7. What discussions has the First Minister had with UK Government Ministers about the community renewal fund? OQ57196

Llywydd, the UK Government has made a deliberate decision to exclude the Senedd from the design and delivery of that fund. It continues to trample over the devolution settlement and to abandon its promise that Wales would not be a penny worse off as a result of leaving the European Union.

First Minister, the difficulty with this and the lack of engagement is the lack of fit within the policy framework in Wales, with the future generations Act, our approach to economic investment, our approach to jobs and skills and our approach to developing and integrating the higher education sector within the work that we do to power the economy forward. If we have random input of funding from the UK Government without any engagement with that, then it's a recipe for chaos, quite frankly. Could I ask the First Minister: does he hold out any hope whatsoever that the Wales Office, UK departmental Ministers and, indeed, the Prime Minister himself will actually wake up to the reality of working with Wales, not just with local authorities and individual organisations on the ground, but with the Welsh Government, the elected Welsh Government, in order to make sure that the investment delivers what it's meant to deliver?

Well, Llywydd, I have repeatedly offered the UK Government to become involved in this programme on the basis of co-decision making. I did that reluctantly, Llywydd, because those decisions should be made here; these are devolved responsibilities, confirmed in two referendums by the people of Wales. It is funding that belongs here for this Senedd to decide on, but because of all the arguments that Huw Irranca-Davies makes, Chair—and he makes them with authority because he is chair of the strategic forum for regional investment in Wales—because of all those arguments about wanting public money to be used to best effect, to make sure that the projects that are selected are in tune with the other things that are being funded in that area, I have offered Welsh Government engagement in it, provided that we are co-decision makers. The UK Government is not interested in that offer. It wishes to proceed as it has demonstrated in recent weeks; it wants decisions about Wales to be made in London. It wants Whitehall to know better than we do about the things that matter the most here in Wales, and while that continues to be the way in which it approaches these things, I'm afraid that whatever offers we would make as a Welsh Government to assist, they're unlikely—and I'm very sad; I'm genuinely sad to say—they're very unlikely to be heard with any receptivity.

And finally, question 8, Joyce Watson.