The following amendments have been selected: amendment 1 in the name of Darren Millar, and amendments 2 and 3 in the name of Siân Gwenllian.

The next item is a debate on the Welsh Government annual report, delivering our well-being objectives. And I call on the First Minister to move the motion.

Motion NDM8049 Lesley Griffiths

To propose that the Senedd, in accordance with Standing Order 11.21(ii):

Notes:

a) the Welsh Government Annual Report 2021-2022;

b) progress on the legislative programme.  

Motion moved.

Deputy Presiding Officer, last week, the first annual report of this Senedd term was published. It notes the work that we've done towards delivering our well-being objectives. The programme for government of this Government was published less than six weeks after the election in May 2021. This shows our commitment to quickly tackle the challenges facing Wales and to start to implement our radical policy agenda. We said that our Government would be based on trust and ambition, and it would focus on national prosperity and future generations. Our programme for government did note the actions that we would take to deliver 10 well-being objectives in the term of this Government.

In December, we signed a co-operation agreement with Plaid Cymru—a bespoke agreement that includes 46 areas where we have common interests. Some of these measures are included in this annual report, but a full report about what we have achieved together in the first year will be published in December.

Dirprwy Lywydd, in the first year of this Senedd term, we have faced a series of unprecedented challenges—some familiar and others new. We are still facing the consequences of Brexit. It has reduced the size of our economy. It has created a shortage of workers in every part of the community. It has led to a disgraceful situation where the UK Government is ready to repeal an international agreement that it negotiated and signed. Maybe Prime Minister Johnson did deliver Brexit—'Get Brexit done', as he said—but certainly he didn't deliver it successfully, and he has never made Brexit work for the people of Wales.

We have continued to deal with the impact of the worldwide pandemic, the coronavirus. And this virus remains with us. In recent weeks, we have seen an increase in infections, and by now, once again, our hospitals are under strain. Two thousand members of staff are away from their posts because of sickness. More than 1,000 COVID-19 patients are in hospital beds, and there has been an increase in the number of people who need intensive care.

And then, on top of those challenges, in the first year of the sixth Senedd, we have faced an unprecedented cost-of-living crisis, and, of course, the conflict that continues in Ukraine and that has created a humanitarian disaster on our doorstep. The cost-of-living crisis affects all of us. It makes everyday life a challenge for people across Wales as prices increase.

In that context, Llywydd, we will do everything that we can to support people through this crisis. Policies across the 20 years of devolution have put money back in people's pockets: free bus travel for an increasing number of Welsh citizens; free prescriptions for all; free breakfasts in our primary schools and now, free school dinners as well; we've retained the educational maintenance allowance; we've carried on with the council tax benefit; we have the most generous system of student support anywhere in the United Kingdom; and, in September, we'll expand further the most generous childcare offer of any UK nation. Now, Llywydd, there are many more things to which I could point, but I'll make this general point instead: every single one of these measures leaves money in the pockets of Welsh families to help them respond to the cost-of-living crisis. And now, we are going further again. We are providing £380 million to help households, including our winter fuel support payment—a £200 payment for households in receipt of qualifying benefits and a new network of fuel banks in every local authority in Wales.

Llywydd, following the unprovoked attack on the sovereign and independent people of Ukraine, the generosity and kindness of the people of Wales has been steadfast. Almost 3,700 people from Ukraine have now arrived, sponsored by people across Wales and through our supersponsor scheme, and this number grows every day. At the same time, we've given sanctuary to those fleeing the conflicts in Afghanistan and in Syria. To be a nation of sanctuary is an ambition that speaks directly to the sort of country that we want Wales to be. Living up to that ambition takes hard work every single day, but it's work that, as a Government, we are determined to carry out.

Now, Llywydd, we have faced other challenges too throughout this year. The climate and nature emergency has continued unabated, and we have, of course, had to deal with the challenge of working with a UK Government intent on rolling back the clock on devolution at every opportunity. But despite all of these, we have continued to deliver for Wales and we have continued to stand up for Wales.

Llywydd, in last May's election, my party put six key pledges before the electorate. The first was completed within 12 weeks of the election day, when we confirmed full funding for an extra 100 police community support officers—officers who do so much to keep our communities safe. We said that we would address the long waiting times that have built up during the pandemic and we have put in place an ambitious catch-up programme, backed by £1 billion-worth of funding. And we're now beginning to see reductions in those long waiting times for treatment, for diagnostic tests and for therapies.

