4. Will the First Minister make a statement on the Welsh Government's strategy to prioritise a green recovery? OQ55576

I thank the Member for that, Llywydd. A green recovery is at the heart of our response to the coronavirus pandemic. It will improve outcomes for Wales, generate a more sustainable and resilient economy for the future, tackle the climate emergency and address declines in biodiversity. 

First Minister, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development report that was published recently really highlights the importance of high-performing transport networks and skills development to address the historic low productivity that we've suffered in Wales, given the very low level of investment by the UK Government since the industrialisation in the 1970s and 1980s. It is very disappointing to read that the UK Government seems hell bent on using the internal market Bill to undermine the climate reduction commitments of devolved Governments. How can the Welsh Government stay focused on the precision skills required to deliver its clean, green transport and housing ambitions—essential to deliver our carbon reduction commitments—when the UK Government seems determined to top-slice the money that Wales is entitled to to build redundant relief roads and, I fear, carpet the countryside with poor-quality building developments to become the slums of the future?

Llywydd, I thank Jenny Rathbone for that very important supplementary question. I was very glad that the Welsh Government was able to commission from the OECD an independent report drawing on best international evidence to help us with the important job of designing future policies and future structures for regional economic development. The report does, absolutely, put a focus on skill development. It's really important that we are able to invest in the people that we have here in Wales, so that they are ready to be able to take advantage of employment opportunities when they come.

The Member, Llywydd, raises, I think, an extraordinary possibility. When I first saw the internal market Bill, that was bad enough when I thought that what the UK Government was planning was to take all the money that had come to Wales from European sources and hug it to itself, and eek it back out according to ideas that they may have, rather than the ideas that people in Wales may have for what is necessary here. But the idea that they would seek to top-slice budgets that are available to this Senedd, to deploy in the way that we choose, in order to run schemes of their own is, I think, an idea even beyond what we originally thought they may have in mind. To do so would make a mockery of the words that the Prime Minister uses about respecting devolution, and being a devolutionist himself. Let us hope that there is a UK Government Minister who is willing to put on record the fact that they intend no such thing.