Thank you, Dirprwy Lywydd. The Welsh language belongs to each and every one of us here in the Senedd, in Government and, more importantly, everywhere in Wales. That's what I have emphasised since my appointment as Minister for our language, and that's what I'm emphasising today. It doesn't matter how much Welsh we speak and whatever our connection with the language has been, we all have a contribution to make. The Welsh language is my first language. I'm grateful to my parents for gifting me with that language, and being bilingual gives us two windows to view the world through. So, before going on to the core of this debate, I just want to set out my vision briefly for our language, and how I see my work as Minister for Welsh language. 

I want more people to have what I had. I want more people to learn our language. I want to live as much of my life as possible through the medium of Welsh. You might think that there's nothing new in that, but, in the Welsh-speaking policy village, are we focused enough on language use? Do we avoid that because it's a little difficult, perhaps? I want more people to use our language, not just be able to speak it. So, language use is the key for me, and it's through the prism of language use that I see my work as Minister—use not just provision.

Back in July, I published a five-year 'Cymraeg 2050' strategy to ensure that that vision became a reality. I was looking towards the next five years of language policy, and we have some exciting plans in place, and more on those over coming months. But from time to time it's important to look back, and that's what we're doing today, and we do that looking back not just over the last year, but also the last five years, through the eyes of the Welsh Language Commissioner. 

The recent time hasn't been easy for the commissioner. Like every one of us, the commissioner had to adapt to new ways of working because of COVID. But, in addition to that, the commissioner suffered a very unfortunate cyber attack, and the restoration work following that attack has been significant. We continue to work with the commissioner to help him with that work of restoring his systems following that cyber attack.

In October, the commissioner published his five-year report. The purpose of the report is to give an independent overview of the situation of our language, something that is crucially important as we work towards the target of a million Welsh speakers by 2050, and to double the daily use of the Welsh language.

In his five-year report on the position of the Welsh language during that time, the commissioner focuses on the work of Government and sets us a number of challenges. And I always welcome considered challenges in all aspects of my work. Nobody has a monopoly on good ideas, and may I take this opportunity to thank all of the organisations and campaigners who have been working for the Welsh language in the period covered in that report?

Similar themes become apparent in both reports considered today, the annual report and the five-year report. For one thing, the commissioner asks us to bring more bodies and sectors under Welsh language standards. I want ours to be clear on standards: I support the standards regime and I look forward to working with Plaid Cymru on the basis of our co-operation agreement in this area. Like the commissioner, I am pleased that we now have enhanced rights to use the Welsh language with public bodies, and I also want to know what exactly the impact of standards has been on the day-to-day use of our language.

If it's not entirely clear up to this point, I'm determined to consider everything I do as Minister for the Welsh language, through whichever channel, through the prism of the use of the Welsh language. So, I've asked the commissioner to undertake a piece of work that considers this. I've done this because I'm eager to understand how the standards already in place assist Welsh speakers to make more use of the Welsh language and understand the barriers preventing people from using Welsh language services. In his five-year report, the commissioner himself recognises that the number choosing to use Welsh language services doesn't correspond to the number able to speak Welsh, so we need to look into that.

We must also understand more about the barriers that organisations face as they try to provide Welsh language services and to understand who is best placed to help them and what that help looks like. The conclusions of that work will enhance the influence of standards to be prepared for the future, with the intention that they increase the amount of Welsh we use on a daily basis.

The commissioner also shares our concerns about the impacts of COVID on the Welsh language. Throughout the pandemic, we've been working across Government and beyond in order to respond to a situation that was changing very quickly. We've published a substantial response to the audit we carried out on the impact of COVID 19 on Welsh-speaking community organisations, and we've already started to take action. Also, there have some successes during this difficult period. We've seen interest like never before in learning the Welsh language, for example, with a number of new virtual courses being undertaken.

My priorities for the Welsh language are clear. I want to see more people using whatever Welsh language skills they have on a daily basis, in their homes, in their communities and in the workplace. We need to learn lessons from what works and what doesn't, and we need to be brave enough to change our approach if it doesn't work. We need to prioritise, and that could mean stopping doing certain things in order to do things that are more far-reaching in their impact, and we must all, as a Government, as a commissioner and as partners, realise that the world has changed and, because of these changes, it's clear that we also need to change the way we work and to evolve.