Questions now from the party leaders. The Plaid Cymru leader, Adam Price. 

Diolch, Llywydd. First Minister, the Labour Party manifesto in 2011 committed to requiring GPs to make surgeries more accessible to working people so they can access local GP services in the evenings and Saturday mornings. Can you please update Members on the progress the Welsh Labour Government has made to ensure that patients can access services at a time most convenient to them? 

Well, I can certainly tell the Member that there were extensive experiments that were carried out after that commitment and detailed discussions with the General Practitioners Committee Wales. What the experiments showed, unlike as we may have anticipated here, was that the use made by patients of extended hours surgeries was not at a level that we believed, in discussion with the GP workforce, justified the extra expense that had been committed to them—that there were better ways. That is the view of the GP community—that there were better ways to make sure that services were available, including through diversification of the workforce, including through all the things that we do to use community pharmacies. And having tried a series of experiments with opening hours later into the evening, at weekends, we now have a pattern agreed with the GP community in Wales. It's not perfect, it doesn't operate as we would want it everywhere, but it is the result of discussions with the profession that we have the pattern we have. 

Well, let me go through the lack of progress that you have made, and you've admitted the lack of progress that you've made in detail. In terms even of core hours—core daily hours—last year showed a decline in the number of GP practices even being able to offer that within three health boards—Aneurin Bevan, Cwm Taf and Powys. Another aspect of your commitment focused on extending availability of appointments prior to 08:30 in the morning. No progress has been made on that, as almost four fifths of surgeries are not offering appointments before 08:30, and when it comes to evening appointments, not one surgery within Cardiff and Vale, Cwm Taf or Abertawe Bro Morgannwg health boards were open after 18:30 in the evening last year, and only 1 per cent of surgeries within Betsi Cadwaladr. Extending evening opening hours was meant to be achieved by the end of 2013 financial year, but two health boards have since completely scrapped their extended opening hours. Why make the promise at all when you failed to keep it so clearly? 

The reason for making the commitment was because of our genuine concern to make appointments available to more people, particularly working people outside the normal working day. We have a number of experiments that we've attempted in that field. For example, we had an experiment in Cardiff and Newport that allowed people who lived outside those cities, but worked in them, to register with a Cardiff or Newport GP so that they could have a local appointment close to work, rather than having to give up half a day, for example, to have an appointment closer to home. The truth of the matter was that those experiments did not deliver the outcomes for patients that were originally anticipated. That's why we've had those further discussions with the GP profession itself; why we have invested in other ways in which patients can have access to healthcare. It's not simply a matter of going to the surgery. That's a pretty old-fashioned way of thinking about healthcare. We've diversified the ways in which people can get the help that they need, and we'll continue to do that. We are very keen that people should have as convenient an access as is possible to the healthcare that they need. Doing that exclusively at the GP practice, doing that exclusively by extending hours, may not be the most effective way of doing that, either for patients or for the professionals who provide that service. That's what the history of the experiments taught us.

Patients who are seeking to access those services, who are unable to do so at a time that actually works for them, I think, may give a very, very different response to the one the First Minister has just given. But just to tease a little bit further his answer out: is he saying that part of the decision as to why you dropped this pledge was because it wasn't effective, not just in terms of its impact, but cost-effective, so the opportunity cost, the cost-effectiveness, of meeting the pledge was also a factor? Because what you said at the time, and I'm quoting your predecessor as First Minister here—. The previous First Minister said:

'There is no cost to extending GP opening hours. All that we are asking them to do is to re-jig their hours'. 

Now, my party has consistently argued one of the most effective ways to widen access to GP services is to have more GPs, and since you made this pledge about accessible hours, the number of GPs in Wales has gone down. No wonder you couldn't meet the pledge and then had to drop it.

Wouldn't you accept the need to adopt a policy of increasing GP training places to 200 a year, as the Royal College of General Practitioners has recommended, as part of a wider process of increasing our doctor numbers? In England, I noticed that—keen follower as I am of the Labour Party conference—you've committed to a 40 per cent increase in GP trainees. Isn't this another sign of Labour promising for England what it could already be doing here in Wales?

