Questions from the party leaders next. Leader of the Welsh Conservatives, Andrew R.T. Davies.

Thank you, Presiding Officer. First Minister, it is with regret that I have to raise with you another report about service failure in Betsi Cadwaladr health board in north Wales. In the most recent report, which made for very distressing reading, we learnt of the failings in mental health services that led to the tragic deaths of two individuals. One patient took their own life, and the other died through what looks like neglect. These deaths were as recently as 2021, just months after the then health Minister took the health board out of special measures, a direct result from your Government. After having this time to reflect on the report and its findings, do you, like me, believe that the families are owed an apology from both the health board and the Welsh Government that their loved ones were not looked after in a better way?

Absolutely, Llywydd. Of course. The health board, I believe, has already been in contact with the families and an apology to them is due. The coroner has asked for the reports to be withdrawn while his inquiries into the deaths continue, and the health board has I think removed them from their website. They are very different cases and deserve the sorts of investigation that the coroner can bring to them.

Thank you, First Minister, for that report. You have been a Minister within the Government for nine years, and the First Minister now for several years, and things clearly are not improving fast enough when it comes to mental health services in north Wales. We are still receiving reports like this, very upsetting reports, and recommendations are not being implemented. Mixed cohorting of patients, which has been described as a toxic mix by the North Wales Community Health Council, was first identified as an issue back in 2013, and is, shockingly, still continuing today, as this report identifies. It has been linked to at least one of the deaths that we are talking about now. Will you make sure that the health board stop the cohorting of mixed patients on wards?

Llywydd, just to be clear, mixed cohorting is a factor in only one of the two cases, it's not a factor in—[Interruption.] I think you said 'at least one'. I'm just clarifying that it is 'one' not 'at least one'. It was not a factor in the other case. And I am pleased to—. I am pleased to be able to say to the Member that the information I have is that mixed cohorting no longer takes place in the unit where it was a factor.

The upsetting thing about this, First Minister, is obviously that this was identified as a failure in 2013, and was still identified in 2021 as being a contributory factor to one of these deaths. Also, First Minister, the health Minister and the Government have commissioned Donna Ockenden to undertake several reports into mental health services in north Wales. Sadly, from these reports and the recommendations in these reports, we can see that the recommendations haven't been followed through by the health board and implemented in their entirety. There is a pattern here of that failure to implement those recommendations, so will you commission Donna Ockenden to undertake a fresh piece of work to look at previous reports and, importantly, the recommendations contained within those reports, and identify failures to implement those recommendations, and a plan to make sure that we do not continue to receive very disturbing reports of deaths of patients that are in the care of the health board?

Llywydd, I agreed with something the leader of the opposition said earlier in his questions, that the improvement in mental health services in north Wales has not been as fast as it needs to be, and there are clearly further actions that need to be taken to make sure that, in all aspects of mental health services, people in north Wales get the service that they deserve. Whether a further report and a further review is the best way to achieve that I think is a more open question.

I do know, because I have talked directly with people responsible for those services, that they feel they work as hard as they can to bring about the improvements that are necessary, that they often have to do it in the face of constant criticism and constant undermining—[Interruption.] That's how they see it. There is legitimate criticism to be made, and I've agreed with what the leader of the opposition said, but I'm putting it to you as well, because these are the points they put to me, that making the progress that they want to make is not as easy as they would like it to be when they feel constantly that their efforts are scrutinised in a hostile way by people, rather than a way that looks to support improvement. That is a fair point for them to make. I have said this afternoon that I take some of the points that you have made very seriously. I put that point, and I hope it will be taken equally seriously by you.

Plaid Cymru leader, Adam Price. 

Diolch, Llywydd. Reports indicate that Boris Johnson is about to visit in Riyadh in a bid to convince the Saudi regime to boost oil production. The Saudi Government, it's believed, will seek assurances that their policy in Yemen for the last eight years, of bombing innocent civilians, will not obstructed by the UK. Do you agree, First Minister, it would be wholly wrong for the Prime Minister to seek to appease one dictatorship fuelled by dirty money in order to resist another? This question has a particular resonance in this Senedd at the heart of Tiger bay, home to a fifth-generation Welsh-Yemeni community. Mindful of the commitment to race equality that you affirmed last week, do you agree that our support and solidarity to innocent civilians has to be the same whatever the colour of people's skin, wherever they are, whatever their creed, and that we should not swap dependence on one murderous regime for another, and, if Boris Johnson does go on the basis that I've described, we should make it clear that he does not do so in our name?

