The next item is the business statement and announcement, and I call on the Trefnydd to make that statement—Rebecca Evans.

Diolch, Llywydd. I have several changes to this week's business. Immediately after this business statement, I will seek a suspension of Standing Orders in order for us to debate the Health Protection (Coronavirus Restrictions) (No. 4) (Wales) (Amendment) Regulations 2020, the Public Health (Protection from Eviction) (Wales) (Coronavirus) Regulations 2020 and the Health Protection (Coronavirus Restrictions) (School Premises and Further Education Institution Premises) (Wales) Regulations 2020, and the new coronavirus restrictions. I've also added an oral statement on the end of the transition period. In order to accommodate these additions, the statement on the publication of the national policy on Welsh language transmission and use in families has been postponed. Finally, the motion to agree the legislative consent motion on the Trade Bill has also been postponed. Draft business for the next three weeks is set out on the business statement and announcement, which can be found amongst the meeting papers available to Members electronically.

On 3 December, crime and justice specialist Crest Advisory published a report on county lines and looked-after children. Based on that report, I called for a Welsh Government statement on support for looked-after children in north Wales. Using police data and stakeholder interviews in north Wales and Merseyside chosen to reflect exploitation at both ends of a county line, they found that almost all known county lines activity in north Wales originates in Merseyside, that the lines travel into north Wales firstly across the Welsh border into Flintshire and Wrexham local authorities, and secondly to coastal towns, including Rhyl, Colwyn Bay, Abergele, Llandudno and Bangor; that although looked-after children are taken into local authority care to improve their welfare, they are over-represented in child criminal county lines exploitation and are therefore far from being effectively safeguarded; that children placed in residential care homes and unregulated settings are at a higher risk of going missing, with 31 per cent of missing incidents in north Wales in the last two years reported from care; and that although looked-after children are disproportionately represented in county lines networks, they are not being systematically identified by police or local authorities. I think this is an urgent matter, a pressing matter, and one that must not be overlooked because of COVID, and I call for an urgent statement accordingly. 

I am grateful to Mark Isherwood for raising what is a really, really important issue. Any suggestion of looked-after children being exploited is clearly something that we must take very seriously, and the issue of county lines is one that is of huge concern and is a real challenge, both for social services locally and for the police. I know that Mark Isherwood will be taking this issue up with North Wales Police, but I will ask the Minister with responsibility for social services to also provide him with an update on what social services can do to ensure that looked-after children in their care are kept as safe as possible and are educated about the dangers of county lines and protected from individuals who would seek to exploit them. So, I'd be very happy to find an opportunity for him to be updated on that. 

I'd just like to say I share the concerns of Mark Isherwood, and it is not just looked-after children who are being targeted by county lines. I'm afraid it's a lot of other vulnerable young people as well. So, I would welcome very much a statement from the Government on that matter. 

I just wanted to raise another matter, which is that the people of Wales are very generous at giving to charities throughout the year, but they're especially generous at Christmas time. And I just need to raise the fact that, unfortunately, it also attracts the attention of criminals, who either pretend to be representing a charity or set themselves up as bogus charities. And £350,000 was lost in the last Christmas period to criminals, and so I just want to point out that it is really important that people do not give their personal details to any unsolicited calls over the phone, particularly their financial details, and that they need to look for the charity number on all bona fide registered charities and, if they're collecting on the street, where's the badge that shows that they are actually collecting for that charity. Given that even very small sums going astray causes huge distress to the individuals who are giving, even if they have very little money, I just wondered what the Welsh Government can do to highlight this problem as well as supporting the action by the Charity Commission in driving down this horrible, horrible crime. 

It is indeed the season of goodwill and, as Jenny Rathbone says, the people of Wales are an incredible group of people in terms of the generosity that they demonstrate to their neighbours and to strangers, and we've seen so much of that through the coronavirus pandemic. The Charity Commission is currently running a really important campaign that is providing people with advice as to how they can give safely this Christmas and to ensure that they're not being exploited by people who would wish to take their financial details, and so on, or to encourage them to donate to a charity that isn't a bona fide charity. As Jenny Rathbone said, one of the easiest things that people can do is to check out the registered number of the charity to ensure that the place where they are providing their charitable support is one that is legitimate and that will not abuse their generous nature. So, thank you to Jenny Rathbone for offering the opportunity to highlight that particularly important campaign by the Charity Commission.

