Questions now from the party spokespeople. Plaid Cymru spokesperson, Siân Gwenllian.

Thank you, Llywydd. As Minister with responsibility for the Welsh language, can you confirm that English isn't introduced in Mudiad Meithrin's cylchoedd meithrin or in Welsh-medium schools until a child reaches seven years of age at the moment? And, if so, will you confirm, so that we can be entirely clear on this, that the proposal in the Welsh Government's White Paper for the new curriculum would be to make English a compulsory subject in such settings?

Thank you very much. You will be aware that, as regards Welsh-medium education, it has moved to the portfolio of the Minister responsible for education, but I think it's worth underscoring the fact that we understand that Welsh-medium immersion is essential as regards realising our vision for 1 million speakers. I have received an assurance from the Minister for Education that the current Welsh-medium immersion arrangements, which are provided by Mudiad Meithrin, for example, will continue unchanged as part of this new curriculum.

Well, the major question arising from what you've just said is: what's going to happen for the future? What about the next generations of children? Will they too continue to be immersed in the language? Your strategy—and it is your strategy as Minister for the Welsh language, the 1 million Welsh speakers strategy—does state unambiguously that Welsh-medium immersion education is the main method of ensuring that children can develop their Welsh language skills and for creating new Welsh speakers. Indeed, international evidence and Donaldson's emphasis itself confirm that. I've heard you mention a number of times that you do expect every department within the Welsh Government to give due regard to the Welsh language and the 1 million Welsh speakers strategy in every policy development and in all elements of their work. And, given that the Welsh Government proposal threatens that very effective system that exists at the moment in terms of immersion education, and is entirely contrary to one of the cornerstones of your language strategy, I would like to know how much communication there has been between you and the Minister for Education, Kirsty Williams, in developing this proposal. And can you tell me too what is the evidence that the education department has used to promote this proposal?

I’m not sure whether I made it clear enough in my first reply, I think I need to underscore that there is no change on the policy on immersion. There is awareness, and we’ve been doing this throughout the years. We have a history that people are emulating throughout the whole of the world as regards the efficacy of this specific policy and this will not change in future. So, I want you to be totally clear that that is the position, not just for now but for the future too.

I must also emphasise that it is worth seeing in the new curriculum that that target of attaining a million speakers is not just for people within Welsh-medium education but for whole generations, all of the schoolchildren going through the system, so, everybody will benefit. But, of course, as regards the immersion system, that will be different to those.

I assume from that, therefore, that you will delete the clause in the White Paper and will do so as a matter of urgency. You’ve confirmed that immersion should be developed and continued for the future, so the natural step is to withdraw that clause to scrap the whole discussion around it, because it’s unnecessary; so, it doesn’t need to be in the White Paper.

But in addition to the need for developing immersive education, normalising the Welsh language in the education system as a whole is crucially important if we’re to reach that target of a million Welsh speakers, including increasing teaching through the medium of Welsh in English-medium schools. In 2013, Professor Sioned Davies’s report stated that urgent changes were required in the way in which the Welsh language was taught. Sioned Davies recommended that second language Welsh should be abolished by 2018 and that there should be a single learning continuum. A former Minister for the Welsh language, Alun Davies, told me in this very place that

'The second language Welsh qualification will be replaced...in 2021'.

Clearly, there’s been some slippage in the timetable, but I do welcome the announcement that there will be one Welsh language learning continuum from 2022 onwards, that there’s a sign of progress at last and it’s something to be welcomed, therefore.

What we need now is confirmation on the timetable and a commitment to publish an exemplar qualification in order to facilitate preparation in our schools. So, can you commit today to work with the education Minister on a clear timetable in order to publish a comprehensive qualification for the Welsh language as an example?

May I just say that I’m pleased that you welcome that we have listened to Professor Sioned Davies? I’m also very aware that we need to improve the way in which we teach second language in our schools, and, for that reason, we convened a symposium last year where we brought together people who truly understood and had studied the best way of learning Welsh as a second language globally, and we’ve used that and are demonstrating that as a new way for people to learn Welsh in schools where Welsh is not the main language of the school.

These are issues for the Minister responsible for education, but as regards the qualification, it’s not the Government that’s responsible for the qualification, but, of course, a great deal of work is being done at present to prepare and look at how this continuum will work as regards ensuring that a qualification will be available that will be appropriate for both first language Welsh speakers and those who have gone through the education system without that education being in Welsh throughout the school.

Conservative spokesperson, Suzy Davies. 

