Well, thank you for that answer and for your very kind words, of course. I have to say, though, that the majority of responses that came in on the consultation were from councils, diocesan bodies and unions, and the children's voice was represented solely, it would seem to me anyway, by the children's commissioner, and I'm not quite sure how she managed to get the information or views of young people during that period, bearing in mind that it was their school holidays.

I'd be especially keen to know, actually, how those young people grappled with the national statistics office's urban/rural classification, which David Rees was talking about earlier. Certainly, a third of the adults who responded to the consultation weren't happy with adopting just one of the eight classifications in this method of identifying a rural school. But then it took nine months to report back to them with a longer list of schools, adding in that second classification to aid identification. And the stated audience for that report, released only on 2 July of this year, comprised local authorities, governing bodies, diocesan authorities, Estyn and some others with interest. No clear route to children's views or, indeed, school staff, as it was issued once again shortly before the summer school holiday.

You laid the new code on Monday, so at least that wasn't during the summer break, but the 16 months it has taken this to come into force hasn't given local education authorities a chance to sneak under the wire of a stringent regime; you've given them over a year to accelerate consideration of the very types of closure you rightly hoped to avoid. And I can tell you with my experience of the closure of Cwrt Sart, which isn't a rural school, that local authorities may be cognisant of a direction of travel, but they can be very, very determined to ignore it if they wish. So, can you tell us why it took nine months to report back on just 70 surveys, and why in June 2017 you didn't ask education authorities to pause any closure plans they may have been considering pending these material changes?