I do think we have to acknowledge that this is a profoundly political issue. And while nobody in this Chamber could ever doubt the personal commitment of Mark Isherwood to the issues that he's just been raising with the Minister, it is incumbent upon us to point out that he sits in this Chamber in the name of the party that is responsible for the hostile environment and responsible, for example, for the dreadful conditions faced by people seeking sanctuary in some of the Home Office provided accommodation, for example. I know it's traditional in this Chamber, Deputy Presiding Officer, and I support that, to seek to be consensual when we can, but we cannot, I would put to the Minister, address these profoundly difficult issues unless we acknowledge the hostile environment—and I don't just mean the particular hostile environment, but the generally very difficult environment.

So, I'd ask the Minister, in terms of my first question: what can we all do to try and correct some of these misconceptions and some of the prejudices that have led directly to some of the challenges that people seeking sanctuary in Wales face? The Minister's statement mentions that co-production has been key to the formation of this plan, and I'd be interested to hear a little more about how asylum seekers themselves have been involved in the development of the plan and what, if anything, has changed in terms of the proposals as a result of their input. I'm sure the Minister would agree with me that this is crucially important.

The Minister mentioned in her response to Mark Isherwood some of the problems faced around accommodation for asylum seekers. We know that some of that is of very, very poor quality. I was encouraged to hear the Minister say that she is still seeking to be able to participate in the letting of that new contract, and I wonder if she can tell us a little bit more today about what the Welsh Government has been doing about that because it seems to me that it is in no-one's interests, not even the interests of the Home Office, that the Welsh Government should not be allowed to participate in the setting of that contract and ensuring that the accommodation provided is of the standard that we would aspire to, as set out in the plan the Minister is announcing today.

Linked to this issue, the Minister's statement also refers to the big issue of homelessness amongst refugees and asylum seekers and the Minister will be very well aware of the ambitious plans launched by Crisis last year to end homelessness across the whole of the UK. I know that my colleagues have raised this with your predecessor and I wonder to what extent the ambitions and actions suggested by Crisis have informed the accommodation issues that you raise in the report. I think it's very important that we do commit ourselves to ultimately ending homelessness, and particularly for this very, very vulnerable group of people who I am happy, and I'm sure the Minister would be happy, to call our fellow citizens, because they're our fellow citizens if they're here as far as I'm concerned. 

May I turn briefly to two education issues? Under the 'Ambitious and Learning' heading in the action plan, action 8 refers to tackling bullying, obviously in schools, and that must be very, very welcome. I'm sure the Minister would agree with me that this bullying often arises from the ignorance and prejudice that I referred to earlier on and that is that very damaging culture that we have to seek to address. Has the Minister had the opportunity to discuss with the Minister for Education how the new curriculum—the commitment in the new curriculum to helping our young people to grow up to be good citizens—how we can address some of this prejudice and discrimination through that new curriculum and indeed through other measures before the new curriculum comes in, and what measures the Welsh Government can take, particularly to help challenge the rise of the far right? I'm thinking particularly here of young people being vulnerable to those messages when they hear them on social media.

There's much emphasis very rightly in the plan on integration and encouraging people to participate in the community. Of course, essential to that is asylum seekers being able to have access to learning English and Welsh. Of course, the decision has been made to remove the mega grant, which was a crucial tool to enable schools to teach languages to people who have very recently come. How are we going to ensure that the resources are there, particularly for schools, and also for adult learners, to ensure that people can get access to learning the two languages of this country? Because without that no attempt at integration will be possible. 

I've pressed the Minister to work closely with the Minister for Education around the statutory student support. I think it's absolutely crucial that those changes that she mentions in her statement are made, and that asylum seekers and refugees are able to access higher education in Wales. Apart from anything else, it's not in our own interest not to use those skills.

And finally, we know that over 2,000 doctors have been refused visas by the UK Government in what I regard as, frankly, a stupid and self-defeating immigration policy. We know how much we need those highly qualified professionals here in Wales. So far, your party has resisted our calls for Welsh Government to seek to issue its own visas based on our workforce needs, and I wonder, in the light of what you said today, Minister, whether you would consider looking at this again. Thank you.