Extra guidance for teaching Welsh already exists in the literacy framework, and this can be used by teachers in Welsh-medium schools to teach Welsh. It is clear to me, and this is where I agree with Siân Gwenllian, that the main issue here is not the teaching of Welsh, as such, but an improvement in the teaching of Welsh in some of our English-medium and bilingual schools, and I have committed to work with stakeholders to develop and implement a Welsh language framework that can support teachers in English-medium schools to help their learners progress along the language continuum quickly and successfully. I therefore urge Members to vote against amendments 45 and 50.

With regard to amendments 35, 36, 37 and 39, which seek to introduce a duty on local authorities to publish a Welsh language requirements plan, I do have to ask the question, Presiding Officer, 'Why?' We already have Welsh in education strategic plans, in which local authorities set out how they're going to increase the number of Welsh-medium provision places in an area, and we have a curriculum where Welsh is mandatory for three to 16 in all of our schools. So, why do we need this plan?

The reality is, of course, because the proposers want to reduce the amount of Welsh taught in our schools, and deny, as I said, the right of our young people to be taught both their national languages. I have a very different vision for Welsh to the backward-looking nature of these proposals. I want to see our young people being proud, confident speakers of both our languages, and indeed many more, and therefore I urge Members most strongly to reject these amendments that want to take us back to the past rather than forward to a brighter bilingual future.

I mentioned earlier a Welsh language framework to support practitioners in English-medium and bilingual schools when discussing the teaching Welsh on a single continuum code. I believe the best way to address the teaching of Welsh in some of our English-medium and bilingual schools is a framework for teaching Welsh that is flexible enough to be targeted at those schools that require this extra support, but does not constrain the agency and creativity of teachers who do not require it. I understand the intention behind amendment 49, to make it a duty for Welsh Ministers to issue such a framework, but at this stage I cannot support that amendment.

Firstly, it requires those persons listed to have regard to the framework in everything that they do in this Bill, and I believe that is an overly onerous requirement, as some of the decisions taken will have nothing to do with the teaching of Welsh. Secondly, it is a framework that would apply to all schools, so once again we would be saying to all practitioners, including Welsh teachers in Welsh-medium schools, that they need to be told how to teach Welsh, and I have already stated my position on that. Finally, I would direct Members' attentions to powers that Welsh Ministers have under section 69 to issue guidance—guidance to which the persons listed in the amendment must have regard. These powers can be used to issue guidance to support the teaching and learning of Welsh in the way that the Member envisages, and I want that guidance to be targeted at English-medium and bilingual schools, where I believe it is needed the most.

So, there are a number of reasons why I cannot support this amendment, but I do of course support the thinking behind it, and I am happy to state again today that we will be working with our partners to develop such a framework to support the improvement of teaching Welsh in English-medium schools. This will be done, as always with the curriculum, in the spirit of co-construction involving practitioners, stakeholders and experts, and I'm very pleased to have received a request from those that have expertise in this area, demonstrating their willingness and indeed their enthusiasm to participate in such work. And I do believe that Ministers should use their powers under section 69 to issue that on a statutory basis.

Finally, we come to amendment 38, which attempts to define what an English-medium school is. The amendment does not say how the amount of teaching in English is to be measured and in practice that will give rise to significant difficulties. We are, of course, as a Government, consulting separately on non-statutory language categories for all schools, not just English medium. If a future Senedd wants to make them statutory, the right approach would be to do that for all categories of all schools, so that it is done properly. I sincerely hope that the person that is fortunate enough to have this job after me will put those categories on a statutory footing. This amendment is only there for the purpose, once again, of decreasing the amount of Welsh in English-medium schools, alongside the other amendments that we've heard Gareth Bennett talk about today, and I would ask Members to reject them in the strongest possible terms. Thank you.