Questions now from party spokespeople. The Conservative spokesperson, Natasha Asghar, first of all. These questions are to be answered by the Deputy Minister for Climate Change. Natasha Asghar.

Thank you so much, Presiding Officer. Deputy Minister, the announcement last week that the UK and Welsh Governments have reached an agreement to establish a new free port in Wales is hugely exciting. This multimillion-pound agreement has the potential to deliver thousands of local jobs, driving innovation and boosting business investment, bringing benefits and opportunities to communities that need it the most. Both Governments have agreed that they would be prepared to consider the case for a further additional free port in Wales if a truly exceptional proposal were presented at the bidding stage. What discussions have you had, Deputy Minister, with ministerial colleagues and interested parties about encouraging bids for free-port status, and what support are you personally providing to ensure that these bids are of the best possible quality so that Wales derives the maximum benefit from this £26 million-investment of UK Government funding? Thank you.

We are pleased, clearly, that we've been able to finally reach an agreement with the UK Government on the free ports. It has been a more protracted discussion than it ought to have been, and the way in which it was conducted was not ideal, but I'm pleased that we reached there in the end. My colleague Vaughan Gething showed considerable patience to get us to a satisfactory outcome, and he's been leading those discussions. I was very keen to make sure, as part of our agreement, we had a porous boundary between the different ports in Wales to allow collaboration, particularly for them to exploit the opportunities of marine energy and seeing the ports as a key piece of infrastructure to enable us to take advantage of the economic opportunities as well as the sustainability opportunities of offshore wind in the Celtic sea.

So, there is now agreement that the Treasury and the UK Government will look at bids for co-joining different ports, which could allow Milford and Port Talbot to present a joint bid, and there are words in the agreement that allow us to explore more than one bid. But they are caveated, as Natasha Asghar pointed out, by the UK Government's view of the quality of those bids, but there's been no definition of what a quality bid looks like. So, there's an ongoing conversation. We are keen to seize on the opportunities and we remain to have misgivings about the central thrust of the policy, but we are determined to work together for the best interests of Wales.

Thank you, Deputy Minister. Transport for Wales has warned that the cost of the south Wales metro project is expected to be significantly over its £734 million budget. Although no firm indications of the expected amount of overspend have been given, it is forecast to run into tens of millions of pounds. The south Wales metro project has a complex supply chain, with the availability of construction material being impacted by the pandemic and increasing costs. Once the contingency for any overspend has been exceeded, the extra cost will inevitably have to be met by the Welsh Government. So, Deputy Minister, what discussions have you had regarding making contingency plans for such a situation, and is there a danger that the completion of the south Wales metro will be delayed, with all the environmental and financial implications that it may entail? Thank you.

Members will be aware of today's announcement that UK inflation has hit the 9 per cent mark in April. Inflation within the construction industry is hitting closer to 30 per cent, so any infrastructure project is being hit by increased costs; that, I'm afraid, is inevitable, given the way that inflation is running rampant. So, yes, of course, the metro project is not immune to that, and costs will be impacted. We are looking at that closely to understand the implications on the speed of the deployment and the scale of the deployment. I met with the chief executive of Transport for Wales last week to discuss this. We don't have a clear picture—how can we, given the way that the state of the economy is moving—of the final outcome of this, but we are committed to the metro.

Our position would certainly be helped if the UK Government was able to deliver Wales's share of railway infrastructure spending. Currently, we are funding this entirely by ourselves, with some help from EU funds. But, as we've rehearsed in this Chamber many times, if we had our share of the HS2 project, Wales would have £5 billion into the block grant, which we would be able to draw upon to improve investment. I repeat my call to Natasha Asghar and her colleagues again to please join with us in a cross-party effort to make representations to the UK Government to do what the Tory-led Welsh Affairs Committee said was the right thing to do, which is to Barnettise the spend of HS2 to allow Wales to get our share of UK spend. I would certainly welcome her help in making that case jointly. 

