I want to turn my attention immediately to bus travel. In thanking the Conservatives for bringing this debate, I want to particularly thank bus drivers first for their efforts in keeping transport going, especially for key workers, through this crisis, the pandemic that we’ve had. It’s actually the bus drivers that have been the key workers all the way through this crisis, and they put themselves at risk in doing so, and they continue to do so. So, I’d certainly agree with the comments that have been made already on ensuring their safety. This is something I've already been engaging with bus companies and the unions on, and I'll continue to do so. I look forward to hearing from the Minister on how they will ensure bus driver safety going forward, recognising the increased risk to drivers, recognising that with any changes to social distancing, to more passengers now seeking to travel, as well, as people return to work—how Welsh Government will engage with bus operators and with the unions on this very critical matter.

And Minister, as a regular public transport user myself, I would add my voice to those, including colleagues in the unions, who think that face covering should just be mandated on public transport, purely as a precautionary approach. I'm sure the argument will go that we haven't seen the definitive evidence that they play a certain role, but as a precautionary approach—what Lynne has already laid out on the higher risk that goes on public transport in a close, contained space such as a bus, but also the higher risk that we know that bus drivers are already exposed to, let alone their passengers. It just passes that commonsense test that unions and passenger bodies are saying would make it absolutely logical.

So, rather than wait for the nth degree of evidence to say, 'Let this go ahead', let's just do it, because, actually, passengers, drivers, everybody else just thinks it makes sense. I would say it would make sense as somebody who regularly travels on buses and trains. I will wear one come what may, so I want other people to do so as well, because I want to protect other people, not myself. So, let's just go ahead and do it.

But can I say in terms of the funding—? My engagement over this crisis period with people like First Cymru, Bridgend County Borough Council and RCT has been outstanding. We've literally sat down in video meetings and because of the hardship funding that's been put in place, we have talked about the routes that are priorities for people to get to work at the right time they needed to, into their hospitals, into their care homes, to those places where key workers were going. It's the first time I've ever sat down in that situation, and it was because the funding was designed to allow that to happen—for local authorities and, occasionally, people like myself to sit down in partnership and to say, 'Where is the data saying that we should be laying these buses on, what times of the day should we be laying them on?'—and we've got on with it.

So, I welcome that; that's allowed us to bring—. Even in the teeth of the crisis, we brought eight or nine services back on route within days, and it's a credit to First Cymru sitting down with us, credit to those drivers who were willing to put them on. And as we go forward with the new bus emergency scheme, I'm glad that that approach is there, moving progressively away from this deregulated system where we throw money at the wall and wonder what's happening, and we actually say, 'Let's plan a way forward on this'. Minister, I know you're convinced of this; this has to be the way forward in the longer term for the bus sector as well, using the skills, keeping the jobs, building on the jobs; building back up, I have to say, not just the number of people who travel but way beyond.

That's what our aspiration should continue to be, so that it's not a failure in life, as somebody once famously said, if you're over a certain age that you travel on a bus—it's a success, because they're clean, they're affordable, they're user friendly, we have synchronised tickets, it links up with the rail travel, and so on. That has always been your aim, Minister, and we need to get back to that and keep our eyes on the prize going forward.

So, this is really, really difficult in how we do this when people at the moment are worried, but the more that we can actually support bus operators, get the routes going at the times that people want them to be, and say to people, 'We will make it safe for you'—. And that, Minister, I have to say, is where the simple decision over mandating the use of face masks would really help. Let's just do it and make people feel that they can make their contribution in making it safer on public transport, so we get more people back on right now. Thank you very much.