Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:05 pm on 4 November 2020.
In terms of broadcasters, I agree very strongly with the comments that we heard from Siân Gwenllian. I have had some discussions with one of Wales's leading broadcasters recently, and I made the very points that we heard from Siân Gwenllian. There are technological barriers on occasion, and we need to recognise those, but also, if there are barriers in terms of culture, attitudes or policies in broadcasting, then it's very important that we continue to push for changes in those broadcaster attitudes. Because I agree, it does place a Member who chooses to use the Welsh language at disadvantage if the norm is not to use that material in Welsh on English language broadcasts. So much has changed in recent years. We wouldn't have had programmes such as Hinterland, where both languages are heard alongside each other, some years ago. It's becoming the norm, and that also needs to happen in relation to how this Senedd is broadcast.
Returning now to Gareth Bennett to conclude. This isn't an obsession with bilingualism, I can promise you that. I am bilingual, we all have two languages, and we all take ownership of two languages, whether we speak those languages on a daily basis or not. And it's also important to bear in mind that what the Senedd policies do is to provide everyone who comes to work in this institution the opportunity to develop themselves along that linguistic continuum. Courtesy level Welsh is very basic, but what's clear is that the ability to acquire those basic skills is not only important to the institution as a national body, but it's also important to the individuals. It's also crucial that we ensure that we do reach out to all communities in Wales and give the same opportunities to all those communities.
I will conclude there. Thank you once again for the contributions. I will close with some thanks: to Siân Gwenllian for the work that she did as Commissioner, who preceded me, doing excellent work in leading to the drafting of this report; and thank you to the staff who work so very hard to implement our language policy and our official languages scheme, who've also been so crucial in preparing this report that we're discussing today.