4. What action is the Welsh Government taking to improve air quality in and around Port Talbot? OAQ52615

A tailored programme of work is under way to independently review the clean air action plan for Port Talbot and develop a future plan of work to further improve air quality in the region. In addition, officials had a meeting this morning with Natural Resources Wales and Neath Port Talbot council.

Thank you for that answer, First Minister. I'm sure that there are many issues that you are taking on board. The monitoring of air quality has been focused upon PM10s and PM2.5s—understandable, because they're the ones that are recognised to have the biggest impact on people's health—but we have seen a large increase in what is known as nuisance dust fallout from the Port Talbot steelworks across the whole Port Talbot area. Now, I recognise that this perhaps is not considered a health issue, but it is definitely a health issue—people are breathing this in, they're walking it through their houses, they've got it on their cars and properties—and it is a real problem for many of my constituents. There's also no doubt that this comes from the Tata steelworks, and I've had discussions with the management of Tata to look at what they're doing about this. There are plans for longer term problems to be resolved through improving the environment, but there's a short-term issue about doing it now. What can we do about the production processes to ensure that this product is reduced and limited as best we can? Will you as a Government actually look at the ways you can work with Tata to look at the long-term solutions? I'll just remind you that the state aid of the EU doesn't affect environmental options, so it's a possibility of looking at those longer-term solutions. But can you also have discussions with Tata to look at how they can be a responsible neighbour to ensure that the fallouts that we are experiencing in Port Talbot are reduced so that we don't get a situation where, every morning, people wake up to either black or red dust on their gardens, on their cars or on their windowsills and have to look at that every single day? This has gone on and it's unacceptable. We need, now, action to ensure that Tata takes their responsibility seriously.

I know that NRW regulates the steelworks in accordance with the permit issued under the environmental permitting regime. We, of course, have our commitment to improving and proactively tackling poor air quality in the area. In April, the Minister for Environment set out plans to re-examine the action plan—the approach it takes and the evidence that underpins it—and I understand that the Minister will be meeting with Tata, with NRW and with Neath Port Talbot council soon to support that process.

First Minister, it has been just over six months now since the 50-mph zone on the M4 was extended between Port Talbot and the Earlswood turning for Swansea, at the time, your Minister telling us that this was in advance of completed detailed modelling that would be taking place in the summer. Well, summer's over, so can you tell us what those three months have produced in terms of data, whether the detailed modelling has actually been completed, and in particular, whether any of the traffic has been diverted to the distributor road?

That data is being analysed at the moment. The output will be published so that Members and the public can see it, and that will be done as soon as possible.

First Minister, obviously, as well as industry, as we've heard, it's clear that transport-related pollution from the M4 and local roads adds to the air quality challenges in Port Talbot. Now, the Swansea bay and western Valleys metro could significantly reduce the number of cars on the roads, but clearly this requires funding. Therefore, what discussions has your Government had with the UK Government and Network Rail since the publication of Professor Barry's 'The Case for Investment' report in July? And how confident are you currently that the UK Government will listen to requests for fair rail funding for Wales, being as we've never had fair rail funding in Wales?

Well, he asked me whether I'm optimistic about fair rail funding, and the honest answer is 'no', because history tells us otherwise. We've received 1.1 per cent of the investment in infrastructure, despite the fact that our population share should be far, far higher. That's England and Wales, of course, without Scotland as well.

In terms of Swansea, much of Swansea's rail network, of course, was taken up in the 1960s, so much of the solution will lie in non-heavy rail options. Discussions are ongoing between officials—and, indeed, with the Minister—with, for example, local authorities and, of course, the authorities that are dealing with the city deal. What is hugely important, of course, is to make sure that all communities are properly served. I know that there was a suggestion at one point that Neath would no longer be on the main line. That was never true; I can give people that absolute assurance. That is absolutely clear. So, we need to make sure that we are able to connect more communities via a number of modes of transport in the Swansea bay area.