Thanks, Deputy Minister. As you know better than anyone, your Government is currently trialling pilot schemes to introduce 20 mph speed limits on all restricted roads in Wales. In Caldicot, in my region of South Wales East, local residents are complaining that congestion has got worse since this limit was introduced, especially at school opening and closing times. Cars are, and I quote, 'crawling along the road at a lower gear causing pollution, and frustration is causing drivers to speed up and exceed limits as soon as they have the opportunity to do so.' In Abergavenny, another part of my region, the imposition of a 20 mph speed limit on Monmouth Road, which carries the A40 from the Hardwick roundabout, has been branded as unworkable and dangerous by local residents. 

I have no problem—and I'd like to put this on record—with reduced speed limits on roads where there is large pedestrian activity, such as outside shops, schools, high streets, places of worship et cetera. However, Deputy Minister, it is clear that this blanket 20 mph speed restriction is causing major problems on busy commuter roads. So, Deputy Minister, my question is: are your pilot schemes genuinely intended to inform your proposals, or are they simply a mere smokescreen for plans that are already a done deal? Thank you.

In the last Senedd, we had cross-party support for introducing the policy of 20 mph speed limits on local roads. We set up a taskforce that consulted very widely and involved stakeholders in working through the detail of the best way to design and implement this policy. One of the things it agreed was that we would pilot in eight areas different approaches to making sure that this could be introduced smoothly when it goes live next year. We'll need to come back to the Senedd shortly before that is able to go ahead. The purpose of those pilots is sincere: to understand and learn about the best way to implement it.

The Member mentioned a range of objections that I'm familiar with. Some of them I think are fair, some of them are a consequence of some people simply resisting change and not wanting to adhere to lower speed limits. The survey has shown broadly 80 per cent of people in favour of the policy, 20 per cent of people against. Those 20 per cent of people are making themselves heard, but I don't think we should see that as evidence of a wholesale rejection of the policy—far from it. I think there is broad support, even in those communities that she mentioned. So, there are going to be learning opportunities from the pilots. 

She mentioned the issue of a blanket approach to 20 mph. It is not the intention to have a blanket approach to 20 mph. One of the things that's being piloted is the so-called exemptions process. Broadly speaking, Transport for Wales has worked out a formula for which roads it thinks should be captured by the 20. Every community will have a chance to be consulted upon that, and there will be an opportunity for local councils, who are the highway authorities, to say which roads should be excluded—which roads are better kept at 30 mph. In the pilot areas, that process of exemption is being tested. Certainly, we have seen in Buckley in Flintshire a great deal of unease about the way that that has been implemented. I think that there are lots of lessons for councils and for the Welsh Government to learn from that. That is the whole point of piloting it—to try it, learn from it and adapt. That's what we intend to do.

Plaid Cymru spokesperson, Delyth Jewell.

Diolch, Llywydd. Last week, there was a highly critical report that was published by the Office for Environmental Protection. It was warning the UK Government that the progress to deliver on environmental commitments in England is too slow, and it makes recommendations for urgent action. It emphasises the need for legally binding targets.

We have had this discussion, I know, Minister, a number of times before. We know that the plight of the environment is no less serious in Wales, but we still don't have an independent body that can hold the Government to account. I know that people can raise concerns about the functioning of environmental law with the interim environmental protection assessor for Wales, but that interim assessor doesn't have the powers to investigate and take action about perceived failures or breaches of the law by public bodies.

The Office for Environmental Protection has a public-facing website, and it has consulted on a draft strategy on its enforcement policy, but none of that is true at present about the interim assessor's work, in terms of it not being in the public domain. So, do you recognise, Minister, that there is a gap that is unacceptable in terms of environmental governance in Wales? Can you provide reassurance to the Chamber, please, that you will bring forward legislation to establish an independent environmental governance body and nature recovery targets for Wales in the second year of this Senedd?      

Yes, we are absolutely going to do that. I'm not going to promise it in the second year, Delyth, because I'm in the hands of the legislative programme to some extent. We have a large number of competing priorities, unfortunately, and it's about what's in the best position to go forward at any point in time and how we can get it through the committee systems, and so on. It's not about whether we think that it's a priority. We do think that it's a priority.

I'm really delighted that we have just started the biodiversity deep dive process. I'm really, really pleased with how that went last week. We have a whole series of them now, running forward. Just to explain, we have the core group for that, but we also have a series of stakeholder meetings involved with that and expert groups involved with that. Then, I will be making a statement to the Senedd. I hope that we'll be able to have something at the Royal Welsh, by way of a public engagement process on that as well, once the process for this initial phase of it has passed.

