Since its establishment in 2007, the Welsh Government has developed an excellent and highly valued relationship with the EHRC here in Wales. And, whilst the EHRC has responsibility as a regulator, it also provides the invaluable role of the critical friend. This valued relationship is going to be particularly important over the next three years, given the amount of work that we want to achieve. We are taking a more co-productive approach across Welsh civil society to many of the strands of work we're taking to safeguard and enhance equality and human rights in Wales. The EHRC will be central to this.

I'll turn to the 'Wales Impact Report 2018-19', which clearly highlights the breadth of hard work and dedication of the EHRC in Wales to put equality and human rights at the heart of life in Wales. Their work during 2018-19 included the 'Is Wales Fairer?' report, which looked at all areas of life in Wales and has proven to be a valuable and essential source of evidence to help us ensure that our decision making is robust and that our policies and services take account of people's needs and are accessible to all. Officials across Welsh Government have been using the findings, evidence and recommendations to shape the action plan that will accompany the final set of equality objectives within the Welsh Government's strategic equality plan for 2020 to 2024, which will be published at the end of March.

The commission undertook an extensive exercise to monitor levels of compliance with the statutory requirements of the public sector equality duty—PSED for short—and to gather evidence and intelligence on what work was undertaken across the different sectors to address key inequalities. Following the monitoring exercise, the commission has met with the majority of chief executives of the listed public bodies to discuss their findings, and sectoral briefings were produced as a result of the findings. The briefings are intended to be used to improve public bodies' equality objectives and also to inform the review of the duties, to which the Welsh Government is committed. The review will look at how we can improve the Welsh-specific duties to require public bodies in Wales to take action to address pay and employment differences, report on progress and publish pay gap data.

Last year, the EHRC and Welsh Government jointly organised a symposium event to gather thinking about the review to ensure that it has maximum impact. This approach will help to ensure that any changes to the PSED contribute to the Welsh Government's wider work on advancing and strengthening equality and human rights. The commission's legal work showed how the commission makes a real difference to people's lives—for example, by helping to clarify the law to ensure that disabled tenants are able to make reasonable alterations to their homes, allowing them to live independently. Its disability and housing report looks at the current provision of accessible and adaptable housing for disabled people and makes recommendations for the Welsh Government, and this has helped shape our new framework, 'Action on Disability: The Right to Independent Living', which I launched last September. The framework sets out how we are fulfilling our obligations under the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the UNCRPD, and also highlights the role of key legislation, including the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 and the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014. The social model of disability lies at the heart of both the UN convention and our new framework and I committed to promoting the social model through our new framework. We're working actively to promote the model both within Welsh Government and more widely. 

The commission's work on harassment in the workplace and the inquiry into racial harassment in higher education exposed unacceptable treatment that should not and cannot be tolerated in Wales or anywhere else in the world. In the foreword to the EHRC report 'Is Wales Fairer?', former commissioner for Wales June Milligan, to whom I pay tribute for her time in that role, called on the Welsh Government to enact the socioeconomic duty. So, as Members are fully aware, it's the intention of this Government to commence the socioeconomic duty, requiring certain public bodies to consider the inequalities caused by their strategic decisions, and the commission has been hugely helpful in ensuring that, once enacted, the duty delivers its intended effect.

Following the referendum on exiting the European Union, the UK's four statutory bodies for human rights and equality were united in their commitment to protect and enhance equality and human rights standards across the UK, being particularly concerned that loss of the protections afforded within the EU charter of fundamental rights would lead to a regression of rights, such as employment rights, women's rights, health and safety protections, et cetera. The Equality and Human Rights Commission has recommended that Welsh Government should further incorporate UN treaties, including the United Nations' convention on the rights of disabled people, and where possible legislate to replace gaps in rights in domestic law resulting from the loss of the EU charter.

I was pleased to announce at my oral questions on 28 January that research has been commissioned on wider options to strengthen and advance equality and human rights in Wales, and the research will be undertaken by a consortium led by Swansea University. Among other things, the research will consider the possible incorporation of UN conventions into Welsh law and whether there may be a need for fresh legislation, such as a human rights Bill for Wales. It will consider how such actions would interact with the existing framework provided by the well-being of future generations Act. It will also look at whether further integration will strengthen and improve the promotion of equality. This research is expected to report by the end of this year, 2020. This work accords with the amendment tabled to this debate, which we will support.

To oversee and provide strategic direction to this work, I've convened a steering group consisting of key stakeholders, which I chair. The group also oversees the implementation of phase 2 recommendations of our gender equality review, and the commencement of the socioeconomic duty. I'm pleased to have the EHRC as members of this group.

The commission's work on apprenticeships and their involvement in the inclusive apprenticeships task and finish group helped shaped the action plan to increase the participation of disabled people in apprenticeships in Wales.

Of course, there are other areas of work that are equally important. Despite many positive changes in the way that disabled people, LGBT+ people, women and black and minority ethnic communities are treated, our country still isn't a fair and more equal place for everyone. The commission's work has highlighted this, and its advice and recommendations to us and the wider public sector have influenced and driven policy decisions and continued action to achieve our vision of a more equal Wales. There is more to be done and more we will do. Diolch.