8. Will the First Minister make a statement on road safety in north Wales? OQ55598

Llywydd, I thank Darren Millar for that. Road safety remains a key concern for the Welsh Government. The Minister for Economy, Transport and North Wales has overseen a review of safety issues on trunk roads, and at the other end of the spectrum, the Deputy Minister in that department is taking forward initiatives such as the roll-out of 20 mph speed limits, which, by themselves, will have an impact on road safety in north Wales and in other parts of Wales too.

Thank you for that answer, First Minister. One of the consequences of the increase in people working from home is that we've seen a significant reduction in traffic on many of our roads, and, unfortunately, because there's less traffic, that has often led to an increase in speeding, and that is absolutely true on the A494 trunk road between Ruthin and Mold, much of which is in my constituency. We've had a number of serious accidents, unfortunately, some in which individuals have lost their lives, in the Llanbedr area, and also in the Llanberis area there's been a significant increase in speeding.

Can I urge you, First Minister, to work with the Minister responsible for transport to look at what additional measures might be taken on this particular stretch of road, including whether it may be viable to introduce average speed cameras, which seem to have been so effective in killing speed, rather than people, on dangerous roads elsewhere in the country?

Llywydd, can I thank Darren Millar for those very important follow-up questions? Fatalities in north Wales in September have been very distressing, and I know that he's been directly concerned with some of them. I wanted to thank him for the letter that he sent in to the Minister at the end of August, and I know he's received a reply from Ken Skates specifically regarding road safety on the A494, measures that the Welsh Government has already taken and which need to be monitored now for their effectiveness, but to give him an assurance, as the letter did, that, if those measures are not effective, then other measures will be considered of the sort that he has set out, so that we can do everything we can together to make sure that lives, and young lives, are not lost on roads in north Wales.

I thank the First Minister.