In view of the apparent continuing impasse in three critical areas in the Brexit negotiations, could we have a statement on what concessions the Welsh Government would be willing to make in order to avoid a 'no deal' scenario? Would it be to concede on our fishing grounds—which, incidentally, at this moment are being plundered by giant trawlers dredging up 250 tonnes of fish a day, with disastrous environmental consequences—or would it be to give way on the so-called level playing fields, meaning of course that the UK Government would, amongst other crucial economic interventions, remain very restricted by state-aid rules, disallowing us to help our steel industries in the way that we would want to? Or would it be to keep the European Court of Justice supremacy over UK law, something that people who voted for Brexit were implacably against?

[Inaudible.]—the UK Government and the EU to come to that agreement amongst themselves. The Welsh Government has been very clear all along about the kind of Brexit that we would have liked to have seen—one that would have provided the best opportunity possible to protect people's jobs and their livelihoods. Unfortunately, the UK Government has taken a very different road and has provided us with a very difficult road ahead of us. So, clearly those are questions that the UK Government are going to have to answer as they seek to move forward, and we very much hope that they do strike a deal and that we aren't faced with a 'no deal' Brexit at the end of this month, which, as we all appreciate, will be catastrophic.

I very much hope that we do get some form of deal at the end of this, despite the eleventh hour, so any input that the Welsh Government can have into that process would, I'm sure, be beneficial.

Two issues if I may raise with you, Trefnydd. Firstly, the issue I raised with the First Minister earlier: could we have a statement from the health Minister on addressing the capacity issues in the NHS, given the spiralling number of cases now of COVID-19? I refer the health Minister to the situation in the new Grange University Hospital in south-east Wales. That is already, I believe, at capacity in terms of COVID cases, and patients are being told not to go there unless they really have to with other conditions. That's obviously causing concern, so could we just have an update on what can be done to try and alleviate the situation there?

Secondly and finally is the issue that's been raised by Jenny Rathbone and my colleague Mark Isherwood on care-experienced children, and the specific issue he raised in north Wales. It reminded me as Chair of the Public Accounts Committee of the work we did earlier in this Assembly term on care-experienced children, and we took a fair amount of evidence from young people themselves who'd been through the care system, and there were issues raised particularly around placements. I wonder, as time has passed since the first part of that inquiry, whether we could have an update from the Welsh Government on what's been done to implement the recommendations that we came forward with at that time. Thank you. Diolch.

Thank you for raising both of those issues. I do believe the health Minister has provided a written statement that sets out some of the actions that the NHS organisations will be taking over the course of the winter in order to free up some of that capacity in order to respond to the challenges of the COVID pandemic—for example, not continuing with so many elective surgeries, and so on. Difficult choices of course for the NHS, because they will inevitably have a knock-on impact on individuals, which is why it's incumbent on all of us to follow the rules and to do as much as we possibly can to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

And on the issue of looked-after children, I can see that there is a strong interest across parties for a statement on Welsh Government support for looked-after children, so I will speak to the Minister to explore whether an update can be forthcoming and which goes beyond just the county lines issue and looks more widely at the issues affecting looked-after children.

Can I ask for a Government debate on regional policy in Wales? And whilst the Welsh unionists are unable to identify the needs of the different parts of Wales, I would like a debate to discuss how we can improve the economy in the different regions of Wales, identified by the four economic deals in the national development framework. Can I ask for the following statements, which, due to lack of time, may need to be written: one on the progress of the enhanced Lucy's law that the Welsh Government has promised to deliver this term, and one on the enhanced use of the port in Swansea for trade with Ireland, linking across to Cork?

Thank you to Mike Hedges for raising those issues. I do know that the Minister for Environment, Energy and Rural Affairs has questions tomorrow, and there are a number of opportunities there to raise questions in relation to animal welfare, so that might be a chance to have a very quick update on the approach to Lucy's law.

In regard to regional economic development and a regional approach to supporting local economies, I know that the Minister for Economy, Transport and North Wales is very keen on that approach, and I know that he'll be keen to update colleagues on his thoughts on that in due course as well. Then the further issues, I think, were relating to the ports, and I think that I'll ask the Minister to provide you with a written update on that particular issue as well.

