Questions now from party spokespeople, to be answered by the Deputy Minister for Arts and Sport this afternoon. First of all, the Conservatives' spokesperson, Tom Giffard. 

Diolch, Llywydd. Deputy Minister, looking at your portfolio, would you say that COVID passes have been a success?

I thank Tom Giffard for that question. I think the COVID passes did what they set out to do. At the time that COVID passes were introduced, of course, we were in the middle of a significant rise in COVID cases. We then saw, on the back of that, the omicron wave, and we had to do something to try and get some confidence back into the sector. So, in the areas where we used COVID passes, they were used for that particular purpose—to keep businesses open and to bring some confidence back to audiences that would be required to show a COVID pass in indoor events. So, from that perspective, I would say that they were a success. 

You say they did what you set them up to do. I don't know that I agree, because I think COVID passes have had a minimal impact on protecting public health. The Chief Medical Officer for Wales himself said that the impact is 'probably quite small', and the advice from the technical advisory cell to the Welsh Government was that 

'there remains a high degree of uncertainty around the effectiveness of the COVID Pass in reducing infections given the absence of robust evaluation of these interventions.'

And TAC also said that several reviews suggest that COVID passes have the potential for harm as well as benefit. The only evidence that COVID passes work are in countries where uptake of the vaccine is extremely low, which, thanks to the UK-wide vaccination success, is nowhere near the case here in Wales. Not only this, it's had a negative impact on our economy, as my colleague Paul Davies has raised previously. The average cost of implementing COVID passes was around £400 a week. Businesses have not only had to face hefty financial costs of the passes, they've also faced significant reductions in footfall, with some businesses losing up to 50 per cent of revenue. Therefore, Deputy Minister, I'll ask you again: what evidence does the Welsh Government have that COVID passes were a success?

I think you need to look at it in the context of what we were doing. This was one of a suite of measures. It wasn't a stand-alone measure, that we just introduced COVID passes. It went along with, as you say, the vaccination programme. It was part of—. Having a COVID pass was encouraging people to have the vaccination. It also sat alongside other measures, including social distancing and other mitigation measures that were introduced around the same time. So, I repeat what I said in my first answer, in terms of what they were intended to do around bringing confidence into the sectors and giving audience confidence. And there was certainly some significant anecdotal evidence that that was the case, because a number of events venues in particular had seen ticket sales plummeting, as you will well be aware, but people were also saying that they would be more inclined to visit an indoor event and an indoor venue if they were using COVID passes, because that did bring some confidence that, when they were in that venue, other people alongside them they knew were either vaccinated or had had a negative lateral flow test. So, I don't think you see it in isolation. You see it as part of a suite of measures that were operating at that time.

I thank the Deputy Minister for the answer, but I'm not sure I heard any evidence that COVID passes were a success there. And so assuming that there is no evidence that COVID passes have been a success in protecting public health and the only available evidence seems to be they had a hugely negative economic impact on a number of industries—hospitality, cultural and sporting events, tourism industry; all of them were in your portfolio, Deputy Minister—the only way I think we'll get to the bottom of whether COVID passes were a success in Wales or not, or indeed whether the Welsh Government significantly overstepped the mark here and cost businesses a lot of income, is to properly assess whether this was the right decision in a Wales-specific COVID inquiry. But both you and the Welsh Government, however, seem unwilling to hold one and are hiding behind an English COVID inquiry instead. 

Of course, there were COVID passes in England, and they were only in place for 44 days there, compared to 130 here, and they targeted far fewer industries too. Given the Night Time Industries Association said there was a 26 per cent drop in trade based on the introduction of those COVID passes, these industries, Deputy Minister, on which so much of our economy here in Wales relies, deserve to know the truth. So, can I ask, have you had a specific assurance that the impact of your COVID passes in Wales will form an integral part of your English COVID inquiry?

The first thing I would say is this is very interesting, isn't it, to hear this from the unionist party that is now talking about an English inquiry? This is not an English inquiry, this is a UK inquiry of which Wales will be part, and there will be a very specific Welsh element to that inquiry that the First Minister has talked about in this Chamber many times, and has been very specific in discussions with the UK Government that that specific Welsh aspect of the inquiry is vitally important to explore and to examine and to investigate all of the things that you've already highlighted. 

