3. Will the First Minister make a statement on efforts to improve bus services in Wales? OAQ54848

I thank the Member for that, Llywydd. Once again this year, despite continued cuts to our budget, the Welsh Government has provided £25 million in bus services support grant to assist local authorities in sustaining and improving bus services across Wales.

This summer, we had the news from Stagecoach that they plan to discontinue the number 25 service, which runs from Caerphilly to the Heath hospital, via Thornhill crematorium. After working with more than 300 residents, and Wayne David, we managed to persuade Stagecoach to reinstate the service on an hourly basis, from January, as a six-month trial. The outcome was the result of pressure from residents and from my office. We want to see that service continued indefinitely. We've also managed to get Stagecoach to provide a service to the Heath hospital from the Caerphilly constituency. But I've also had contact from residents in Senghenydd, in Bedwas and in Nelson about services connecting cross-valley and connecting to rail stations. So, my question to you, First Minister, is: what are your longer term plans in the year ahead for bus services that will enhance public service in the Caerphilly constituency?

I thank Hefin David for that, and I want to congratulate him for the campaign that he helped to lead in Caerphilly that has resulted in the restoration of the 25 bus service, connecting Caerphilly on an hourly basis with the University Hospital of Wales. It's not a surprise to learn of his effectiveness there, working with Wayne David. I see, Llywydd, this week that an independent assessment of the availability of public representatives to their local communities right across the United Kingdom put Wayne David at the very top of that list—the Member of Parliament that provided the most available and accessible service to his constituents. Six Labour MPs from Wales in the top 20 across the United Kingdom—no surprise there either. And it's no wonder to me that the Member here, working with Wayne David, has had the success that he has had. He, I know, will want to congratulate Stagecoach as well on the recent award of funding that it has had for 16 electric buses, and those will all be stationed at their Caerphilly depot.

Our plans for the future, Llywydd, recognise the change in the way that bus travel will be organised in the future. Bus travel, we believe, will become a demand-responsive service in many parts of Wales. Pembrokeshire have already begun their pilot service from September of this year. We will have our first urban responsive transport pilot in Blaenau Gwent, beginning in the middle of 2020. That's all funded from the Welsh Government's £24 million local transport fund, and we will bring forward a bus Bill to the floor of this Assembly during the remainder of this Assembly term. It will provide local authorities and Transport for Wales with powers to intervene in the provision of local bus services, reversing the negative impacts of Tory deregulation and allowing our public authorities to make sure that the very significant public investment that is made in bus services in Wales is used to make sure that those bus services are provided in the public interest. 

First Minister, Powys County Council has had to reduce public transport networks considerably in recent years. With the continued strain on social care and the well-being agenda, I wonder if you recognise the importance of public transport especially in rural Wales. Can I ask what your Government is doing to support local authorities to ensure that all people in rural communities across mid Wales have access to key services to allow them to have fulfilled lives? 

Well, Llywydd, of course, we recognise the importance of bus services in rural areas. Powys County Council has chosen to reduce the support that it provides for bus services under the strain of austerity, which means that our local authorities have to make invidious choices in every part of Wales, because if there is less money from his Government to invest in public services in Wales, then, of course, local authorities end up making those decisions. [Interruption.] It's not a poor answer, it is a poor service that Wales has from his party and his Government, and his residents in Powys find themselves on the receiving end of it. 

With funds so scarce for improving bus services, it was no surprise that there was huge disappointment and harsh criticism when it became clear that the transport Minister had personally intervened to ensure funding for bus services in his own constituency. I now understand that the Minister has referred himself to the First Minister to inquire into the suggestion that he has broken the ministerial code. Can the First Minister tell us whether he has completed that inquiry and what his conclusions were? If not, when will that work be done, because people need to know that there is full transparency in the way that funds are spent on bus services, and that those funds are spent in an entirely fair and equitable way in all parts of Wales?

Well, the Member is right to say that this has been referred to me under the ministerial code. I will conclude my investigations in the normal way and the Member will be better off waiting to see the results of that.