Can I thank you, Minister, for your statement today? I'm not going to be long, you'll be pleased to know, Llywydd, in response to this statement, because, of course, there's not a great deal that's new in it. In fact, you could have been fooled into thinking that we were still in the pre-election period that we saw prior to the landslide election result that saw your numbers reduced significantly here in Wales in terms of Labour MPs. What we do know, of course, is that, in advance of that particular election, there was a very, very clear commitment from the Conservative Party and from Boris Johnson which said—and I'll refer you to page 41 on the UK Conservative Party manifesto—it says,

'Wales will receive at least the same level of financial support as it currently receives from the EU'.

It's there in black and white; it's a clear commitment that the UK Government is absolutely signed up to and will deliver. Indeed, the new Secretary of State for Wales, who I very much welcome to his post, Simon Hart, has categorically said that Wales will continue to receive not a penny less from the UK Government when compared to the finances it currently receives from the EU. And of course, you've already, I know, as a Government, had some positive engagement with the new Secretary of State, and there is very much a respect agenda. I was just watching media reports yesterday where the new Secretary of State was making it absolutely clear that the UK Government has no intention of parking its tanks on the lawn of the Welsh Government in respect of overstepping the devolution boundaries and settlement. It wants to work with the Welsh Government to deliver the benefits that can arise from Brexit as we leave the EU.

Now, we all know that the reality, the sad reality, the sad fact of the matter, is that when it comes to EU structural funds, they have not worked here in Wales. Unfortunately, the gap between our GDP here in Wales versus the average GDP across the whole of the European Union has not narrowed, and that's the whole purpose of the structural funds that were made available. We've seen round after round of those structural funds and yes, of course we've seen some improvements in our transport infrastructure and we've seen some investment, particularly capital investment, in different parts of Wales, but they haven't delivered the sea change that those funds were designed to deliver. So we've got to do something differently, and the reality is that the shared prosperity fund gives us an opportunity to do something differently, and it gives us an opportunity to better target that assistance to those parts of Wales that currently completely miss out on any prospect of receiving EU structural funds because they're not in west Wales and the Valleys.

So will you agree with me—just a few questions, now, if I may—that it's equally important that the Welsh Government also subscribes to this very clear respect agenda that the UK Government has set out? I welcome the fact that you refer to greater decision making to be made at local levels in the statement—I think that's very welcome indeed. Can you tell us how and why you're not getting on with that anyway? It doesn't take the fact that you don't know enough information about the shared prosperity fund to act as a Welsh Government and devolve more decision making down to a more local level. Perhaps you could tell us what the road block to just getting on with that is in any case. And can you tell us also how you're going to ensure that, when you do have a seat at the table in terms of making and shaping the way that the prosperity fund works, particularly in terms of the way that the cash is distributed across Wales, can you assure us that when you're making the case for investment in certain places, you will not overlook those parts of Wales that, unfortunately, I think, feel as though they’ve had a rough deal from the Welsh Government in the past in terms of the way that you've carved up cash, particularly north Wales, mid Wales and west Wales? Thank you.