I want to respond particularly to the final point that the Member made, about swapping dependence upon one volatile regime for dependence on another of the same sort. I tried to make that point in my answer to Jayne Bryant earlier, Llywydd, that the solution to energy security in the United Kingdom is to have a really rapid and dedicated focus on the development of renewable energy, in which we are so rich. That would mean that we would not need to see the Prime Minister getting on a plane to Riyadh, because we would have created sufficient energy from our own resources to be dependent neither upon the regime in Russia nor unsavoury regimes in other parts of the world. 

First Minister, the 1951 UN refugee convention, which the UK has ratified, stipulates that those fleeing war—all refugees from all wars—should not have to seek permission first before seeking protection from a host country. The UK Government's current insistence on visas for Ukrainian refugees is in breach of its international obligations. You yourself have called for a visa-waiver system, as has been widely implemented throughout Europe. Did you have the opportunity at the weekend to point out to your party leader, a distinguished lawyer and former director of public prosecutions, that your party's current position at Westminster in favour of a so-called emergency visa is not just morally repugnant it is also in breach of international law?

Well, Llywydd, I'm responsible for the policy of the Welsh Government, and I've been as clear as I can about it. I believe that people fleeing from the war in Ukraine should be allowed to come to the United Kingdom and then the necessary checks should be carried out after they have arrived: in other words, that a visa regime does not need to be implemented prior to people's arrival. That's not the position of the UK Government, but I am pleased to be able to report to Members that, following very intensive discussions at the end of last week and over the weekend, we are coming to a point of agreement, I hope, with the UK Government, in which Wales will be able to play the part I think people in Wales would want to see played in welcoming people to Wales who are fleeing the awful events we've seen unfolding again this morning in Ukraine. 

First Minister, in your written statement you have indicated your willingness to work together with the UK Government's Homes for Ukraine scheme. However, refugee charities have expressed their concern that Ukrainians arriving through this scheme will not be given refugee status, limiting their access to benefits, for example. They also point out that matching hosts to guests requires sensitivity and experience. A proper home visit needs to be undertaken to ensure homes are suitable and that everyone in the host household is fully committed and knows what to expect; follow-up support needs to be provided to both hosts and guests; move-on plans must be put in place; and there needs to be a fallback for the rare situations in which a placement does not work out. Do you understand these concerns, and can Welsh families wishing to be part of a more holistic approach register their interest instead with local authorities, with Welsh-based charities or the Welsh Government?

Llywydd, well I do not simply understand, I share a great number of those concerns with the UK Government's scheme, which is why we have worked with them to be able to put in place in Wales different arrangements that I think would give us a better chance of being able to welcome people here from Ukraine with the best prospect of responding to those needs and mitigating the risks of people coming here and not being able to re-establish their lives in the way that we would wish to see. I can confirm for the Member, because I had a letter overnight from Michael Gove in which he confirms that people coming from Ukraine will have recourse to public funds, will have access to public services and will be entitled to work. And I'm glad to see those assurances, because it does mean that people will be able to re-establish their lives in a way they wouldn't have been had those facilities not been available to them. 

What we want to do is to make sure that people who come to Wales have an opportunity to get the services they need, to make sure that the places they are going to stay have had at least the level of check you would need to make sure that there is no exploitation of vulnerable individuals, given that many people coming from Ukraine will be vulnerable and will be leaving those highly distressing circumstances, and that we can put together with our partners in local government—and we've been working very closely with them, Llywydd, in recent days—that we can put in place the education offer that will be necessary for children, that they are registered with the Welsh NHS on arrival, that there are housing services being mobilised and third sector support. We know the richness of third sector organisations in Wales who want to play their part. For that to happen, though, you have to have it on an organised basis.

My anxiety about the UK scheme is that it relies entirely on individuals to find one another. And as I understand it, should somebody in Wales, with the generosity we know that people are displaying, find themselves matched up with somebody on the Polish border, the UK Government will issue them a visa, and then it's up to them. How they get from where they are to where that offer of help has been provided will be a matter for that individual, in all the circumstances they face, to navigate for themselves. I think you just have to have a different level of public service support in place in order to make sure that the welcome we want to offer people, the success with which we want that scheme to operate, that it has the best possible chance of operating, and that's what my colleague Jane Hutt and I and others have been working hard to try to achieve alongside the UK Government. I think the letter from Mr Gove is encouraging in this way, that we will be able to do it in the right way here in Wales, and, in the process, avoid some of the pitfalls to which the leader of Plaid Cymru has pointed.