Questions now from the party leaders. The leader of the Conservatives, Andrew R.T. Davies.   

Thank you, Presiding Officer. First Minister, last week, your Government decided to bring in COVID passes. You and I have debated across this Chamber on the merits or not, as the case may be, of COVID passports. Obviously, that's quite a substantial change from what you, as First Minister, told me back in July about what your personal position was. Can you explain to me, therefore, with the COVID pass coming in, what will fall under the category of a nightclub under these restrictions? 

Yes, I can very easily do that, Llywydd, and I'm very happy to do so. Because the Member will be aware that this problem, which I see is repeated as though it was a problem, was already solved. Back earlier in the summer, pubs were open, nightclubs were closed. So, there was a legal definition available and operating in Wales because different regulations applied to both sectors. Nightclubs were the last part of the night-time economy to be able to reopen, and the regulations distinguished between the two, and did so, from memory—so, apologies if I remember this slightly wrongly—from the start of the summer, when pubs were able to be opened, until August, when nightclubs were able to be opened, and the regulations set out the legal definitions that distinguish between one setting and the other. [Interruption.] 

I'm glad you're able to clarify that, because I hear your backbenchers chuntering away there. Your health Minister on Radio Wales couldn't clarify it on Friday afternoon, and she said that information was due to come forward at a later date, as her response, I believe. So, for clarity—and I've had many owners in my own area, covering the city of Cardiff, obviously that has a large night-time economy, that were unsure whether they'd be captured by these rules—the previous definition that existed under the COVID restrictions is the definition that would be used to identify what falls as a nightclub as opposed to a public house under the Licensing Act 2003. 

One thing I think is really important that also needs to be brought forward from your Government, First Minister, is your winter preparedness plan for the NHS. On 15 September last year, we were in possession of that as Assembly Members/MSs, and we were able to analyse it and see the robustness of it. When will we see the winter preparedness plan coming from the Welsh Government? Because on the three-week forward look for business in this Parliament, there's no indication of when that plan is coming forward.

Well, Llywydd, there is an extant plan, because what we have done is regularly to update the COVID plan that we published during the pandemic. The latest version of the plan is the one that set out the alert levels and then included alert level 0, the alert level we've been at now for the last six weeks. It is our intention to bring forward a further iteration of the plan to reflect the position as we go into the winter, but it will be part of the regular updating of the plan that has been there—it's available for the Member or anybody else to inspect. And, as I say, as part of the approach we have taken throughout regular updatings of the coronavirus control plan, there'll be a further iteration over the couple of weeks ahead.

I'm grateful for that clarity, First Minister. So, I take it that there will not be a specific plan for winter preparedness, as the Government has historically brought before Parliament. As I said, last year, there was one on 15 September brought forward for our perusal and to be able to look and scrutinise the robustness of it. Today, we've seen already a senior consultant in the A&E departments of Hywel Dda indicate the pressures at A&E in that part of Wales. I accept these pressures exist across the United Kingdom, and that's why I think it's important that there is a winter preparedness plan. And also, the indication that the army are going in to support the ambulance service, there does seem to be some disagreement as to whether it's an option or whether it's an actual commitment. I notice the chief executive of the ambulance service talked of it being a commitment that the army were coming in to help the ambulance service. The Welsh Government spokesman last night just talked of it being an option, at the moment, under consideration. Can you confirm that it is the fact that the Welsh ambulance service will be getting assistance from the army, and can you confirm when that assistance might be made available to the ambulance service here in Wales, please?

By all means, Llywydd. I'm happy to set out for Members the process by which assistance from the armed forces can be secured. It's called the MACA process—military aid to the civil authorities—and the process works in this way: it relies on a request from, in this case, the local health board, which sets out the nature of the help that it would need—I beg your pardon, in this case, from the Welsh Ambulance Service NHS Trust—that sets out the nature of the help it would need, the jobs that they think armed forces personnel could assist with, the number of people they think they would need. That application comes, first of all, to the Welsh Government. That request has now been received. The Welsh Government has a role either to endorse or to send back that request for further work.

Through the whole of the pandemic, every time we have received a request of that sort from the health service, we have always endorsed it. We then have to send it on, because the decision rests with the Ministry of Defence as to whether or not to approve that application. Over the course of the pandemic, most applications have been approved, but not all. So, it's not a rubber-stamping exercise; the Ministry of Defence look at it and they decide whether or not they are able to help. And that will be the stage we will be at next, making sure that we make the best possible application to the Ministry of Defence, and hoping that they will be able to offer us the help that they have offered us in very large measure during the course of the pandemic.

