Thank you very much. I'd like to extend my thanks to the Chair and to all the members of the Children, Young People and Education Committee for this very comprehensive report on children's rights in Wales. The full Government response to the recommendations can be found on the committee's web pages. In addition to the responses to the Children, Young People and Education Committee, I've also held a roundtable discussion with key stakeholders from the children's sector to hear their views on children's rights in Wales, and I was delighted that the clerk of the committee was able to attend on behalf of the committee and that some Members were also able to come.

Of the 16 recommendations, I am very pleased that the Welsh Government is accepting 11 of them, and accepting in principle one further recommendation. We have rejected four of the recommendations. I'll use this time to go through the recommendations.

Recommendation 1 asks that we reiterate the importance of children's rights at every opportunity, something that we take seriously and, of course, have accepted. I think there have been quite a few comments today about when the Measure was first passed and the enthusiasm that there was there at the time, and I think what we want to do is to get that enthusiasm back again. We do want to reiterate the importance of children's rights, and we accept recommendation 1. 

Progress has already been made in taking forward a number of the recommendations. Five of the accepted recommendations have been incorporated into the newly revised children's rights scheme, which was published in December and is currently being consulted on. These are recommendations 3, 4, 5, 10 and 12. The consultation closes on 26 March, and I look forward to receiving the views of the committee and Members on our revised scheme. 

Work is also under way on recommendation 8. We will develop a national awareness-raising strategy in partnership with key stakeholders. A number of Members, and the Chair certainly, mentioned a lack of awareness amongst people of children's rights. We are fully committed to fulfilling the legislative requirements of all impact assessments, including where these relate to the assessment of our financial decisions, as set out in recommendation 6. 

Recommendation 9 has been accepted, as developing an awareness of human rights will be a mandatory part of the curriculum for Wales. The Welsh Government is currently preparing our strategic response to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child's 2016 concluding observations, which is recommendation 13. In addition, we are preparing a response to the UK Government on recommendation 11, and I intend to publish both updates before the end of the Senedd term. We've also accepted recommendation 14, and we will provide an update on progress on an annual basis. 

Recommendation 3, to provide training to Ministers, has been accepted in principle, and I absolutely accept that this is the right thing to do, because many Ministers would not have been around when this Measure went through. I think Helen Mary Jones referred to the historical knowledge of the history of this legislation. So, we are developing a training approach for bringing in training for Ministers.

That leaves the four recommendations that we've not been able to accept. That's recommendations 2, 7, 15 and 16. Recommendation 2 is about having a specific Minister. The due-regard duty under section 1 of the Rights of Children and Young Persons (Wales) Measure 2011 makes it clear that this duty is placed upon all Welsh Ministers when exercising any of their functions. In addition to this, we already have a Minister responsible for the specific work that Welsh Government does in promoting children's rights, and I'm that Minister. But I do think it's absolutely right that we don't confine the work on children's rights to one particular Minister. I think the due regard duty does make it clear that it's all Ministers that must accept this responsibility for children and for children's rights. So, that's why that is being rejected.

Recommendation 7: we welcome the committee's views, however, our position is still that we believe that taking an integrated approach to impact assessments of the draft budget through the strategic integrated impact assessment better reflects our responsibility to consider our decisions in the round, through a number of lenses, to understand their impact, including consideration of children's rights. But I do intend to have further discussions about that with the Trefnydd.

Recommendation 15: in January 2020, Welsh Government commissioned a research consortium led by Swansea University to undertake research into strengthening and advancing equality and human rights in Wales. And the final report, including the main findings and recommendations, will be submitted to the Welsh Government by the end of February 2021. So, we need to wait for the outcomes of this research before we make any further decisions about recommendation 15.

Recommendation 16: I understand the views of the committee and the commissioner on this topic. However, on balance, I believe that the current arrangement for all the commissioners—because obviously, this wouldn't just include the children's commissioner—which include a cross-party appointment panel of Senedd Members for appointments, it is working well, and we don't really see the need to change the arrangement, and in addition, any change in appointment and accountability arrangements relating to the Children's Commissioner for Wales will require primary legislation, and there's no legislation time available in this Senedd term, so that's a practical reason why we can't do it, but on balance, I believe it is working well.

So, that's a quick run-through of the recommendations, and I'd like to thank very much Laura Anne's view and Helen Mary's contribution, and to thank the Chair for leading the committee to make such good, clear, practical recommendations, which is certainly urging us to do all we can to promote this area of children's work. The Chair said at the beginning of her remarks that never have children's rights been so important as in this pandemic, and I would just like to end, really, by saying how I absolutely agree with that comment. Certainly, in deciding the measures to take in the pandemic, children's rights have been right up at the top of the list for the Government. We also have been able to work with the children's commissioner and other partners to have what I'm told by UNICEF is the only Government of any country that has produced the extensive children's questionnaire that we produced that reached 24,000 children. So, I do think that producing that does show our commitment to children's rights. And also, I'd like to draw the Senedd's attention to the fact of the number of meetings that have been held directly with children during this period. Certainly, I've held a number of meetings; I know that the First Minister has consulted children during this period, and I know that the committee has been very involved in consulting children. So, thank you very much to the committee for this report, and I look forward to furthering its recommendations.