Item 7 on the agenda is a statement by the Deputy Minister for Culture, Sport and Tourism on Creative Wales, and I call on the Deputy Minister for Culture, Sport and Tourism, Dafydd Elis-Thomas.

Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer. It gives me great pleasure to provide the Assembly with an update on our support for the creative industries sector. The creative industries sector gives us an opportunity to realise the benefits that the sector brings from two directions, from the economic side, and from the cultural side. We're trying to look at those two aspects of creative activity together. That allows us also to enrich what Wales has to offer to the world. We can showcase our arts and our natural scenery, and we can couple that with the thriving industries and those who can develop businesses in the creative industries, and there is, of course, a very close connection between the creative industries and the industries and businesses in the tourism sector and also in the media generally.

Including culture in developing the economy will be at the very heart of the aspirations of what we call Creative Wales, and there is no conflict at all, in my mind, between those two kinds of creativity—the creativity of business and the creativity in development and innovation.

Partnership and collaboration are key to successful delivery. We work very closely with the creative businesses and industry, working with stakeholders and working as a Government to develop the sector by listening to what those businesses have to say to us on the basis of the long-term experience that many of them have in the creative industries.

We also want to ensure that we develop the right skills across the sector, which is vital, and there are partnerships in that with other Ministers within the Government, but all these aspects are considered together when we do develop our plans.

Raising standards, also, in collaboration with industry is also a priority. This must include developing commitments in terms of good employment from every partner in relation to inclusion, fair pay and working practices. Diversity and responsibility is an essential part of being creative.

We are also in the process of simplifying our funding support for the creative industries and trying to ensure that we have a way to respond quickly to the sector. That's why we're moving to provide our funding through an economic contract, which is happening across Government, ensuring public benefit following these public investments.

Also, we are trying to draw upon our experience with Visit Wales and the development of the Wales brand, leading on marketing and promotion of the creative industries in Wales to the world, under the new Creative Wales brand. That is coupled with the Wales brand generally. Through the new brand, we will be promoting the contribution that the creative sector makes to our culture, and also the contribution of culture to the perception of Wales and its reputation and success around the world. 

All of this work is being done by officials in discussing priorities with the sector, and those discussions will continue over the coming months, and I consider this statement today a key part of that process because we want to focus on the issues that we as a Government can make the most difference on. Following another period of stakeholder engagement, there will be findings and priorities that will be shared with you as Assembly Members as soon as it's practically possible.

In the meantime, we continue with our support for the sector and continue to focus on the great successes that we have achieved in recent years. Although we have focused extensively to date on film and tv, and particularly high-end tv drama—and one series, with a second series almost appearing on our screens as I speak—this has certainly had an impact on the Welsh economy and created a new interest in the creative industries and in culture in Wales.

Following meeting representatives of this company recently, I'm pleased to announce to this Assembly that I'm looking forward to announcing shortly a new partnership with NBCUniversal, which, as you know, is one of the world's leading media and entertainment companies. A number of their directors hadn't been in the Vale of Glamorgan until recent weeks, but they now know the value of Dragon Studios and the possible use that they could make of the current three studios, and possibly more platforms. And there is expenditure of about £20 million likely to come to the local economy because of that activity. Also, alongside that, the company wants to bring its globally recognised boot camp for production assistants here to Wales. That means that we can raise standards in the sector as well, and that is certainly very important news. 

Of course, the creative industries sector in Wales is much more than film and tv, and Creative Wales, as it develops within the Government, will mean significant growth in the tech industry in Wales, which now employs more than 40,000 people and is worth over £8.5 billion in turnover to the Welsh economy. And particularly in that, I'd like to refer to the games industry, which is such an important part of the digital sector, including Tiny Rebel Games based in Newport, Sugar Creative in Cardiff, the University of South Wales, and their international partner Potato, which were successful in securing funding through the moving image category in the Audience of the Future programme that is funded by Innovate UK. The project will work with Aardman, a renowned intellectual property service, in order to deliver this exciting project.

We have also developed a strategy for music, and that is something that we are eager to develop strongly under Creative Wales, and by that, I mean all kinds of music, in particular moving forward with the work that we're doing to map venues across Wales, where live music, particularly popular music and rock and folk music, is staged. We're in an important partnership here with PYST, the digital distribution and labelling service primarily for Welsh language music, and that work is developing. To date, artists on this platform have achieved over 5.5 million streams on Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube, and the record for listenings to Welsh language music has been broken by these developments, with Alffa, a rock band from Caernarfon that you've heard me mention before in this place, having delivered over 2.5 million of those streams, including a large number in South America. I'm also pleased to announce today that we're extending the work of PYST. We want to collaborate with them to take nine Welsh language artists to play in major UK cities. This exposure will be of great significance to these artists across the UK.

