4. What is the Welsh Government doing to achieve its goal of one million Welsh Speakers by 2050? OAQ54304

Thank you, David. Your Welsh is excellent and I would like to hear you speaking more of it, please. We are taking steps in a number of areas in order to reach a million speakers. This includes steps to increase the number of speakers, the number of people who use Welsh every day, and to create the infrastructure and context to enable that to happen.

Thank you for that response, Minister. I would like to ask about school transport, which is a theme similar to Llyr's question—he's gone now. Encouraging pupils to receive Welsh-medium education is a key factor in ensuring the Welsh Government's ambition of a million Welsh speakers. Recently, Neath Port Talbot council proposed changes to school transport that has seen an additional charge for pupils who want to continue with post-16 education through the medium of Welsh. I welcome the decision to postpone this, but it's possible they could reintroduce this in the next few years. Changes to the Learner Travel (Wales) Measure 2008 will make a difference for these young people and encourage more to continue with Welsh-medium education without fear of additional transport charges. I'm pleased that you've met with the education Minister to discuss changes to the Measure, but when will these changes be available, and when will they become legislation?

Thank you for that question. Of course, we are concerned as a Government about what is happening in the Ystalyfera area and the Ysgol Ystalyfera Bro Dur area, and we are glad that Neath Port Talbot local authority have deferred the decision. Naturally, we are looking at this matter, and, of course, local government is under financial pressure. We understand that, but what we don’t want to see is that it becomes more difficult for people to receive their sixth-form education or their tertiary education through the medium of Welsh. We don’t want to make it more difficult for them. That could potentially happen at present, and that is why we are trying to see how we can assist matters. If you want to change the guidance, that’s one thing, but if you want to amend legislation, that’s more complicated. So, we’re discussing at the moment the best way to approach this in order to ensure that we can resolve this problem.

Minister, promoting and facilitating the use of the Welsh language in people’s everyday life is important if the Welsh Government is to meet its ambitious target. Recently it was revealed that less than half of 1 per cent of apprenticeships in Wales were offered through the medium of Welsh. So, can I ask, Minister, what discussion have you had with your colleagues to increase the opportunities for those who wish to learn and train through the Welsh language, especially in our industrial sector? Thank you.

Thank you very much. We recognise that this is an area that we need to give attention to and that’s why we have now set a target for 50 per cent of those who have Welsh as a GCSE in first language, that 50 per cent of the course that they are following, particularly in some sectors—. We’re starting off with the health sector, the care sector, the early years, and public services. So, we’re starting off with those apprenticeships first. So, we are taking very practical measures, and the Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol is, obviously, helping us in this regard.

The target of a million Welsh speakers will never be achieved, of course, unless we create a revolution within the Welsh-medium education system. At the moment it is entirely deficient, despite great growth in demand, as we have seen in Merthyr this week, where there is no Welsh-medium secondary school despite the demand. And then one sees the situation with Bridgend council, which is staggering, if truth be told, when we consider that initially the council was only going to create new places for 22 pupils over four years within Welsh-medium education provision. We have heard that that figure has now improved, but it does demonstrate that this system of WESPs is deficient and that we need new legislation in this area. Will you therefore consider the report that I published over the summer, written by Gareth Pierce—an education expert in Wales—which makes the case for legislation to strengthen Welsh-medium education? I would be delighted if you were to read this and I would be pleased to have your feedback. Thank you.

Thank you very much. I do believe that we have taken positive steps. I believe the WESPs transformed the way in which local government look at its own provision. The fact that we are expanding and enhancing the planning time that local authorities must apply—. This consultation took place over the summer. We are collaborating very closely with local authorities to ensure that they are supported through the system, and we've given each of them a target, depending on where they are on the journey and what their expectations are. We put an additional £30 million of capital in to help people on this journey.

Of course I'd be happy to read the document you referred to. But we must see first of all how these WESPs are progressing and the response to them before we move forward. But I'm more than happy to read that report. Thank you.