Questions now from the party leaders. The leader of the opposition, Paul Davies. 

Diolch, Llywydd. First Minister, do you have confidence in your health Minister?

The health Minister's discharge of his responsibilities has been absolutely commendable, particularly in the recent issue, which I know lies behind the Member's question, in relation to the significant difficulties that have been faced in Cwm Taf maternity services. And as I said on the floor of the Assembly last week, it is because of the health Minister and because of the actions that he took in the autumn of last year, as these issues came to attention, to set up an independent inquiry, to publish that independent inquiry in full, to answer questions on the floor of this Assembly and beyond, that we are now in a position where the board is able to act on the recommendations that it has received and to make sure that future services for those mothers, and for babies in the Cwm Taf area are of the standard that they and we have a right to expect. 

Well, I'm not sure whether the First Minister does have confidence in the health Minister because he didn't answer a straightforward question. But let's look at the facts and let's look at your Minister's record, shall we? Since Vaughan Gething became health Minister in 2014, there has been a catalogue of failures. Five out of seven health boards are in special measures or targeted intervention. The accident and emergency waiting time target of 95 per cent of patients being seen in four hours has never been met since it was introduced in 2009. Under Vaughan Gething's leadership, the number of patients seen within four hours has shockingly dropped further from 86 per cent when he was appointed in 2014, to a disgraceful 78 per cent now. Ambulance waiting times have been missed and, instead of taking responsibility and improving response times, the targets were scrapped and the goalposts moved. 

And then, last week, I raised with you the damning report into the Cwm Taf maternity services, despite formal concerns being raised seven years ago, and, as we know, 43 cases are now being reviewed. So, I put it to you, First Minister, given these catalogue of failures, why do you have confidence in the health Minister?

Well, Llywydd, what we hear, as ever, in an entirely partial and distorted account of the record of the health service here in Wales. It is because of decisions that the health Minister made on ambulance waiting times that ambulance waiting times in Wales have been met and exceeded in every one of the last 12 months, and why the model that was developed here in Wales is now being copied by other health services, including the health service where his party is in charge, in other parts of the United Kingdom. It is because of the focus of the health Minister on cancer waiting times, for example, that more people in Wales are treated today more quickly and more successfully than ever before in our history. 

And when things go wrong, as they inevitably will in a system of the size and sort that we have, then, in the case that the leader of the opposition highlights again this afternoon, I say to him again it is because of the decisive action that the Minister took in insisting that there was an independent review of the discovery of difficulties in Cwm Taf that we are now in a position of having the recommendations we need, the arrangements in place, and the genuine prospect of those services recovering and being back in place as we would want to see them as fast as that can be possibly be brought about. 

It's quite clear, First Minister, that there have been serious failings under your health Minister's stewardship of the NHS. Now, a YouGov poll released today for the twentieth anniversary of this place has found that 29 per cent of people in Wales feel that the National Assembly has led to a decline in NHS standards. There has been a lack of leadership by successive Welsh Labour Governments, and it is quite clear that it is not devolution that has failed Wales, but Welsh Labour have failed devolution.

Now, your health Minister has been directly responsible for Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board since it was put into special measures four years ago next month. Since then, 29 per cent of patients in the Betsi Cadwaladr area are waiting more than four hours to be seen in A&E; 43 per cent of patients at Wrexham Maelor Hospital wait more than four hours in A&E; and, this is the worst in Wales, 38 people have died in unexplained or unintended incidents whilst in the care of Betsi Cadwaladr—38 deaths reported in the last year, which could have been avoided. This is more than all the other health boards put together.

And now—and now—we see the Cwm Taf maternity services scandal, where 27 babies have died. And last week's report made it absolutely clear that there was a lack of functioning governance and leadership. So, what does it actually take for people to take responsibility for these failures, First Minister? So, once again, given this catalogue of failures, why haven't you sacked your health Minister? 