Minister, can I have a statement from the Welsh Government on a number of flood-related matters? Firstly, obviously, I'm very pleased with your success in securing £31 million from the UK Government as, certainly, a part payment towards some of the promised moneys for the extraordinary flood damages that we have. Of course, this was on the back of a strong campaign by Labour Members of the Senedd in the Rhondda Cynon Taf and Merthyr areas, slightly more broadly, and from local Members of Parliament as well. We had to drag the UK Government kicking and screaming to make this first payment. Can we have a statement to deal with the further negotiations that will now need to take place in respect of the remainder of the flood damage money that was promised, and in respect of the work that's needed with regard to coal tips? Secondly, can that statement also deal with the issue of support for domestic flood resilience measures in the Rhondda Cynon Taf area, particularly in the Pontypridd, Taff Ely area, which I understand Natural Resources Wales is currently discussing with Welsh Government?

Thank you to Mick Antoniw for that question. I was very pleased to be able to secure £31 million in-year from the UK Government reserve in order to help us respond to the impacts of flooding in Mick Antoniw's constituency and others. I'd like to take this opportunity to put on record my thanks to the Members of Parliament and also the Members of the Senedd, including Mick Antoniw, who have taken a leading role in campaigning for that additional funding to come forward to their constituencies. Unfortunately, the response on additional funding for next year was not positive, which means that Welsh Government has some difficult decisions to make in terms of allocating funding there.

But on the wider issue of Natural Resources Wales and the property flood resilience projects, I understand that they are likely to be delivered next year and we do await a bid now from Natural Resources Wales for these projects, following successful applications from local authorities. This year, the Minister for Environment, Energy and Rural Affairs has provided 100 per cent grant funding for emergency repairs to damaged flood assets across Wales, totalling £5 million, and the Minister's also promoted the use of property flood resilience, such as floodgates, for example, to help communities that have suffered from flooding. She's already provided over £1 million of support for such measures, which will benefit up to 594 different homes.

Minister, would it be possible to have a statement on the impact of the UK Government's awful decision to suspend tariffs on US aerospace imports in January 2021? This decision essentially discriminates against Airbus and every single business in their supply chain, and is against Welsh wings and in favour of US-produced wings. Can you also update the Chamber, Minister, on any conversations you have had in your role as finance Minister with the UK Treasury on the aerospace industry in Wales? Would you commit to meeting with myself and Airbus to help aid these conversations in the future?

Thank you to Jack Sargeant for raising this issue. On the Airbus-Boeing dispute, our understanding is that after the end of the transition period, the UK Government will suspend our retaliatory tariffs against the US, which were imposed in November as part of the EU-wide position. These tariffs were imposed in November as part of the award given to the EU by the World Trade Organization. We are concerned that the UK Government has made this offer without gaining any similar offer from the US to lower its tariffs against us, and we share the UK Government's ambition to reach a negotiated settlement as quickly as possible on this long-running dispute, but we will be seeking some clarification now on this approach from them. And clearly, as Jack Sargeant has said many, many times, a 'no deal' Brexit will be extremely damaging for the UK aerospace industry and for his constituents who are employed in that sector and, therefore, it's important that the UK Government does secure that comprehensive trade deal with the EU, with tariff-free access to EU markets. Of course, I'd be very, very happy to meet with Jack Sargeant to discuss this further. 

Trefnydd, I wonder if we could have a statement—and a written statement would do—giving clarity on what the arrangements are after the Christmas period for priority slots for people who were previously shielding, that have been made a priority by retailers, whether those are going to continue. Now, the reason I ask for this is that I know that the Minister for Environment, Energy and Rural Affairs meets regularly with the Welsh Retail Consortium and with the large supermarkets, and I have had some disturbing calls from constituents where the retailers have told them that, as from 2 January, those priority slots will be disappearing, that there's no need for them anymore. Well, actually, if we're going into perhaps more stringent measures after Christmas, as somebody who has had one constituent writing to me who has diabetes and asthma, and is very worried about going out physically shopping, they want to know that they can still have a priority shop. They pay for this shopping; they just want to make sure that they can get it as a priority vulnerable customer. So, could we have a statement on that as soon as possible, hopefully before we rise for the Christmas recess?

I thank Huw Irranca-Davies for raising this important issue, and I do think that we should put on record our thanks to all the retailers who have been maintaining priority slots for shielding people at what is a really difficult time and, of course, there's a lot of pressure on those delivery slots at this time of year, but to see those slots prioritised still for shielding people and vulnerable people, I think, is really important. The Minister, as Huw Irranca-Davies says, does meet regularly with the Welsh Retail Consortium and also with the supermarkets. I do know that there's been a discussion with one of the larger supermarkets just this morning, and they have no plans to end the priority slots for those people who have been advised to shield, or who are otherwise vulnerable. So, I think that's a positive sign and I would hope that all of the other supermarkets would follow their lead. 

I thank the Trefnydd.