Well, Llywydd, two points, really: one, it's very important indeed that we focus our attention not narrowly on GPs, but on the whole of the primary care clinical team. Services that are provided to patients rely on pharmacists, on physiotherapists, on occupational therapists. All those people are members of the primary care team. They are clinically as capable as a GP of providing directly for patients in almost 80 per cent of cases. And a one-eyed focus on what GPs provide simply doesn't reflect the way in which primary care today, and in the future, needs to be provided.

But the Member will be pleased to know that this is not a matter of Wales following where England intends to go; it is a matter of England following where we have been already because he will, I know, be pleased to know that the number of GP training places filled in Wales this year is the highest it has ever been. It's not at 200 yet, but it is going up, and has gone up very significantly in the last few years. So, we have filled 155 GP training places in Wales and that's the most we have ever done. That's the result of lots of activity that has gone on in the field itself by the Welsh Government. It's a matter to be celebrated, and in that sense I agree with the point that Adam Price was making, that investing in training and bringing more people into the profession is a way of securing the long-term future of the family doctor service, where GPs lead these wider teams of clinical professionals able to provide face-to-face services in the community. And I'm sure he'll welcome the fact that we are doing better than we ever have before in having GPs in training here in Wales.

Leader of the opposition, Paul Davies.

Diolch, Llywydd. First Minister, commuter satisfaction for train journeys in Wales stands at 71 per cent. As First Minister, are you satisfied that the people of Wales are getting the train services that they deserve?

I want to see train services in Wales improve further and faster, in line with the groundbreaking franchise that we negotiated. Transport for Wales has not been able to obtain the trains that they have ordered from companies at the speed that those companies promised. That means they have not had the rolling stock available in the first year in the way that was originally anticipated. But on 15 December this year, when the new timetable comes into effect, we will see 6,500 new places on trains in Wales, new services right across Wales, and people in Wales will see that the improvements that have started already will be accelerating fast from that day and into the rest of the franchise period.

First Minister, the big question commuters ask themselves each morning is not, 'Am I going to get a seat on a train?' but 'Am I going to be able to get onto this train, full stop?' Across the rail network in Wales there are posters proclaiming what is coming down the track with the promised changes to the network. In 2019, Transport for Wales have said there'll be more capacity on the Valleys lines, on-board infotainment launched, and that old Pacer trains will be phased out completely. I've raised this before—that, in order to increase capacity on the Valleys lines, Transport for Wales have actually brought back trains from the 1960s, and this week we hear that the old Pacer trains will not be phased out completely and that they will continue to run in 2020.

First Minister, now that we know that this promise has been broken—and we've heard earlier how you've broken promises in other areas—can you confirm—? [Interruption.] I can hear chuntering from your colleagues—. [Interruption.] I can hear chuntering from your colleagues, but you are responsible for train services here in Wales, and therefore can you confirm when these tired old trains will be finally taken off our tracks, or are you going to stick to the line that these things can't happen overnight?

I've already explained to the Member, Llywydd, that there will be a 10 per cent increase in capacity for service users from 15 December, that there will be 200 additional Sunday services here in Wales, which is a 45 per cent increase on current rates, and of course we want to see that new, modern accessible rolling stock made available here in Wales. It's why, Llywydd, I was very pleased last week to meet with the chief executive and the whole of the board of CAF, the manufacturing train company that has come and set up its manufacturing facility in Newport, who will be providing trains for Welsh passengers, on Welsh lines, as a result of the franchise that we have. I'm very pleased to say to Members here that, in that meeting with the whole of the board of that major company, they came to tell us how pleased they are with the development that's happened in Newport, at the state of the factory that they've been able to create, of the commitment of the workforce that they find here in Wales, and how much they are looking forward to seeing their trains operating on lines here in Wales. Trains made in Wales, running in Wales, that's what Welsh passengers will see.