And finally, I want to emphasise that it will be easier for people to engage with Creative Wales once the body is established clearly within the Government during the next two months. It will be possible to engage with the creative industries as effectively, I hope, as it is to engage with any business services in the Government more generally. Thank you very much.

I hope the Assembly will indulge me if I take us all back to 1984 and the presidential election campaign and Walter Mondale's use of the Wendy's slogan, 'Where's the beef?' We've been around this racecourse a few times now, back as far as July 2016. And when it comes to Creative Wales, it seems that this Government is all preparation and no decision and we do need to make progress.

I welcome the core ambitions to embed culture in the growth of the economy, to simplify the funding model and have an economic contract at the heart of the funding mechanism and to also embed the principle of fusion. I think there'll be agreement across the Chamber that that's the direction we need to go in, but we need the decisions. When will the creative industries panel transform into the board of Creative Wales, or is that not now the objective? How will it be structured and situated within Welsh Government? When will the senior appointments, including that of the chief executive, be made? When can we expect to see a strategic priorities document for this important part of our economy, so that we can catch up, at last, with Scotland?

I have no interest in catching up with Scotland, because in the way that they've established Creative Scotland, they have done something else. But I'm not going to comment on what they have done with the Scottish Arts Council; that's a matter for them. Creative England is a commercial organisation. Creative Wales is going to be an organisation—and I have already explained this in this Assembly and to a committee—Creative Wales will be established within Government. We have established a model that we know works with Cadw and we will follow a similar structure. We will be recruiting in the next month the chief executive for the organisation. We will then be moving on to appoint a chair, and that chair, along with myself and colleagues, will ensure that we advertise for a board, similarly to the board that we've successfully advertised for in the case of Cadw. So, my intention is that the organisation will be able to take the substantial budgets that are currently being spent for the creative industries into their ownership, and there will be a clearly indicative budget of the order of £30 million that will be available for this organisation, and it will be functioning within the next six months.

First of all, I would like to welcome the Government's announcement on its new partnership with NBCUniversal, and its decision to extend PYST. These two things are good news, but, unfortunately, these are the only new announcements in the statement that contain any sort of detail. Everything else in the statement is either ambiguous or is stating what's already happening within the creative industries. For example, whilst I agree with the part of the statement that notes that including culture in developing the economy is central to the nature and aspirations of Creative Wales, there is no policy detail on this included. Likewise, I agree that we need to develop commitments by all partners in terms of inclusion, fair wages and working practices, and that diversity and equality are crucial to creativity. But the problem is that the statement doesn't outline how these most important principles will be implemented by Government in the form of policy.

The Deputy Minister discusses the new body that was announced last year—Creative Wales—but the only information that we receive on this is the following:

'Through the new brand we will promote the contribution that the creative sector makes to our culture, global reputation and success.'

It's nine months since the announcement and we as Assembly Members still have no information that we can use in order to scrutinise the proposals. This uncertainty is having an impact on stakeholders within the sector. For example, people working in film production tell us that they don't know where they should go to access information and funding. I would be grateful if the Deputy Minister could tell us what the timetable is for the establishment of Creative Wales, and what will be the body's status in relation to Government, as David Melding's already mentioned. Will the body be responsible for managing a budget and, if so, what will be the size of that budget and what impact will that have on the functions of other bodies currently doing this work? Also, what will be the arrangements for the new body in terms of governance?

Deputy Minister, the first sentence of your statement claims that this is an update to the Assembly 'on our support', namely the Government's support,

'for the creative industries sector in Wales.'

But the truth of the matter is that it's not an update at all, because it doesn't provide a comprehensive overview of the creative industries. There is no mention of radio, performing arts, literature or fine arts. I would have liked to have had an update on these areas, including detailed proposals and timetables, along with a clear timetable in terms of implementation.

Does the Deputy Minister have any plans to publish a comprehensive culture strategy in the near future in order to put some meat on the bones—we've heard the quote, 'Where's the beef?', and that may be relevant here—and to give clear direction to the sector and enable Members of this Chamber to scrutinise proposals?

As a nationalist, you, Deputy Minister, had a wonderful opportunity in this statement to call for the devolution of broadcasting. It's disappointing that there is no mention of this in the statement. One example of why we need these powers is in order to ensure that radio companies provide a specific percentage of their content from Wales and to ensure that productions that have large budgets do make use of our indigenous talent and produce material that is relevant to the audience. So, I would therefore ask the Deputy Minister to provide more information on his plans, so that Members outwith Government can carry out our scrutiny work in an appropriate manner. Thank you.

