8. What progress is being made by the Welsh Government to reduce rough-sleeping in Wales? OAQ54400

I thank John Griffiths for that. One person sleeping rough is one person too many. The Welsh Government has set up an action group, lead by the chief executive of Crisis, to identify a series of immediate actions to be taken this winter to reduce rough-sleeping, and that group's report is expected early in October.

First Minister, the committee that I Chair—the Equality, Local Government and Communities Committee—reported on rough-sleeping and made recommendations 18 months ago. We continue to scrutinise Welsh Government with regard to progress, and we, indeed, held an event last week and will be holding another one this week. I also met with the chair of the action group. Amongst our recommendations I believe are many important matters that the action group are addressing, First Minister, and I think the central message from the committee is that we want to see the work of that action group and the necessary improvements take place with real urgency and pace, given, as you say, that one person sleeping rough is one person too many, and it's still tragically a very visible and serious problem on our streets.

Well, can I thank John Griffiths for that and thank the committee as well for their work? I read the 'Life on the streets' report when it was first published, and I felt it made a real contribution to our understanding of the issues and to helping develop solutions. And the principles that that report outlined, the importance of primary prevention, the need for rapid rehousing when homelessness does take place and for our key ambition to be that homelessness in Wales, where it does happen, should be rare, brief and not repeated, those are things that have had a real impact on the Government's policy approach ever since. The Minister, I believe, is due to attend committee again on 17 October. That will, we hope, be after the report has been produced and it will be a further opportunity for the Minister and the committee to discuss progress towards our shared ambitions. 

Thank you, First Minister.