The 2021 theme of the International Day of Disabled People on 3 December is 'fighting for rights in the post-COVID era', celebrating the challenges, barriers and opportunities for disabled people. As you know, I've chaired the cross-party group on disability over a number of Senedd terms, and our purpose is to address key pan-impairment disability equality issues including implementation of the social model of disability and the right to independent living. As you know, the social model of disability recognises that people are not disabled by their impairments but by the barriers that society places in their way, and we must work together to remove barriers to access and inclusion for all. 

The UK Equality Act 2010 states that service providers must think ahead and take steps to address barriers that impede disabled people, and you should not wait until a disabled person experiences difficulties using a service. The Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014 puts in place a system where people are full partners in the design and operation of care and support—it gives people clear and unambiguous rights and responsibilities. However, I continue to receive a never-ending stream of constituent casework, particularly involving certain public bodies that repeatedly feign ignorance of all of this legislation, telling people what they can or cannot have and focusing on interventions based on behaviour, not what is driving that behaviour, rather than asking people are they in pain and what do they want to achieve. So, when and how in practice will the Welsh Government begin meaningful monitoring and enforcement of the implementation of this legislation by the public bodies charged with so doing after all these years? And how will you ensure that we never again see a repeat of the Welsh Government's reactive response to the needs of disabled people in the first several months of the pandemic, where, for example, Welsh Government only reacted after Guide Dogs and the RNIB highlighted the barriers being created for blind and partially sighted people and others by Welsh Government changes to shared space in town centres; only reacting after adults with learning disabilities and people with sensory loss highlighted the absence of accessible communication for them around coronavirus regulations and restrictions; and finally as an example, only reacting to the needs of autistic people and others who needed to travel further for exercise after their parents raised this with me, from north and south Wales, and I had to raise it in the Chamber before changes were made?