Thank you, Llywydd. Well, I’d like to start with the issue of teaching English in Welsh-medium settings for very young children too, because you may not be directly responsible for education but you are responsible for the target of a million Welsh speakers. And we heard yesterday that English is already being used in some of the early years settings and foundation phase settings, and I recognise that, but in my experience it is really a matter of considering the welfare of specific children and their communication needs at the time, and that is very different to 'teaching English'. I don’t doubt the intentions of the education Minister or your own intentions that they shouldn’t undermine the immersion system or progress, but I don’t think it’s sufficient to say that this is already a requirement within guidance for the foundation phase. It isn’t a sufficient response in my view. 

We’re not talking about the same thing as introducing more Welsh language into the English-medium sector, I want to know what 'teaching English' means. What evidence can you provide to us that English is being taught in Welsh language settings at the moment and what disadvantages do those children face at the moment that are intended to be overcome by this proposal in the White Paper?

Well, you’re quite right to focus on the fact that education is central to our target of having a million speakers. Of course, by 2050, we hope that about 40 per cent of Welsh schoolchildren will attend designated Welsh language schools. In order to attain that target, we must ensure that we are committed to this immersion system and I hope that you heard what I clearly said to Siân Gwenllian.

May I—[Interruption.] We have made it perfectly clear that there is no—the Mudiad Ysgolion Meithrin—I hope that they will understand that there is no need for them to change the way in which they are actually operating at present. This is a White Paper, of course, there are no clauses, and I am sure that the Mudiad Ysolion Meithrin are making it clear that they don't want to see this. It's clear to us that this will not happen. I hope that I have made it clear enough that there will not be any change in the current system when it comes to the nursery schools.

I’m sorry, Minister, it isn’t at all clear what 'teaching English' means in the new system. Because, as we heard from Dai Lloyd yesterday, we aren’t aware of nurseries that teach English at the moment. They use English for the sake of the well-being of children, but they don’t teach English, so I do think that we need some clarity around that issue for the future.

If I can remain on the issue of education, a few weeks ago, I raised with the education Minister the unintended consequence in Gwynedd of cuts to the education improvement grant. Part of the grant had been targeted and spent on intensive work with non-Welsh-speaking children having moved to the area, to help them acquire Welsh language skills that they need to access education within that county. Despite that, the Minister said that she was confident that the children who needed additional Welsh language skills could learn them successfully, and I do hope that she’s correct there. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child gives a right to children to education and these policies here due regard to the UNCRC. Would you be willing to work with the education Minister to satisfy yourselves that the children who need this intensive support still receive it, or ensure that there are other methods delivering the same outcomes for them? Thank you.

We are very aware that there are circumstances when people come into a community, where they're unable to speak the language, particularly in some of our more Welsh areas, where they need that immersion when they are slightly older children. There are schools for latecomers located throughout Wales and, very often, some local authorities have to collaborate in order to ensure that that provision is available. And, of course, I will collaborate with the Minister responsible for education to ensure that that system continues. Of course, local government is under a great deal of financial pressure, and we are very aware that we wish this to carry on and we don’t wish to see any cuts in this field.

Thank you for that, because we all want to see children who move into Wales still benefiting from similar services to those that I mentioned, and it has different impacts in different parts of Wales, of course, but in Gwynedd specifically, it is hugely important that children can acquire the skills that they need in accessing education there.

If I can just turn now to another issue, at a cabinet meeting of Bridgend County Borough Council in my region, at the beginning of this month, the Conservative councillor Tom Giffard asked a question in Welsh, and the response from the members was to ignore the question, and the chair of the council tried to move on to the next item on the agenda. Having insisted that his question be answered, the councillor was asked whether the question could be repeated in English, and the member pragmatically agreed to do so on this occasion, because there were no Welsh-speaking officers at all in the chamber. Under the test of reasonableness and proportionality, I don’t expect every councillor to be able to speak Welsh, or that there should be interpretation available in all councils in Wales. However, standards do apply to Bridgend council, and at the moment, they send all of their translation work to external companies. Wouldn’t it be a good idea for them to use some of those funds to employ somebody who is experienced in written translation and interpretation to meet their needs better and to help their progress in creating a bilingual environment for their workforce?

Thank you, and I do hope that councils across Wales will be supportive of a person’s ability to speak in Welsh, even if they have to repeat a question in English. But I do think that there is a way of improving the way in which we deliver translation services throughout the whole of Wales. We have a technological scheme in Welsh Government to look at how we are going to use technology to improve the provision of translation. We’re creating a translation memory—this is one of the things that we are looking at in great detail at the moment. If everybody who uses the Welsh language inputs into the system, the data will be much improved, and the provision will then be improved. So, I do think there are means of looking at how we can get local authorities in particular to collaborate, which would save a great deal of money for them. And also perhaps they could use our translation memory in Welsh Government and it could all be put in one pot and we will all benefit from the one system. That is part of the technological plan that we are aiming for at present.

