and 64 are unemployed. What is even more worrying is that there has been very little improvement, according to the figures, since 2005. Furthermore, it is the older people in the workforce who routinely get a bad deal. As Prime Cymru stated:

'Two-thirds of the people we work with are saying that they’re being discriminated against because of age in the workforce.'

And the Older People’s Commissioner for Wales report that only 22 per cent of older people leave their jobs willingly, as opposed to being pushed or nudged out is not good reading. This highlights the importance of retraining and employability support, but more so that the Welsh Government employment support schemes target those that are most in need, i.e. people who are already benefiting from UK Government support. As our report highlights, in order to make work for everyone, a joined-up approach is needed to tackling Wales's skills gap, and it is crucial to prevent people who are re-entering the jobs market from getting lost in Government red tape, to ensure that they can access opportunities that enable them to improve themselves, become incentivised and reinvigorated.

Welsh Conservatives would deliver a support scheme in tandem with the UK Government and its own Work Programme, to open up opportunities for those to participate in it, to ensure they can access upskilling and the required training. While I am pleased that the Welsh Government's response to recommendations within the report are largely positive, I am, however, disappointed to note the rejection of setting out and publishing a clear poverty strategy, bringing together the various elements of poverty reduction and establishing definitive performance indicators to make sure it's working, and that it is deliverable.

The auditor general noted, in his correspondence to the Public Accounts Committee on Monday, that on reflection of the many reports stating the systemic problems in Wales that need to be fixed, he himself finds himself both frustrated and increasingly concerned that we have not used devolution as an opportunity for a fundamental rethink. I second this opinion, and would be grateful if the Cabinet Secretary might confirm here today how these recommendations in the report are going to be taken forward, and what outcomes we can expect to see over the next 12 months. Diolch yn fawr iawn.