Leader of Plaid Cymru, Adam Price. 

Diolch, Llywydd. Last week, the UK Government revealed that pollution levels from nitrogen dioxide in the new Great Western Railway's bi-mode trains were, on average, five times higher, and, at peak levels, 20 times higher than those recorded on Wales's most polluted street, Hafodyrynys Road near Crumlin—deemed so bad, it is this week being demolished. The Rail Standards and Safety Board's study was conducted only on the section of the line from Paddington to Bristol Temple Meads, where the trains mostly use their electric motors, and not along the Welsh section, where, out of necessity, diesel is largely used, and the consequent levels of pollution are likely to be even higher. Will the Welsh Government ask the board urgently to extend its monitoring to Wales—north and south—so we can know what the current position is regarding pollution on the Welsh railway network?

Well, it was dismaying, Llywydd, to see the reports of the Rail Safety and Standards Board, and it will be a very good idea indeed if they were to extend the range of their research into Wales. Because, as the leader of Plaid Cymru says, it is crystal clear, from what we have seen, that the point at which those nitrogen dioxide levels rise is the point at which trains switch from electric to diesel. What is the point at which that most often happens? Well, it's when trains enter Wales. Let me give just one set of facts, Llywydd, to demonstrate the appalling failure of the UK Government to attend adequately to Welsh needs in this area: in England, 41 per cent of the track is electrified; in Scotland, 25 per cent of the track is electrified; in Wales, 2 per cent of the track is electrified. That is the record of the Conservative Government—[Interruption.]—in the way that it's treated Wales, with its promises, Llywydd, as we remember at a general election to electrify the main line all the way to Swansea. I wouldn't be making remarks from a sedentary position if I was the leader of the opposition; I'd be keeping quiet, hoping that people don't remind him of his record.

The Minister of State in the Welsh Office, David T.C. Davies, again last week defended the cancellation of the electrification of the south Wales main line to Swansea, by arguing that it would not have produced any benefits to passengers. Now, decarbonisation, quite apart from its positive environmental impact, would have had the pretty substantial benefit to passengers of not poisoning them. Though rail infrastructure is not devolved, with the exception of the core Valleys lines, air quality is. So, to what extent can the Welsh Government compel the UK Government to reverse its electrification u-turn and stop treating Wales as the fag end of Britain's railways?

Well, I'm afraid the verb 'compel' doesn't describe the position that we are in, but what we are certainly in a position to do is to go on making the case whenever we have the opportunity to do so. And our case for electrification doesn't stop with the south Wales main line either, Llywydd; the north-Wales coast line needs to be electrified as well, so that the services can be run between north Wales, northern England and then on to London. We need rail infrastructure to be devolved, we need a fair funding settlement with it, and then we will be able to prioritise and deliver the decarbonisation of rail services, not just in the core Valley lines, which we are already doing, but on those other parts of the system as well.

Westminster's serial neglect of Wales's railway network has left Wales with the UK's oldest and worst maintained track and the slowest and dirtiest trains. The obvious answer is for us to wrest control over own infrastructure, but, while Westminster continues to resist, can we afford to stand still? The Welsh Affairs Committee has recently suggested creating a Wales rail board, comprising the UK and Welsh Governments, and other key players like Transport for Wales and Network Rail, to develop a prioritised set of proposals for rail investment. Professor Mark Barry, originator of the south Wales metro, has suggested a 10-year plan of investment that the board could agree on, with core funding from the Welsh and UK Governments. Does the First Minister see merit, at least as an interim solution, in the idea of a joint board and the Barry plan, which could potentially see a threefold increase in planned investment in the Welsh railways over the coming decade?

Well, Llywydd, I hope that the UK Government will respond positively to the recommendation of the Welsh Affairs Select Committee, and if they are willing to come to the table in a form of joint arrangement, then certainly they will find us anxious to find a way of helping to make that happen. We do it in other parts of the Welsh sphere. Youth justice is not devolved to Wales; we have a joint youth justice board, jointly chaired by the Welsh Government and by the board itself, and it has delivered some remarkable changes here in Wales. It's not impossible that we couldn't do the same thing in relation to railways as well, but we need a willing partner. We need a UK Government that is prepared to work with us, rather than believing that the way to deal with the future of the United Kingdom is always to be taking powers away from devolved levels, and always thinking that they know best.