UKIP spokesperson, Gareth Bennett.

Diolch, Llywydd. I'd like to welcome the Minister to her new role, and also welcome back the Deputy Minister to his. One of the policy areas of your department is the staging of major events. I was interested to hear the answers that you gave in response to question 1 from Mandy Jones, and the supplementaries. Of course, Mandy was perfectly correct in her point that, although it's very good to have events coming to Cardiff, there's also a need to spread events across Wales in general and also to include north Wales, so I was also interested to hear your response to Rhun's enquiries about the Island Games that are projected for Ynys Môn. Clearly, there are going to be a lot of Members coming to you, pitching for these kinds of events.

One major event that was discussed previously in this Assembly term was a future Commonwealth Games bid coming from Wales, which was something that Ken Skates was very keen on when he had the portfolio for major events. I appreciate what you said earlier about certain events being city based, and indeed, the Commonwealth Games is one such event. But I think Ken Skates did have the idea that certain parts of the bid could be put to different parts of Wales—it wouldn't necessarily be totally focused on one city. Of course, I'm not stating which city should be at the heart of such a bid. But have you looked at a future Commonwealth Games bid and is that something that has crossed your desk thus far?

As it happens, I did have a briefing on the situation in relation to major events this morning. This was not one of the issues that arose in that context. I think what's important for me is that we have an overview of not just what's going on where and when, but that we can map it out on a year-by-year basis so that we have an understanding that, if we support one particular major project one year, it may be that we don't have so much for the next year, but if there's a really big project that we see coming down the track we may want to hold back. So, getting an overview, for me, is quite important. The Commonwealth Games is not one of those major events that is on our agenda at the moment. We of course had the very successful Volvo Ocean Race last year, which, I think, really put the Year of the Sea on the map. The fact that we had, last year, 22 cultural and sporting events across the whole of Wales, attracting over 0.25 million visitors to Wales, bringing in about £72 million-worth of money—. These are all really successful stories, I think. But, of course, when you host such a huge event as the Commonwealth Games, you also have to look at the cost implications for us as a Government.

Yes. I think that's sensible because you can sometimes get claims about these events leading to massive infrastructure and massive sporting participation later on. We had these hyperbolic claims about the London Olympics in 2012, and they don't always actually lead to those outcomes. So, certainly, we would be wise to look at these things carefully.

To look at another possible event—if you can comment on the specifics of this one—we did have the very successful Champions League football final coming to Cardiff. That's one that, of course, is focused on—a question that is focusing on Cardiff. That was in 2017. Now, that was a good event and was an example of good lobbying, but we did notably miss out on having any part in co-hosting the future European football championships in 2020. There is a possibility that Wales could co-host a future European championships as, increasingly, UEFA are minded to have more than one nation actually hosting an event. By 'nation', they define that as an area that has their own football association. So, theoretically, Wales could co-host a future European championships with the other home nations. Is that something that you would be minded to have a look at?

I think the fact that 160 million people tuned into the Champions League final really meant that Cardiff in particular was put on the map in a way that we, perhaps, haven't seen before. So, football is an international language unlike any other, and I think the tragic events that we've seen last week for Cardiff City is also an example where the kind of focus that we've seen on Cardiff that we didn't particularly want means that this international language is something that everybody's focused on.

There will be, I think, opportunities for us to co-operate with other parts of the United Kingdom to look at future football events and, of course, the bigger, the better as far as we're concerned. So, we will look at co-hosting some events of that scale and nature in the future.

Thanks for clarifying that point, and I look forward to future announcements. Now, there's been some talk in recent years of a major conference centre being built in Cardiff. Whether there's enough demand for this when there is already one being built in Newport, I don't know. There may be a danger of oversupply and, of course, we have to be wary of white elephants sometimes being constructed. On the other hand, there may be a belief within the events management sector that there's enough demand for both conference centres. I don't know if you have any view on that, Minister.

Well, I did have a very constructive meeting with the international convention centre authorities last week, with the Celtic Manor, and I think there's great excitement about what that really could do for Wales and for bringing people to Wales. One of the issues we discussed there, with other leaders of local authorities, was the need to perhaps look at developing a convention bureau for the whole of the Cardiff capital region. So, the very clear impression that they gave us was that the international convention centre itself and the Celtic Manor would not be big enough in itself to host the numbers of people that they're expecting to come. So, there are opportunities for Cardiff and Newport in terms of hosting, hotel rooms, and there's a real excitement, I think, building around that. And I must make it clear that I hope that that international convention centre will be a part of the international strategy that I will be developing in the next few months.