Questions now from the party spokespeople. Conservatives spokesperson, Suzy Davies.

Thank you, Llywydd, and good afternoon, Minister. According to the programme initiation document for your programme board on 20 March 2019, we are expecting a number of steps from you during this month. One of those is to develop and to implement a Welsh language strategy communications plan across departments of Government. It's three years since this Assembly started, so why hasn't this happened yet?

Thank you. A lot of work has been going into the communications plan across Government. You are aware that during the Eisteddfod we launched the 2050 project. This was a plan to ensure that we can mainstream the Welsh language across Government, but I hope there will be, during the next month, a plan coming forward, and this, of course, is work for the Permanent Secretary to bring forward something of substance as to how we are going to move forward within the Welsh Government with our plan of Welshifying the civil service here in Wales.

Well, thank you for that response, but you haven't quite answered the question as to why it’s taken so long. We are also expecting the publication of the policy on language transmission within the family and an oral statement on language infrastructure. I'm hoping that I'll get something from you on those also, because they too are on the programme board timetable.

Now, if I could just move on. The Welsh language partnership council advises and makes comment to Welsh Ministers—just to you—in relation to the Welsh language strategy. Since your plans for a new Bill were shelved and the programme initiation document was issued, I can find only one set of minutes, which were incomplete, of the partnership council’s meeting in April, where, after the usual audit of risks, there was a presentation on second homes and policy in Cornwall. How has the partnership council assisted you in promoting the 2050 strategy since the Bill was shelved?

Well, the partnership council provides expert advice to us on the Welsh language. The minutes are published now and, certainly, the work that they do for us is a great assistance to ensure that we are on the right path to achieve our aim of a million Welsh speakers. One of the things, for example, in the last meeting, was that we were talking about the economy and how we look at the economy in the more Welsh areas and to ensure, as a result of Brexit, how we’re going to continue to ensure that those areas can move forward and keep young people, particularly in our strongholds.

Thank you for that, but, once again, I’m talking about three years into this Assembly, and I’m talking about almost six months since you shelved the Bill. It doesn’t appear to me that a great deal has changed in the meantime. Furthermore, perhaps you could tell me how many members of the partnership council have personal experience of being Welsh learners themselves? One of the three themes is to increase the number of Welsh speakers. Will that include learners already in the current education system or in the workplace? Only 12 Welsh teachers have qualified this year. There are almost as many Members of the partnership council as there are new Welsh teachers. Why isn’t your strategy grasping the attention of incoming teachers?

It is a challenge to recruit teachers across the world currently, and I have been working very closely with the education Minister to ensure that we look at how we can help to attract more people into following a Welsh teaching course, and a lot of money has been going into it. For example, we have provided an additional £150,000 to ensure that more people undertake Welsh A-level because we know that many of those go on to teach and learn through the medium of Welsh. And I do also think that it’s important that we let people know that we have provided an additional £5,000 to ensure that more people understand that there is an additional incentive for them if they train through the medium of Welsh. So, we are taking specific steps. It is difficult, especially in terms of secondary education, but in terms of primary education, I think we are certainly in the right place.

The Plaid Cymru spokesperson, Delyth Jewell.

Diolch, Llywydd. Minister, I know the Kurdish community in Wales would wish me to thank you for raising concerns with the UK Foreign Secretary about Turkey's decision to invade Kurdish territories in Syria. I know that you care about the plight of the Kurdish people, as do we in Plaid Cymru, and I'm glad to see the Welsh Government taking action on this. Donald Trump's decision to allow Turkey to unleash a brutal and murderous assault on the Kurds will go down in history as an act of senseless evil. The brave Kurds stopped ISIS in their tracks. They have been reliable allies to western countries over many years, but instead of being supported, they've been stabbed in the back once again. No wonder the Kurdish people say they have no friends but the mountains. But, Minister, the UK has finally suspended arms sales to Turkey, and, as a member of the Council of Europe, Turkey is bound by the European Convention on Human Rights, which places a duty on member states to refrain from unlawful killing. Now, since Turkey's actions clearly contravene these duties, do you agree with me that there's an argument for bringing a case against Turkey to the European Court of Human Rights?

Well, thank you very much, and I'm glad that you referred to the fact that we have written to Dominic Raab, but I think it is worth underlining the point that, actually, foreign affairs is an area where the UK Government takes the primary responsibility. But I think we are super sensitive to the fact that there is a large Kurdish community within Wales, who have real concerns about what's going on in that area, and I am also delighted that the UK Government have stopped issuing further arms export licences to Turkey. In terms of whether we should take further moves, I think that is going to be a decision for the UK Government. That has to be their responsibility, and they are in the driving seat in relation to foreign affairs. 

Okay. Thank you, Minister, for that. I would say that, again, it's very welcome that you have taken the action that you've taken, but I think this is, as you've acknowledged, a very large issue, and it would be good to hear your opinion on that.

Some companies involved in the arms trade, including sales of arms to Turkey, have bases of operation in Wales, and some have received Welsh Government funding. Now, some of these companies are very large manufacturers, and those arms activities are a small part of their work. However, I am concerned at the possibility that Welsh Government funds could, in theory, have been used to facilitate the selling of arms to Turkey, which again could now be being used against the Kurdish communities. Could you give me an assurance, Minister, that, when your Government gives funds to companies that have these arms-manufacturing components to their work in future, you will do everything you can to ensure that these funds will not be used to facilitate the arms trade in any way? I simply want to make sure that there's no blood in the supply chains, as I'm sure you would agree with.

Well, this is one of the reasons why I was particularly pleased to hear Dominic Rabb say yesterday that he was going to suspend issuing further arms exports, because, actually, it's very difficult for us to do anything unilaterally in Wales. We come under the UK Government, we have to comply with those rules and those laws, and that's why I was delighted to see that that action was taken on behalf of the whole of the United Kingdom. So, it is very difficult for us to do things separately. But I also think it's probably worth underlining that there are a lot of jobs involved here as well in Wales, and we have to be very sensitive, I think, in terms of treading this very, very difficult and delicate path, because, of course, I don't think we would want to see a situation where those arms were being used on innocent civilians, certainly, in that part of the world.

Thank you, Minister. Obviously, the jobs that are involved are going to be important, but, again, in terms of these component parts of the work that's being put into the selling of arms, I think it would be good for the Welsh Government—well, it would be not just good, it would be thoroughly important for the Welsh Government—to do everything it can to make sure that that isn't an indirect way that we are funding that.

But finally, Minister, I'd like to turn to an issue that's closer to home, which is the Spanish state's jailing of the Catalan independence campaigners. It is unconscionable that political jailings are happening in Europe in 2019. Western countries have rightly criticised China for clamping down on protesters in Hong Kong, yet we have a European Union member state sending politicians to prison for delivering a legitimate, democratic mandate. Minister, will you join Plaid Cymru and, indeed, some of your own Labour backbenchers, in condemning Spain for their actions? And will you send a message of solidarity to the nine Catalan politicians and campaigners who are now in prison for taking actions that ought to be protected under the United Nations charter's enshrinement of the right to self-determination?

Thank you once again. It is the United Kingdom that takes the lead on foreign affairs, but I have already written to the Foreign Secretary to ask what representation they've made to the Spanish Government about the prison sentences handed down to the Catalan politicians. And my understanding is that we'll be having a further question on this during topical questions.