Thank you to the Minister for the statement. We are glad of the stated determination to tackle the inequity faced by disabled people in Wales that's included in the co-operation agreement with Plaid Cymru.

One of my close family members is disabled, so I know first-hand the challenges and barriers that are, unfortunately, part of his everyday life and, of course, the lives of thousands of other people across Wales: difficulties with public transport; with accessing support and care; a lower standard of living quite often; and, often, just the challenge of being seen and being heard. As you've mentioned in your statement, those difficulties and challenges were, of course, compounded and exacerbated by COVID, although we know that even before the pandemic far too many disabled people felt forgotten or ignored by the Government. A survey conducted by Disability Wales has found that 76 per cent didn't think that disability rights would improve over the next five years.

Emergency coronavirus legislation relaxed the duty of care on local authorities, which left some disabled adults and children, and their carers, without the carer support they need—it was in the news just yesterday. And the implementation gap between policy and practice, unfortunately, widened. When restrictions lifted, there was not a return to normal for most disabled people. A report by Scope found that 35 per cent of disabled people have found that their finances have become worse since the pandemic, and the disability employment gap has been stuck at around 30 per cent for over a decade. So, we must try and use the experience of the pandemic to create a strategy to help close this gap.

As COVID restrictions have eased slightly, and people are beginning to return to work, or switch to hybrid working, there is a risk that disabled people who previously benefited from the digital inclusion of the pandemic might be left isolated. Employers may be able to appear as accessible and inclusive while doing little to ensure inclusion in workplace culture, career progression or professional networking opportunities for disabled people who are working at home. And this, of course, is also true of leisure and social activities that were widely available online during the height of the lockdowns that have now tailed off. So, I’d therefore like to know what the Government is doing to ensure that flexible working will continue to work in favour of disabled people.

And could the Minister also please outline what provisions are currently in place, and what further action is planned to ensure Wales’s transport system is fully accessible to disabled people, as being able to travel safely to and from work has become an increasingly important issue for many disabled people during the pandemic?

A key finding in the 'Locked out' report was that the lack of disabled people in positions of influence has contributed to decisions that have negative consequences for disabled people. The access to elected office fund Wales, which you made reference to in your statement and again in your answer to Altaf Hussain, offered that financial assistance to disabled people running as candidates in the Senedd election this year, and now for the forthcoming 2022 local government elections. You mentioned that two people had made use of this fund. Have you got any further information as to how effective the fund was in assisting disabled people to run as candidates? What improvement and changes need to be made to this fund, looking ahead to the 2022 election, to make sure that we get more people being able to use this fund so that they can run for office?

As we face another worrying development, as we’ve heard today in the Chamber, in the pandemic with the arrival of this new variant in the UK, we must ensure that lessons learnt from the last months really are taken onboard. Disabled people, as you said, comprised 60 per cent of deaths from COVID-19 in Wales, and many of these deaths, as you say, were not the inevitable consequences of impairments, but were preventable and rooted in the socioeconomic factors that you alluded to. The impact of high infection rates on care and social services have been catastrophic to disabled people. The anxiety now being felt as we face the consequences of this omicron variant are tangible among disabled people, so I’d like to ask: what measures are the Government taking to ensure disabled people are better supported in the next months as regards things like the provision of suitable and sufficient supplies of equipment, such as personal protective equipment to social care staff and personal assistants caring for disabled people, but also, crucially, sufficient staffing levels to provide that essential, daily care and support? Diolch.