3. Will the First Minister make a statement on the work that the Welsh Government is doing to improve public transport in South Wales West? OQ58305

I thank Sioned Williams for that question. Last week, a support package worth a further £48 million was announced by the Welsh Government. This is to support bus services in South Wales West and other areas that have struggled to recover from the pandemic. Measures to reform the industry and to reverse the damage of deregulation will be brought before the Senedd.

Diolch, Brif Weinidog. Providing more affordable, convenient and reliable public transport is essential, of course, if we're going to improve access to education, employment, public services and leisure, and create the more prosperous, greener and more equal society that we all wish to see, especially given that 20 per cent of households in my region of South Wales West don't have access to a car, which is significantly higher than the Welsh average of 13 per cent, and in parts of my region such as the Afan or Swansea valleys, this figure can be even higher. Therefore, one would expect that the Government's plans for a Swansea bay metro would be developing at pace to enhance the extremely poor public transport links in these western Valleys communities. But, this is not at all the case, and there are significant gaps in the maps outlined in the Government's last update on the metro plans. I broadly welcome the plans for the metro as well as some of the measures outlined in the bus White Paper, but these are years away from being rolled out, and in the case of the metro, it seems, will not lead to improved connectivity for all western Valleys communities. Does the First Minister promise, therefore, to properly include areas such as the Afan and Swansea valleys in the Government's metro plans and expedite those plans to ensure my constituents are not left behind? Diolch.

I thank Sioned Williams for those questions. I agree with what she said about the importance of public transport, particularly in some of the communities in her region, but I don't think she offers us a fair account of the work that's being undertaken by the Swansea bay metro. This year's programme, for example, includes business case and feasibility studies into the provision of an additional four trains per hour between Pontarddulais and Swansea, going via Neath, and up to six new stations across the northern Swansea suburbs. The Swansea bay hydrogen bus project will go out for procurement in this financial year. That's procurement of between 20 and 40 hydrogen fuel cell buses to support public transport in the region, and the depot that will be needed in order to service them. Brand new CAF trains will run in the Swansea bay metro region by the end of this year, and the local transport fund, aligned with the metro proposals, is funding the Neath transport hub regeneration. We all wish we could do more; we all wish we could go more quickly. Within the constraints of the budget that we have, I think there are real and immediate actions that the Swansea bay and west Wales metro project is putting into place, and they will contribute to that integrated transport system that we know is important, both in the immediate Swansea area but in its hinterland as well.

First Minister, I have long believed that organisations such as further education colleges can act as anchor institutions helping to drive economic improvement in their regions. Bridgend College's new campus plans are an example of this, where the provision of new training facilities can be used to support the wider economic agenda. However, for this to be successful, there needs to be more thought given to the public transport needs of those who will access the campus. What are you doing to ensure that key strategic decisions such as this are aligned to the availability of public transport to realise the benefits we all want to see? Thank you.

Those are important points that Altaf Hussain makes about the anchor nature of those major institutions. My colleague Jeremy Miles is being clear with those local authorities and other aspects of the further education system who take part in our twenty-first century schools and colleges programme that those proposals will not be approved in future unless there is an active travel plan to go alongside the physical building proposals. I think myself that, too often in the past, there have been some of those developments—fantastic in themselves, brilliant facilities for the twenty-first century, but without those additional aspects being planned in in that fundamental way. If they're going to succeed in future in that anchor way, then those transport arrangements to and from the developments have to be part of the proposals from the outset, not things that are thought about after the site has been identified and the building created.

The support that the Welsh Government has provided to bus services and rail services in Wales during the pandemic has enabled our public transport system to come through, albeit battered by events, but ready to move on to the next stage, which will involve enhancements and extensions to rail services, including on the Maesteg line, legislating to return power to the people over buses and integrating these modes better together, too. But all of this, First Minister, is done by working with partners out there, and, as important as any partner, working with the workers themselves—the workers who keep the wheels turning on the trains and the buses, keep the stations running and the passengers moving along. It's what we call our social partnership. So, First Minister, noting the UK Government's latest Bullingdon-boy threats to undermine our social partnership approach in Wales, how will this affect our efforts to improve public transport when faced with this threat?

I answered a question earlier from the Member for Bridgend, who pointed to the current rise in coronavirus cases in Wales. I don't think it's often recognised that the single group of workers in the population who were most adversely affected by coronavirus were workers in public transport. You were more likely to fall ill, and indeed more likely to have the more serious consequences of coronavirus, as a bus driver than any other occupation. I completely agree with what the Member for Ogmore said—that our ability to keep those services going during the pandemic relied upon the close working relationships between the Welsh Government and those bodies who provide those services, and that, in turn, relied heavily on those social partnership arrangements. The social partnership council for Wales met fortnightly during the pandemic in really focused meetings in which we were able to work together to find solutions to some of the challenges that face us all. Our trade union colleagues were fundamental to that effort. They were able to report into those meetings the front-line experiences of their members, and then to allow governments—local government, Welsh Government, employers as well—to take the necessary action to respond to those experiences.

Our Trade Union (Wales) Act 2017, passed here in the last Senedd term, was designed to reinforce those positive working relationships. The people who turned up to give evidence at committee in favour of our proposals were employers—people who came to explain why having a properly functioning relationship with a trade union enables them to do the jobs that they need to do. I cannot think that the Conservative Party can point to a single example where that legislation has created difficulties rather than solutions for us here in Wales. That is why it is so desperately disappointing to see them, in that ideologically vindictive way, seeking to reverse the decisions that were made here on the floor of this Senedd within the powers that this Senedd has to take action. We will continue to defend our position in relation to social partnership, and I look forward to the passage of our social partnership and public procurement Bill through the Senedd, in order to further reinforce our ability to do those difficult jobs and to support those people carrying them out on our behalf in just the way in which Huw Irranca-Davies has suggested.