I welcome the EHRC report updating us on the state of equality and human rights in Wales in 2018. I want to focus today, and will again tomorrow in the equalities and Brexit debate, on one action, and that's the recommendation to the Welsh Government by the EHRC and backed by two Assembly committees that the Welsh Government should bring the socioeconomic equality duty to life in Wales. In 'Is Wales Fairer?', the EHRC calls on the Welsh Government to enact the socioeconomic equality duty in the Equality Act 2010 so that public bodies have due regard to the need to reduce the inequalities of outcome that result from socioeconomic disadvantage. We need the commitment from the Welsh Government that this will be progressed as rapidly as possible.

I want to use the opportunity today to return to two key themes that I've been speaking on over the past year. The first is my commitment to tackling the gender pay gap. Earlier this year, I noted from the World Economic Forum that it will take 217 years to achieve gender pay parity. We had the opportunity this year to scrutinise the impact of the Equality Act provision for companies with workforces of over 250, with the appalling shortfalls in gender pay hitting the headlines. And I fully support the Women's Equality Network manifesto in this regard, which calls for the gender pay gap to be halved by 2028. It was the Office for National Statistics that recently revealed that the gender pay gap for full-time workers had fallen to a record low of 8.6 per cent, compared with 9.1 per cent last year, and is at its lowest since records began in 1997, when it stood at 17.4 per cent. But as Frances O'Grady, the general secretary of the TUC, said in response to these figures:

'Working women won't be celebrating this negligible decrease in the gender pay gap. At this rate, another generation of women will spend their whole working lives waiting to be paid the same as men.'

And she was, of course, backed by the Fawcett Society's Sam Smethers, who said:

'This is a practically static picture on pay inequality…and it’s a missed opportunity for our economy. Improving our performance on gender equality in the workplace could increase GDP by £150 billion.'

The second, final point I want to make relates to the need for women to be fully represented with gender parity in the Assembly, as recommended in 'A Parliament that Works for Wales'. We achieved this gender parity in 2003, all too briefly, as a result of positive actions such as the constituency twinning that Welsh Labour took forward and women-only shortlists. But we have slipped back again as an Assembly. Yet the public opinion has moved ahead, as we saw in the recent Beaufort Research-Western Mail poll, which reported last week that 53 per cent of the population were either definitely or possibly in favour of legislation that would ensure an equal number of male and female AMs. The majority responding in favour of the legislation came from across Wales, with the poorest and youngest people most in favour of achieving this balance. And these are the people I represent in my constituency, whose voices I want to be heard in this Assembly and by the Welsh Labour Government. So, I'd like this legislation to be in place for a gender-balanced Assembly in time for the next election in 2021, and I back the chief executive officer of Chwarae Teg, who welcomes this poll, as I do, saying that politicians across the political spectrum must act. And this is backed by the EHRC in their comments in their report on promoting human rights participation in Wales. They say:

'We made recommendations to Welsh Government and National Assembly consultations on electoral arrangements with the aim of ensuring elected representatives are reflective of the diversity of Wales.'

And they're calling on the Welsh Government to consider the case for changing legislation, so that roles such as Ministers, public appointees and councillors may be job shared, and that all Welsh public authorities should advertise all jobs as flexible by default.

So, I'm one of those politicians who believe we must act. I'll continue to press for the socioeconomic duty to be adopted, and for legislative action to be commenced, to achieve gender parity, in line with public opinion, and the pursuit of what the Counsel General rightly says should be a fairer and more equal Wales.