I would like to second Huw Irranca-Davies's motion, which has been co-submitted on a cross-party basis in an effort to urge the Welsh Government to refresh its ambition for active travel through a comprehensive active travel strategy. And I don't think there will be any disagreement in this Chamber of the benefits of active travel. They are numerous, including the contribution that it can make to tackling obesity, improving air quality, reducing traffic congestion and addressing climate change, and I think we need to see, certainly, more action to ensure that this important piece—and it is an important piece—of legislation creates the behavioural and cultural change that is necessary to tackle the challenges I've just outlined.

It's now eight months since the Economy, Infrastructure and Skills Committee, which I have the privilege to Chair, published its post-legislative scrutiny on the Active Travel (Wales) Act. The committee made 24 recommendations. I will not be going through those today—that debate's been had—but I would welcome an update from the Minister on what progress has been made on implementing the recommendations, because the unfortunate reality is, Deputy Presiding Officer, that since the Act became law almost six years ago, rates of active travel have been static in Wales and have actually decreased among children. And the active travel Act was never going to be—. We were never going to see that change overnight. I think that's recognised by us all. But it was supposed to change the way local authorities, planners and engineers approached their work. Regrettably, the Economy, Infrastructure and Skills Committee report found that this simply hasn't been achieved, and there is confusion over the purpose of active travel maps.

'So, we lack the ambition, we lack the rigour and the honesty about where we are, we lack the skills and capacity at a local level to take this through...We all agree it needs to happen. There's a gap to make it happen. We've got to raise our game.'

Those were the words of the now Deputy Minister for Economy and Transport, when he spoke in the debate on the committee report back in September, and I have no doubt at all in my mind that those are words that he stands by now as well. The committee found that there was a lack of leadership at both the Welsh Government and local authority levels, and that was responsible for the lack of progress made on active travel to date. We called on the Welsh Government, as a committee, to strengthen its leadership on the issue and to make clear its expectations from local authorities. Now, at the time, the Welsh Government did not agree with that assessment, but I believe that it is now clear that more leadership is required from government at all levels if we are to realise the ambitions of the active travel Act. Indeed, the Deputy Minister said that active travel should be at the heart of all Government legislation that is passed, and at the heart of all thinking that local councils do. He also said,

'We recognise what needs to change, but we are not driving through the change at the granular level'

And I have no doubt that the Deputy Minister will tell us how he is achieving that in his remarks later on.

Huw Irranca-Davies did talk about the Government's additional £60 million for active travel over the next three years; that's welcome funding. He talked about funding in his own areas delivering projects, and indeed in my own local authority area, Powys County Council was successful in bidding for a new active travel crossing over the Severn river in Newtown, which will help to encourage more people to walk and cycle.

If the Government is going to bring ambitious legislation to the table, then it must bring the means to deliver that ambition. Indeed, as Huw Irranca-Davies has pointed out, the committee report last year stated that Welsh Government funding falls short of the £17 to £20 per head per year of capital and revenue funding that is necessary to achieve the Welsh Government's ambition for active travel. In the debate last September, the then Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Infrastructure said, in his closing remarks, that we must now start to walk the walk rather than just talk the talk. So, I do look forward to contributions this afternoon. I particularly look forward to the closing comments from, I think, Dai Lloyd, who has about two minutes to deliver that—