The whole purpose of that is to tell us how to get to 30x30, what the target should be, and how we should structure that for Wales in a way that really makes a difference on the ground. I think that we share the view that that needs to happen. I absolutely want to put in place an independent body that holds our feet to the fire, but I want to know what they are holding our feet to the fire about, and how we can put them in the best possible position to do that, before we go for it. So, I am really looking forward to the outcome of the deep dive, which will be the first big step on the route to being able to do that.

Then, I hope, Llywydd, that we will be able to have a session in the Senedd that gets us all into the same space about how we should take that forward. There will be difficult decisions along the way. If we are going to protect 30 per cent of our landscape to the level that we want to, that is going to affect people who live in that landscape and who work and want to make a decent home and life out of it. So, it's important to get it right, so that we get that buy-in, as well as just the targets.  

Thank you for that, Minister. I certainly welcome the deep dive, and I agree with you about the need to be honest and realistic with ourselves, and with the people of Wales, about how there are going to have to be some difficult decisions being made. I would still press you that, really, unless we have this legislation being brought forward in the second year, I worry about how much it could creep further. But I know that that is something, I trust, that you will keep pushing for within the Government as much as possible. I hope that you will.

You have said previously that you wish to see these nature recovery targets for Wales informed by global targets to be agreed at the COP15 summit. This summit has already been subject to delay. There is continuing uncertainty about when it is going to go ahead. All the while, we are in a nature emergency. One in six species in Wales is at risk of extinction in Wales. I know that we often say that statistic, but really, I think that, sometimes, we need to step outside ourselves, almost, to think how devastating that is really going to be.

Could you confirm that the legislation for nature recovery targets, when it is brought forward—? I take your point about how you don't know yet whether it can be in the second year of the Senedd, although again I really do push you on that, please. Will that be affected by any further delays in the COP15 summit, or are there processes within the Government to make sure that that is not going to be a further hindrance to the introduction, please?

It's a real shame that it's been delayed for a variety of reasons. That really is a shame for the globe, never mind for Wales. One of the pieces of work that I want to see happening, and this is part of the deep dive process as well, to get advice on this, is how we can structure the targets so that they can be tightened but not loosened. It's easy to structure targets that can be changed, but I want to put a process in place where those targets can be accelerated but not relaxed easily. I mean, obviously, any Senedd could overturn the entire legislation and relax them, but we want a process whereby some methodology, statutory instruments, regulations—I don't know, something; it's what I have people working on—can accelerate those targets or add in new ones as appropriate as the evidence comes forward from COP and other processes, but not give us the discretion to be able to row back on them for any reason. That's really easy for me to say, but it's actually quite hard to do. So, part of what we're trying to work on is, with these experts, is that possible, and if so how can we do it.

It's about the initial targets, what the 30x30 thing looks like. Thirty per cent by 2030—that's great to say, but what does that actually mean? What is the 30 per cent? Thirty per cent of what? And is it 30 per cent of Wales or 30 per cent of every local authority area or 30 per cent of every community? What are we actually talking about? And then what are the 30 per cent of species that we're talking about? Or is it 30 per cent across all species or what? I don't know the answer to any of those questions yet. So, part of what we're doing is, 'What is the answer? Is there an answer? What's the consensus view?', and then how can we have an accelerating process to get more and more species and pieces of land protected, because we don't also want a system where we've got 30 per cent of land beautifully preserved and 70 per cent of land that's paved. That's clearly also not what we want.

This is all about the balance, how we use the 30 per cent, perhaps, as exemplars, how do we use that as a showcase for what can be done elsewhere in Wales, how can we get as much of the land mass of Wales included, and as many of the species and so on. So, it's an easy thing to say, but it actually turns out to be really, really complicated to do it in a way that's meaningful and actually holds our feet to the fire in a way that I can't just stand up and say, 'Oh yes, 30 per cent of all the land of Wales is currently protected', because that's not where any of us want to be. So, it's not for want of wanting to do it; it's for want of wanting to get it right that we're carrying on with these processes.