I, too, give thanks for this report by the commissioner on the work that has been completed between 2018 and 2019—a period, as we’ve already mentioned, that is a transition period between two commissioners, namely Meri Huws, who has finished, and now Aled Roberts, who will be in post until 2026. And I would like to thank both of them very much for being so willing to meet regularly and to give me constant updates about the work of the commissioner’s office, across all of its many responsibilities.

It is true to say that the period in this report has been a period of uncertainty in terms of the commissioners work. Over the summer of 2017, the Government announced proposals that would have eradicated the post of the Welsh Language Commissioner. It's hard to believe that now, because, thank goodness, 18 months after those proposals were published, there was a u-turn and the plans to introduce a Welsh language Bill were dropped, in the face of opposition from various bodies and organisations, campaigners and experts, and also, of course, in the face of firm and robust evidence that was put forward by almost every witness who appeared before the culture and welsh language committee. And we in Plaid Cymru were also opposed to that intention, because it would have led to a significant weakening of the rights of Welsh speakers.

The report does refer to this u-turn that took place and says that now, and I quote, there is certainty for them to continue with their work. We need that assurance. One concern that I have is that there has been a significant decrease in staffing levels in the commissioner’s office over the past few years, despite the important function of the commissioner as an independent regulator, responsible for ensuring the rights of Welsh speakers and the general welfare of the language.

Funding the commissioner’s office directly from the Assembly would be an important step that could be considered, and an important step forward, I believe, from the point of view of giving that financial security, but also to strengthen the independence of the commissioner. The report does say this about the Government u-turn and the decision to continue with the post:

'It also means that the Government is able to proceed with introducing more standards regulations that will enable us to impose standards on other organisations in due course.'

The report also says:

'We have already achieved the first stage of the introduction of standards, namely undertaking a standards investigation into the water, energy, transport and social housing sectors…the process…has been at a standstill.'

I have raised this a number of times and I don't apologise for doing so again today. Unfortunately it's clear that the Government doesn't have much of an intention or the will to move this important work forward, despite what is in the legislation. I have mentioned several times that the Government needs to announce and implement a timetable to enable the commissioner to impose standards on all of the remaining sectors in the Welsh Language (Wales) Measure 2011, in order to strengthen the rights of Welsh speakers, in order to create Welsh-medium workplaces, and in order to ensure consistency in the legislative framework that organisations adhere to in terms of using the Welsh language. And all this would maintain the momentum of the standards regime at a time when we are all craving the achievement of that aim of a million Welsh speakers.

So, I'll ask the Minister again to announce that timetable, but I'm not confident that I'll have a positive response. And I have to say that the failure of the Welsh Government to announce and implement a timetable for expanding linguistic rights, in the age of Brexit and all the threats facing the Welsh language, is a cause of great disappointment.

One area that is very weak in terms of providing basic Welsh-medium services is the rail services in Wales. I wonder whether we can have clarity this afternoon about the duties of KeolisAmey and Transport for Wales with regard to the language and what discussions are taking place with those bodies.

Finally, I turn to an area that is part of the commissioner’s responsibilities. We've talked about it already, namely holding statutory investigations into complaints. Now, I note that there's been a significant decline in inquiries and investigations and you've explained a little why that is, but this Assembly hasn't agreed to any changes to the legislation with regard to the complaints regime. And I've just received a copy of a letter that was sent by the Minister to the Welsh Language Commissioner, on 4 September this year, congratulating him for succeeding in decreasing the number of investigations undertaken. Now, I very much hope that that doesn't mean that there is a connection made between the decrease and the number of investigations and the changes to the budget for the commissioner. Could you also explain how is it appropriate for a Government to make a specific effort to influence an independent regulator in this way? Thank you.