I'm more than happy to appear before the culture committee or any other committee so that you can scrutinise in more detail how we are developing our proposals on Creative Wales, but perhaps I should respond to two points at the end of that series of questions. First of all: there is no mention in this statement about fine arts—one of my major interests, as you will know. My very creative constituent, David Nash, has an excellent exhibition opening in the wonderful museum that we have just down the road—that will be opening later this week. I haven't mentioned fine arts because that is the responsibility of the arts council, and that will remain the case. The same is true of literature. Of course, there is a link between literature as a narrative and a story that will then appear as part of the story of the creative industries, but we must continue with the structures, such as Literature Wales and the provision for the fine arts, along with the creative industries, which mainly deal with creative aspects of the creative industries. And that's the difference between the creative industries and the artistic arts activities that I've just referred to.

In terms of broadcasting, well, how many times as Minister in this place do I have to say that it's not the policy of the Welsh Government to devolve broadcasting, and the reason for that is that, in these days, when culture is all digital, there is no meaning to the devolution of broadcasting in its traditional sense, because all that will do is to cause a distraction in terms of the creative development that should be happening across the digital sector and the various different media, and I'm not going to pursue that any further.

But as far as the development of Creative Wales is concerned, there is this perception that the way to develop policy is to create strategies and to create a master plan document that puts it in place. I don't share that view at all. I have spent the past year discussing in detail and consulting with the creative industries and seeing their work in detail, so that we produce something that will be acceptable to people within the industry. I'm surprised to hear you say that people don't know where to go for funding, because they are going to the very same places that they've always gone—to Ffilm Cymru and the Screen Alliance Wales. The funding is available there and through Government. And as I said earlier, we have funded Un Bore Mercher/Keeping Faith 2, which is currently being broadcast, and we will continue to fund those developments. But when Creative Wales comes into being, and I've answered on the size of the budget—it's around £30 million—there will be an independent chair, and he or she will be appointed through the usual public appointments system. There will be a chief executive appointed before then, and then there will be a body about the same size as Cadw. So, the constitutional comparison, if you are looking at the issue of governance, or a response in terms of governance, is: it will be similar to Cadw. But rather than being Cadw, it will be creative.

I welcome the statement and the opportunity to ask questions on two of the creative industries. I'm going to concentrate on two because I think that one of the things I have concerns about is that we talk about creative industry as if it's one thing. It's not—it's very many different things. First of all I want to talk about animation, and the other one I want to talk about is computer games, which is the biggest of all the industries relating to creativity, which unfortunately didn't get a mention in the Minister's statement, unless I missed it—

Yes, I did—two paragraphs.

Firstly, animation: in the early 1990s, Wales experienced a golden age of animation production. S4C was integral in helping to produce a number of popular animated shows—SuperTed, Fireman Sam, sung by a friend of mine, Mal Pope, Gogs. These are just some of the shows produced, high-profile shows commissioned and produced by S4C, and produced in Wales, and then translated into English. I watched them as a parent. I'm sure some of the people here actually watched them as children, so please don't tell me you did. [Laughter.] But today what we tend to do is watch things like Peppa Pig dubbed into Welsh.

S4C rapidly gained a reputation, nationally and internationally, for their commercially successful and award-winning animation programmes developed—as S4C expanded, a host of popular characters, such as Wil Cwac Cwac, Toucan Tecs, and Funnybones. Over the years, S4C made longer cartoons and animations based on famous operas, Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and stories from the Bible. We were hugely successful. What does the Minister intend to do to revive the Welsh animation industry?

The second area I wish to ask questions about is computer games. The world's biggest selling video game, which, if you didn't know, is Grand Theft Auto, started life in Dundee, as in the last 20 years the Scottish city has developed a notable cluster for the world's video games industry. Dundee has no great advantage geographically over similar sized conurbations in Wales like Swansea and Newport. There's no great thing that, 'This is Dundee, it's bound to be successful.' They developed that. We need to do the same. This is the biggest of all the creative industries. Despite the video games industry bringing in £1.4 billion for the UK economy, we have failed to develop in Wales a successful computer video games industry. If I've got it wrong, I'm sure the Minister will tell me the video games that are in the world's top 20 that are produced in Wales. How does the Minister intend to promote and develop a video games industry in Wales as successful as those in lots of other places?

There's no great care of where you are developing video games. You can develop them anywhere in the world as long as you've got access to the internet, because now things don't actually exist on disks anymore, do they—some of us remember them—they actually just are downloads. So, there are great opportunities for anywhere, rural or urban. So, what are we going to do to try and develop an industry? We have the universities teaching people the skills that are necessary for computer games. They have computer games courses in some universities in Wales. So, how are we going to turn those graduates of computer games into successes in Wales so we can be up there, not competing with some of the great cities in America, but just competing with Dundee?

