I'd like to thank you, Minister, for your statement today and also for the opportunity you afforded my staff members to receive a technical briefing on the report this morning. Of course, your statement is entitled 'Update on Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board', and I appreciate that in the content you mainly focused on the progress report and the clinical review strategy, which indeed I will do—I have a number of questions just to ask you on it. However, I do want to put on record again how incredibly sorry we are that this has happened to these families in this health board. How incredibly sorry that they've had to go through not just the trauma of losing a child but now trying to put right that exercise. We will try to support you in whatever way we can to ensure that those parents get the answers and, indeed, the justice that they seek. So, I have to ask you this first question, which is: what reassurances, Minister, can you provide that the senior management involved at the time are held accountable for the failings within the health board, in light of the panel's clear statement that they are not there, rightly so, to establish who is to blame? That is a separate area and we'd be grateful for an update on that.

In terms of the clinical review strategy and the quarterly progress report—very interesting reading. The update states that the interim minimum staffing levels have been agreed with the health board. Minister, could you just explain what those levels are and do they meet any existing recognised minimum staff levels for this service? I know we are waiting for the publication of Birthrate Plus, which isn't until later this month, but can you tell us whether those minimum staffing levels are above Birthrate Plus, about what you anticipate it would be, or slightly below? Can you shed any light on that at all?

In the report, the authors say that they are seeking independent validation of the board's claims that 30 per cent of those initial recommendations have been fully embedded into the working practices of the board. How satisfied are you? What confidence can we have in the health board, that this panel have to go out and get that independent validation?

Despite feedback that's been sought from surveys and comments collected from social media, the update states that the data of all of this has not yet been fully analysed and that the themes that have been identified are not influencing yet the improvement, quality and safety of the maternity services. So, could you please clarify, Minister, whether that's because of a lack of allocated resources, or is there this ingrained cultural inertia still within the health board?

Are you able to give us a time frame for when the 150 identified cases will be reviewed, so that there's peace of mind to be given to the patients? You said yourself that the panel is taking on self-referrals, which I think, actually, is an incredibly positive and outreach way of trying to handle a very difficult situation. But can you clarify whether those 39 so far are in addition to, or included in, the 150? What extra resources are you able to give to ensure that these referrals are heard in a timely manner, because there's been an upturn in complaints, as you yourself have identified. Not all of them will be serious, but nonetheless there's obviously still concern and worry about this whole issue, so we obviously need those additional resources.

Finally, could I ask what training is being put into place to retrain people who may need that retraining? During the technical briefing your officials offered this morning, they talked about the fact that it was very evident that they could see an ebb and a flow in practice and outcomes. It's very identifiable who, perhaps, needs that extra hand, who needs that extra support. So, what steps have been put in place to ensure that specific front-line staff members have been given that additional support that they need to improve the way they deliver midwifery care to the mothers and families in this health board?

My final point is your issue No. 11: culture within the service. The report says it

'remains work in progress and is likely to do so for the foreseeable future'.

I totally understand that. They say

'it is unrealistic to expect that longstanding issues related to culture, attitudes and behaviours can be addressed within a few months.'

Of course they can't. Cultural change does take a long time to embed. However, we can't wait too long. We do not want to see this dragging on and on and on as a running sore, like we have seen running sores in other health boards over other issues. Are you able to give any sense of time frame as to when you might hope to see some of these changes embedded right into the culture of that health board, and, of course, not just in maternity services but, as the panel said in one of their witness statements to the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee, there's an indication that some of this malaise, if you like, runs in other areas within this health board, and we need to drill down to see whether it is a one-off just in maternity services or whether this is a systemic issue. And if it's a systemic issue, really we have to get on top of it. But I do commend you and your team for the work that you've done so far, but we cannot take our foot off the accelerator on this.