Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. [Laughter.] You do have a happy habit of making those statements before I rise to speak. [Laughter.] I'm always very grateful to be called, of course.

First Minister, I'm grateful to you for making this statement this afternoon. I think, like other Members here, we are all very grateful to Lord Thomas and his team. Giving evidence last year to Lord Thomas, and to the commissioners, was a pretty terrifying experience, I have to say, and the level of scrutiny and the level of focus on the issues that were under discussion was something that was hugely impressive at that time, and I think it's demonstrated in the report that has been produced. For me, this is certainly a report about the justice system, but it is also a report about people. It's about fairness, it's about social justice and it's about the stability of the constitution of this country.

I was reading the report of Peter Clarke—the chief inspector of prisons—into Cardiff prison this morning, and what he says there is absolutely striking: something like half or all people released, all men released, from Cardiff prison are homeless upon release; 65 per cent have issues with mental health; 38 per cent have drug and alcohol addictions upon arrival at Cardiff prison. And these figures are seen to be quite good, quite reasonable figures. That's the burden of his report, and that this is an improvement on where we've been. But what that really tells you—what that really tells you is that we are used to a system that is so dramatically failing the people of Wales that we are used to a system that works for virtually nobody. And that is unacceptable—it's unacceptable. And it's not acceptable either to simply say, 'This is a very good report, we're going to file it away', and 'This is a very good report, we're going to have a seminar perhaps or take our instructions from elsewhere.' This is a report that demands action, and it demands action from this place.

I'm really very, very pleased that the First Minister has responded with the urgency that this report requires this afternoon. I very much welcome what the First Minister has said about a sub-committee of Cabinet to take these matters forward. I hope also that we will be able to ensure that we are able to move towards the creation of a justice department within the Welsh Government. The First Minister is absolutely right, in answer to an earlier question, about the weight of numbers and the resources available to achieve that. But there is already a job of work to be done, even without the devolution of these matters, to better co-ordinate and to manage the systems and the interfaces of services within this country. The report stands as a rebuke to people who have governed this country in the past, a rebuke to the constitution of this country, and a rebuke to all those people who say, 'It's simply too difficult, so I'm going to wash my hands of this.' Wash their hands, not only of the difficulty that we are confronted with, but wash their hands of the human consequences of it as well.

And so, First Minister, I welcome very much what you said this afternoon, both in answer to questions and in your statement. I hope that we will able to have a reasoned debate in the new year, as you have suggested. But, First Minister, I hope you will also be able to reassure all of us here that, in moving forward, you will do so with the urgency and the tempo that you've set this afternoon, with the understanding of the human issues that you've established this afternoon, but also with a clear understanding of how this will impact Wales and Wales's relationship with the rest of the United Kingdom.

One of the questions that Lord Thomas asked me during my evidence was whether there was a requirement for a symmetrical nature of devolution. We were talking about Great Britain, rather then the whole of the United Kingdom. And I believe, with my experience in Government, that we do require that symmetrical system of devolution. An asymmetrical system was acceptable in 1999, when we were establishing devolved government in Wales, but it does not provide the stability of governance and the stability of a settlement that will deliver the services we require and the sort of constitutional stability that we will require in the future.

So, First Minister, like others this afternoon, I'm very grateful to you for this statement, and I hope that you can reassure us that the Welsh Government will continue to pursue this, and to pursue this with urgency.