The children's commissioner's annual report notes that groups of children currently face inequality due to a variety of factors, but it's on the effect of poverty that I'd like to focus. I welcome this report, and I really urge the Welsh Government to consider its recommendations with the sense of urgency that is suggested, particularly in regard to the expansion of eligibility for free school meals. Given Westminster's cruel decision to cut universal credit last week by £20, and the lack of interest, it seems, in truly addressing fuel poverty, we know Welsh children will be suffering this winter through absolutely no fault of their own. The Welsh Government has a duty to govern in the interests of the people of Wales, and so a failure to protect the poorest and most vulnerable from Tory austerity would be a gross abdication of this basic responsibility. There's also a need for Welsh Government to implement the principles it claims to represent—the principle of universality, for example, which was crucial to the establishment of the NHS and the welfare state, needs to be adopted if we are to end child poverty and the disadvantages it causes, which are outlined by this report.

On the issue of tackling child poverty, the report states that the commissioner had recommended that the Government publish a delivery plan, but the Government had rejected this. The report notes that the Government had undertaken their own child poverty internal review and found that not everyone was accessing their full entitlements. There is low awareness of entitlements, exacerbated by literacy and language barriers, and the programmes restricted by postcode/area exclude some people in need. Introducing universal policies such as free school meals for all children in state schools would go a long way in tackling these issues. The example given in the report of a family who went without any payments for free school meals during lockdown for six months due to a local authority cross-boundary issue and changes to local authority policy clearly shows why implementing a universal free-school-meal system would ensure no Welsh families would find themselves in need in this way. So, the question must be asked why the Welsh Government thus far has not done so, given it's supposed commitment to socialist principles, the widespread calls by anti-poverty and children's rights campaigners to do so, and the large and international body of evidence that points to the transformational effect of universal free school meals. There can be no doubt that the Government needs to take urgent action on child poverty. More of the same won't cut it. Bold action is needed if we are to end this moral stain on our society. The recommendation of the children's commissioner report that free-school-meals eligibility should be urgently addressed couldn't be clearer.

As the winter approaches and the pressures on Welsh families with children are highlighted in report after report, and in this Chamber time and time again, the Government needs to set a statutory target to cut child poverty and act without delay to extend the eligibility of free school meals, and this has to happen now, as Welsh families with children face a hard and difficult winter, their living costs rising as their income is being so cruelly cut. Can the Minister give us her assurance that the Welsh Government will finally act on this? Diolch.