First Minister, it's not just delays and cancellations that are afflicting train users in Wales, but some trains are not even bothering to stop at the stations they are meant to. On Saturday, a train full of people suddenly found themselves in Pontypridd after the train ran straight from Cardiff without stopping at any of the advertised stops. Despite getting up to 52 per cent more per month in subsidy compared to Arriva, Transport for Wales's overall journey satisfaction is the same as Arriva. Train punctuality, ticket price and cleanliness satisfaction are all the same, and the level of crowding remains a significant concern, with 45 per cent dissatisfied with the level of crowding on the core Valleys lines. First Minister, is it simply the case that Transport for Wales are on the wrong track when it comes to delivering train services across Wales? So, what is your Government going to do so that people can finally have access to a train service that is fit for the twenty-first century?

Well, Llywydd, the history of the last year demonstrates the legacy that Transport for Wales has had to pick up after the franchise that his party negotiated where there was no capacity at all within it for growth in passenger numbers, where rolling stock was run down and where the fleet that was passed on to Transport for Wales turned out not to be fit for the sort of service that we want to provide. Of course we want to see improvements, and the plan that we have and that Transport for Wales has, which will see those improvements happen from 15 December, will roll forward into next year and beyond, in order to make sure that people in Wales who are committed to a public transport solution to journey times here in Wales will have the service that they and we want to see.

Leader of the Brexit Party, Mark Reckless.

Diolch, Llywydd. You pronounced yesterday that Spain should be suspended from the EU, so I'd like to ask the First Minister about his position. The Welsh Government has a Minister for international relations, although these are not devolved, and it’s a socialist Prime Minister in Spain who asked us to respect the independent judicial decisions of their Supreme Court. Here, we're told by Labour Members that our Prime Minister should be sent to prison for contempt if he seeks to deliver on our EU referendum in ways of which our Supreme Court might not approve. Isn't it about time we backed our democracy and our referendum result by voting to leave the EU, rather than looking to overturn constitutional and judicial arrangements in Spain and the EU?

I'm not quite sure which point the Member is asking me to address in that. I'll start with his first point, although I'm reluctant always to be drawn into responsibilities which neither this institution nor I as its First Minister exercise. But I think it is rightly a matter of concern to any of us to see democratically elected politicians who have gone peacefully about their responsibilities, whose response is not dialogue and discussion but the use of the criminal law. And I think we're rightly concerned about that. If that was the main point of his question, then I've expressed my view on it. In relation to his points about Brexit, we've rehearsed those exhaustively here on the floor of the Assembly, and he’s aware of my position on that.

I thank the First Minister for his partial response. What is extraordinary is the number of people in this Chamber and beyond who look to and expect the European Union to intervene as if it were a supporter of democratic national self-determination, when the reality is it will no more welcome a vote on national independence in Catalonia than it did our vote on 23 June 2016.

I would associate myself with some of the remarks that the First Minister made initially, and I think it is the case that our constitutional arrangements have worked better in respect of Scotland and the referendum they held there, than Spain’s have in respect of Catalonia. Unfortunately, not all in the Scottish National Party agree with the legal and constitutional approach taken so far continuing. Some want an SNP Scottish Government not to bother with a second referendum and just declare independence; others think they should hold a second referendum without a second section 30 order from the UK Government. Ultimately, if a Scottish Government were to seek to hold such an illegal referendum, or perhaps a future Welsh Government, isn't prison for contempt ultimately our last line of constitutional defence?

Well, Llywydd, there are so many stretches in the argument that the Member has made that I lost my way in it very early on. As far the European Union is concerned, many of us in this Chamber, because of the history of our membership, do look to the European Union for protections in the environmental field, for protections for workers, for protections for citizens and consumers. Of course we do, because it is through our membership of the European Union that we enjoy today so many of those rights that otherwise would not have been afforded to us. But does that mean that we think that the European Union is perfect in every way? Of course not.

In the week leading up to the last referendum, I shared a platform with the leader of Plaid Cymru here, where we both spoke on the platform of 'remain to reform', and the reform agenda for the European Union is real amongst those of us who support the European Union. Of course it doesn't do everything in every way as we would wish to see it, but that does not mean at all that we would be prepared to turn our backs on the very real gains that Welsh citizens have had as a result of our membership of the European Union and which now are very significantly at risk.