Well, Llywydd, I must say I think that last remark simply trivialises the importance of the issues that the Member rightly pointed to earlier in his question. Ever since these matters came to light, our focus has been on those brave women who came forward in Cwm Taf and who insisted that their stories were told, who have—as we know—suffered significant harm in their lives, which will be something that will live with them for many, many years to come, and what we need is a serious response to that position, not a scalp-hunting response. And it is the serious actions that the Minister has taken, and those actions will go on, because he's to be advised on any further action required to improve maternity services in Cwm Taf, as a result of the arrangements that he has put in place. That's a serious reaction to a genuinely serious position, and that's the sort of health service and that's the sort of Government that I think people in Wales are entitled to see and to continue to see in the future. 

On behalf of the Plaid Cymru leader, Rhun ap Iorwerth. 

Thank you, Llywydd. Twenty nine per cent of Welsh children live in poverty. Does the First Minister believe that that is acceptable?

Of course that is unacceptable, Llywydd. In the first decade of devolution, the number of children living in poverty in Wales went down year on year. What we’re talking about is the period of austerity, the period when the United Kingdom’s decisions created a situation where more children in Wales live in poverty and the number is increasing year on year. That is not acceptable. We are doing everything that we can as a Government, but the responsibility lies in the hands of the United Kingdom Government, because of the actions they’ve taken in the field of benefits, for example. That is what is creating the numbers of children living in poverty in Wales.

I agree that it’s unacceptable. I also recall that a series of Governments here have been missing their targets on tackling child poverty since the inception of devolution. This is one of the things that could arise as a topic for discussion in marking 20 years of devolution. And, on that twentieth anniversary, people can consider two things, I think. First of all, they can celebrate the fact that we do now have a national Senedd and that the choice to establish a Senedd was an important step forward in our maturity as a nation. The Assembly, of course, is a forum for everyone, for every party. It’s an institution that everyone can be proud of. But it’s natural that people will ask how effective Welsh Governments have been over that 20 years, and Labour has led each of those Governments. This First Minister is the fourth Labour First Minister.

So, back to the poverty figures. In a few weeks’ time, this Assembly will discuss a motion signed by Members of many parties, including the party of Government, calling for a strategy to tackle poverty with a budget and specific action points. Isn't it scandalous, after 20 years of Labour Government, that we are still in a situation where one feels that we need to have such a strategy? Backbench Members are eager to take action. The Assembly, if you like, is eager to take action, but it’s the Welsh Labour Government that has failed time and time again, just as you have failed to resolve the problems of the health service.

Well, Llywydd, let me find something to agree with in what the Member said, because the fact that we have this forum, and that the forum is an established part of the democratic landscape here in Wales, of course is a major achievement of the last 20 years and provides a forum in which debates of this sort can be carried out. The Member points to the fact that Labour, one way or another, has formed the Government here in Wales over that period. But there is a reason for that, Llywydd, and that's because, in every election since the Assembly was created, that is the decision that people who vote in Wales have made. And I absolutely understand that no party has any right to expect anybody to vote for them, and that my party has to earn every single vote at every single election that we are lucky enough to attract, and we will go on doing that and making that case to people in Wales as we approach another election. 

It will be for people in Wales, then, to decide whether or not what they want is another strategy, or whether they want the sort of practical actions that this Government is committed to making in the field of child poverty—in the things that we have done to more than double the school uniform grant; in the extra millions of pounds that we have found to bring thousands more children into free school meals in Wales; the fact that, even in this really difficult period of austerity, Wales is the only part of the United Kingdom that has a national approach to tackling holiday hunger, and we have nearly doubled the amount of money that we will put into that during the coming summer. It's for people in Wales to decide whether they would rather another strategy or would rather a Government that does those practical things, that uses the powers that we have every day to put to work to improve the lives of children in Wales. 

The First Minister says that it's up to the people of Wales to decide if they want another strategy. The point is your own backbenchers believe you don't have a strategy at all when it comes to tackling poverty, at a time when nearly a third of Welsh children live in poverty. 

Now, devolution has developed within European frameworks and I and Plaid Cymru believe that the evolution of a small nation like Wales, for the next 20 years and well, well beyond, will be best served by staying in the European Union. Our position on that is quite clear. After the failures of the British establishment over the past three years, does the First Minister agree with me that the people of Wales must now be allowed to vote on the terms of any deal on leaving the EU, and be given the option to stay, so power is genuinely put back in the hands of the people, whether they voted remain or leave three years ago on the principle of departing from the EU, or does he hope that Jeremy Corbyn and Theresa May can come to some sort of cosy agreement—or stitch-up, some might say—that can drive Brexit forward without the need for another vote?

