Diolch yn fawr, Dirprwy Lywydd, and I'm grateful to you for allowing this short debate. Tom Giffard has asked for a minute of my time this afternoon, so I will ensure that I conclude my remarks in time for him to be able to speak. 

Levelling up is one of those things in politics that we'd never heard of a few years ago, and now we never hear the end of today. One of the many parts of the UK Government's levelling-up process is something that is constantly discussed, but never defined. And I think for many of us—. I find myself in the unhappy situation possibly today of having been around for long enough to remember these things turning up on more than one occasion. And one of the things that I find most disappointing about the United Kingdom Government's approach to its overall levelling-up agenda is that it doesn't define any targets, it doesn't define any objectives and it doesn't allow any accountability. I was lucky enough to be a European programmes Minister in the Welsh Government between 2011 and 2013, and that period covered the renegotiation of the EU budget at that time. It also covered the new legislation on structural funds. 

The Welsh Government and the people of Wales were involved in that process. They were involved in that process because it was done in public, it was done with accountability and democracy and scrutiny and transparency. The legislation was passed in public. The budget was debated in public. The Welsh Government were involved in defining the United Kingdom's position on all of those matters. There were secondments between the Welsh Government and the UK Government to enable the expertise of the Welsh Government to be used to its best ability to inform what the UK Government's position was at that time. I attended European Councils and we debated those matters in this Chamber on a number of occasions. 

All of those different aspects underpinned a policy approach. None of those things are true today about a levelling-up agenda—none of those things are true today. There's no transparency. We don't know what the objectives are of the United Kingdom Government. They haven't published any targets, they haven't published a timescale, they've missed every consultation that they've promised, and there's been no accountability of any description at all. It is a lesson in how not to make policy and how not to involve people. And I say that as an introduction because it is important that we don't only make those points in relation to the United Kingdom Government, but we ensure that the Welsh Government doesn't repeat those errors and those mistakes as well. It is always important to learn from history rather than to repeat the mistakes of history. 

And in my time here, I've seen a number of different initiatives launched for our own levelling-up agenda in the Valleys of south Wales. I remember the One Wales Government, where Leighton  Andrews and then Jocelyn Davies worked exceptionally hard, both Ministers, in order to deliver agendas for the Heads of the Valleys and for the Valleys as a whole. I then remember the work that was done in order to deliver other programmes in the Government elected in 2011, and, as many Members will remember, I was appointed by Carwyn Jones to lead the Valleys taskforce, which was appointed to lead this work after the 2016 election. And as I look back over that period of time, I'm thinking of the lessons that we should be learning, as a Welsh Government and as a Parliament. And what are those lessons?