I would suggest to the Member that he goes out of this building and crosses a short stretch of water and turn left, and he will find a whole series of animators, a whole range of post-production activity, which is undertaken by these companies that exist in a building—in fact built by Welsh Government funding, before my time, in the time of my colleague. That wonderful yellow castle is exactly what the industry currently requires. Now, as soon as an industry requires further development of that kind, we will certainly be able to replicate that process. Following his strictures this afternoon, I will speak again, as I've done before, with those involved in the animation industry in Wales to see whether they feel that there is a particular area of development they would like to undertake. 

The key thing that the media industry does, along the whole of the River Severn, in Bristol and in Cardiff—and we must see this as one whole area, I think, of development and clusters that work with each other, and the collaboration that there is, and extends, of course, with work that goes on across and through the Thames valley into London. That is the nature of the business that we are working with, but there is no shortage of interest on the part of this Welsh Government to support any project that my colleague would like to bring forward for discussion. If he is aware of any animators who feel that they haven't been properly responded to by any of my colleagues in Welsh Government, I'd be very glad to know about this so that we can improve the relationship between us. 

Finally, Rhianon Passmore.

Thank you, Deputy Llywydd. I do actually welcome very much today's statement and in particular I am pleased to welcome the new Creative Wales brand. Creative industries are critical and of vital importance economically, socially and culturally to Wales. This exciting new international brand will help in promoting our ever-growing creative sector. As you reference in your statement, Minister, Wales is increasingly growing an international reputation for its high-end film and television production, and also as a film location—the filming of Brave New World is a perfect example of this—and it's delivering around £20 million additionality to the Welsh economy, as you've mentioned, and this will clearly provide a massive boost to our creative economy. And this is purposeful and this is strategic. So, it is new and exciting and there are opportunities being innovated, and the exciting project mentioned around Aardman is also of importance. Our tech industries are being strategically grown, and over the recent years have been extremely progressive. But we also have to ensure that future generations are equipped with these skills to continue growing Wales's reputation across our other fields. You've mentioned, Minister, the use of technology within the music industry to promote Wales and Welsh music talent through a digital distribution and labelling system, and that also is demonstrating significant success, and that also is to be welcomed.

So, can I ask you, Minister, what the Welsh Government is doing to ensure that the next generation of Welsh musicians have the funding and teaching infrastructure in place in order to reach that full potential, because it is a fact that music support teaching services across Wales are dissolving? You will, I am sure, be aware of my calls for a national music education and performance strategy for Wales alongside our major music conservatoire and national orchestral bodies. So, I am keen to ensure the fantastic opportunities arising within the creative sector are accessible to people from all backgrounds, because it is right, in Wales, that the arts and creative industries must be open for not just a privileged few, not being based on an ability to pay, but on an ability to play. So, strategically, with regard to music, this must mean an infrastructure and a network of accessible and funded music support teaching hubs to nurture and develop our future Welsh musicians and performers, or we will not populate a vibrant, creative industries sector for the twenty-first century. And I feel that Wales's international reputation as a land of song must also be celebrated and used to further the Creative Wales brand across Wales. So, I look forward to further announcements on this matter.

And, finally, I'd also like to ask the Minister what the Welsh Government is doing to support and protect grass-roots music venues across Wales, and I welcome the plans to map and scope these venues. I hope that this can help promote local arts venues, such as the Blackwood Miners' Institute and the Newbridge Memo in my own constituency. 

And, lastly, I do believe it is right that we do produce an overarching cultural strategy for Wales, and I do call upon the Minister to consider doing that. Thank you. 

Thank you very much for that. On your final point, the whole point of mapping venues is that we know exactly what's going on, and this money for the mapping exercise was introduced because we were very concerned that venues were closing, and we didn't even know about them. Now, what we hope we can then do is to find which venues currently we might be able to encourage, and we will find a structure in which they will be supported, obviously working with the voluntary sector, the music sector and, where appropriate, obviously, with the education sector in different areas. 

I'm aware of your strong and committed support to music education, and you're absolutely right, the development of musical literacy, at all levels, is such a key issue. I had the privilege of listening to the wind band on Sunday in Hoddinott Hall, and it's brilliant to see the quality that we produce in all forms of music, and I'm very keen to make sure we encourage that. And this is why I regard the establishment of Creative Wales within a short timescale—that is, within months, so that it's working fully within four to six months, because I intend to ensure that that organisation takes the development of music of all kinds as one of its priorities, precisely to meet the challenges that you've indicated. And it's essential that there is a direct link between what Creative Wales will demand for the development of the music industry throughout Wales and the education system. I've already had discussions with the education Minister about these issues, and I can assure you that there will be a strategic approach across Government on this.

Thank you very much, Deputy Minister.