Well, the Welsh Government's position, Llywydd, is the one that I rehearse every single week in front of the Assembly, and it was the position that the Member's party signed up to when we jointly published 'Securing Wales' Future'. We've always believed that there was a deal to be done that would protect the Welsh economy and Welsh jobs were we to leave the European Union. If a deal of that sort cannot be struck, then of course—we have said time and time again that the decision will have to return to the people. That's our policy, that remains our policy. It was the policy that his own party signed up to not that long ago. 

The UKIP leader, Gareth Bennett.

Diolch, Llywydd.

Missed you last week.

Thank you. First Minister, if I could raise with you the issue of council tax, I think it's interesting that we are, this month, marking 20 years of the Welsh Assembly, because this 20-year period hasn't been particularly great for Welsh council tax payers. If we look at the figures, band D council tax rates in Wales have increased by 244 per cent since 1996. This is much higher than the general rate of inflation in that period. First Minister, do you think that rapidly-escalating council tax increases are a price worth paying in Wales to enjoy the benefits of a Welsh Labour Government permanently running the Welsh Assembly? 

Well, the reason that there is a Welsh Government in the Assembly, Llywydd, as the Member knows, is because, whenever there has been an election since devolution, that has been the decision that the citizens of Wales have made. That's the reason why. It's not some sort of act of God; we didn't win it in a raffle. We won it by being on the doorstep and persuading people to vote for the Labour Party.

As far as council tax is concerned, those are decisions for local authorities across Wales to make. They too are answerable to their local populations. They too face elections in which local populations can pass a verdict on those local authorities. And, in a period of severe public expenditure restraint, where every week on the floor of the Assembly Members in different parties pop up demanding more money to be spent on local authority services—you can't have more money spent on services without raising that money from somewhere, and the council tax and the pressure on it is a reflection of the fact that we do not have money coming to Wales to invest in those services in the way that we would like to see it, and local authorities find themselves at the sharp end of some of that difficulty, and decisions on the council tax are made in that context.  

Yes, thank you for that answer. I'm glad that you recognise that the act of voting at the ballot box isn't an act of God, it's something that people with informed opinions actually do, and so you do take heed of the decisions, because that isn't the line you generally take as regards the vote of the people in Wales during the Brexit referendum.

Now, going back to the precise issue of council tax, yes, of course, local authorities are answerable to the electorate—that is a response that you have a habit of giving to me whenever I raise local government issues with you here in the Assembly. But, First Minister, it isn't going to impress people in Wales very much if we have an Assembly and you simply use the Chamber to dodge issues and avoid taking responsibility for policy areas that are clearly part of your responsibility as First Minister. Now, if we look at this issue of council tax, surely you must accept it's a preposterous situation when a Welsh council taxpayer who owns a £220,000 home in Neath pays more in council tax than the owner of an £85 million mansion in Kensington, as is the case this year.    

Well, Llywydd, council tax rates are not set on the floor of this Assembly Chamber. The Assembly is responsible now for major taxation decisions that we make every year, but setting the council tax is not one of them. It is as a result of actions agreed in this National Assembly that we still have in Wales a national council tax benefit scheme, so that people who have the least pay no council tax at all, whereas the poorest families in the land in the part of the United Kingdom to which the Member refers are now paying £200 a year on average from benefits that have been frozen since 2015 towards council tax bills, and, in Wales, those families, I'm really pleased to say, pay nothing at all. So, where we are able to act and where we have responsibility to act, I think the National Assembly and the Welsh Government have acted together to protect those families who need that protection the most, while respecting the separate democratic accountabilities that local authorities have to make decisions that fall to them to make.

In terms of respecting democratic decisions, I take note of what the Member says about the European Union referendum. I think it's his party's policy that we should now have a third referendum on whether the National Assembly should continue to be in existence, despite the fact that we've had two referendums here, both of which—the first of which brought this Assembly into being, and the second of which confirmed its existence and strengthened its powers by a completely decisive majority. 

Question 3 [OAQ53803] is withdrawn. Question 4, Mark Reckless.