I've met with some of the bereaved families in my constituency, and I know how strongly they feel about this, and I know that we have—. And I had every sympathy with their views. Anybody who has lost a relative or a friend or a loved one of any description through this pandemic could not but feel empathy and sympathy with those people. But a Wales-specific inquiry, in our view, is not the answer to that question. The UK-wide inquiry, with the terms of reference that will be agreed with us and will be consulted on more widely, will allow all of those families and all of the issues that you have raised to be fully explored, and explored in Wales, because there will be inquiry hearings located in Wales as well for those specific elements of the inquiry.

Plaid Cymru spokesperson, Heledd Fychan.

Thank you, Llywydd. Deputy Minister, you'll be aware, I'm sure—. Sorry.

I'll start again; I'll wait for you.

You got fooled by my little sentence in Welsh this morning, didn't you? 

I did, I thought you were fluent. [Laughter.]

Okay. Sorry.

Deputy Minister, you will be aware, I'm sure, that the United Kingdom Government has said, as part of the announcement regarding the licence fee, that it is closing the young audiences content fund. Five per cent of the fund has been targeted at creating content in indigenous languages, including Welsh, and it's supported many high-quality productions for children in Wales, including a new series to be broadcast soon called Bex, which will focus on mental health.

I know that you, Deputy Minister, are as concerned as I am about the impact of cuts to the BBC on provision in Welsh and English here in Wales. Cutting this fund will have an additional detrimental impact. Bearing in mind the importance of broadcasting in order to reach the goal of a million Welsh speakers by 2050, does the Welsh Government have any plans to mitigate the impact of this loss of funding and investment in Welsh-medium broadcasting, specifically with regard to provision for children and young people?

I have to say I absolutely share the Member's concerns about the current position with the licence fee. I've met both with BBC Cymru Wales and with S4C and discussed the fee settlement, and my concern—I think when you raised this question at the time—then was the direct impact that this would have on Welsh language programming. We know that the BBC provides a lot of input for S4C as well, and although S4C's settlement was slightly more generous than the BBC's, the overall impact on Welsh programming and production I don't think can be underestimated. And I have written to the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport to highlight the Welsh Government's concerns regarding the settlement and the review of the BBC's funding model. And that letter reinforces the need for the UK to work with devolved administrations as part of any decisions on the future funding framework.

So, I think we need to continue those conversations with the BBC and S4C to see what the real impact of that is going to be, but I would absolutely give you my commitment that, from the Welsh Government's point of view, we are still committed to meeting those objectives of a million Welsh speakers by 2050 and we will do whatever we can to ensure that that happens, whether that is with the support of the BBC, S4C and any other media outlets.

Diolch, Ddirprwy Weinidog. In the words of Raymond Williams, culture is ordinary and I know, Deputy Minister, that you and I share a common belief that there should be equity of access to cultural participation. Whilst we have seen some brilliant and innovative digital cultural projects emerge as a result of the pandemic, research has shown that the shift to digital cultural experiences over the pandemic period failed to diversify cultural audiences, largely only engaging those already engaged in cultural activities. Further, women and ethnic minorities saw larger reductions in hours in terms of participation during the pandemic compared to their white and male counterparts.

Whilst digital innovation undoubtedly has a role to play in making a positive difference, this only works when embedded in a long-term strategy of audience and school engagement. What steps are being taken by Welsh Government to determine what lessons were learnt about widening engagement through the digital cultural activities they funded during the pandemic, and how do you plan to ensure that more is done to ensure equity of opportunity to participation in culture?

Okay. Well, thank you for that question. You will have seen that, within the culture division, we have allocated an additional £600,000 in the budget specifically to invest in this area of equality of access, whether it is through digital means or any other means, and we're looking to create innovative programmes of training and support for local museums, for instance, to develop their digital programmes and to develop the way in which their exhibitions and all of their artefacts are displayed and represented and so on.

We've done a huge amount of work already under the race equality action plan to try to deliver the race equality action plan with a number of stakeholder groups in the communities. We've taken the first but crucial steps in reconsidering the interpretations of collections of black, Asian and minority ethnic communities, and sessions have been held throughout November and are continuing through January, with excellent feedback on a number of the programmes that we are seeking to get participation in. We've got other projects that we're working on with Race Council Cymru, the Archives and Records Council Wales, Cadw and our sponsored cultural bodies—all of that work is being progressed. And officials are continuing to work with colleagues in equalities, and engaging with sector stakeholders, to develop our final goals, following the consultation of the draft equality action plan. And I'm actually meeting with the Minister for Social Justice this afternoon to update her on the work that we're doing across the portfolio in this particular area.