In education, we set out our ambitious renew and reform plan to ensure that no child or young person is left behind because of the impact of the pandemic on their lives. We said that we would fund 1,800 more school staff to support learners and we've appointed and retained more than that number to provide the vital support that our children need. We promised a young person's guarantee, and in November, we launched this bold programme, providing an offer of work, education, training or self-employment to everyone under 25 in Wales, and in just four months, Llywydd, more than 2,700 people have already accessed that service.

Llywydd, I was very proud that we were able to make such quick progress to introduce the real living wage for social care staff. We can now press on with work to improve the terms and conditions of those workers across the whole of the sector.

In this Senedd term, for the first time, we have a climate change ministry, drawing together everything we can do to tackle the climate and nature emergency. We're committed to reaching net zero by 2050. In October we published Net Zero Wales, setting out how we will meet our carbon budgeting targets. And in that month, the global climate conference COP26 saw Welsh Ministers participating and committing ourselves to work with others, for example, through the Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance, demonstrating our international commitment to tackling that emergency.

Closer to home, we must plant more trees to offset the damage already caused to our climate. We will establish a national forest for Wales, we will create three commemorative woodlands in north Wales, west Wales and south Wales to remember all those who sadly lost their lives during the pandemic. And we will reward farmers who plant the trees we need in Wales. And, Llywydd, the trees we need include commercial forests, so that our houses of the future can be constructed from timber grown here in Wales. That's why we've doubled the budget for the social housing grant this year to £250 million and announced a further significant increase in the budget for each of the next three years, to help us to meet our target of building 20,000 more low-carbon social homes for rent.

Now, Llywydd, our well-being objectives commit us to celebrating diversity and eliminating inequality, and in the first year of this Senedd, we've taken significant strides towards that aim. We've established a disability rights taskforce, we've consulted on our LGBTQ+ action plan, we've strengthened our commitment to ending violence against women with our new violence against women, domestic abuse and sexual violence strategy, and last month, we published our 'Anti-racist Wales Action Plan', putting us on the path to becoming an anti-racist nation by 2030. And as our new Curriculum for Wales is introduced from September, we will ensure that diversity is recognised, as the teaching of black, Asian and minority ethnic histories becomes mandatory here in Wales.

Llywydd, there's so much more covered in the pages of this annual report to which I cannot possibly do justice this afternoon. Our steps to reform the school day and the school year, the new curriculum in our schools, our actions to expand early years education and the use of the Welsh language, the national music service, the basic income pilot, the ambitious legislative programme that I set out only last week. These are just some of the many achievements that are highlighted in the first annual report of this term. That report demonstrates that, despite the challenges we have faced over the last year, we have continued to provide stable, focused and ethical government for the people of Wales. Over the course of this Senedd term, we will continue to work towards our well-being objectives, to secure that stronger, fairer and greener Wales.

I have selected the three amendments to the motion, and I call on Andrew R.T. Davies to move amendment 1, tabled in the name of Darren Millar. Andrew R.T. Davies.

Amendment 1—Darren Millar

Add as new points at end of motion:

Believes that the annual report highlights major failings in delivery for the people of Wales by the Welsh Government.

Calls on the Welsh Government to address the consistent pressure the health and education systems are under.

Further calls on the Welsh Government to tackle the gap in take-home pay between the people of Wales and the rest of the United Kingdom.

Regrets that the legislative programme will not deliver the change Wales needs.

Amendment 1 moved.

Thank you, Presiding Officer, and I formally move the amendment in the name of Darren Millar on the order paper this afternoon. And, before I start my contribution, I'd also like to put on record, over the last 12 months, my group's sincere thanks to all the NHS and public workers who have worked tirelessly in the COVID pandemic that we continue to face today. I know we'll disagree on policy time and time again, the First Minister and I will—that's a democracy—but I was always very grateful for the briefings that he afforded me, and I do believe that in that joint approach, with other parties in the Senedd, there was scope that we could work together on various aspects that people were genuinely concerned about, and I'd used the words 'frightened of', in the light of some of the deep, dark days that we've gone through during the last 12 months. So, I'd formally like to put on the record my sincere thanks to everyone who faced up to the COVID challenge and continues to face up to the COVID challenge.

But I would like to start with the comments that I raised with the First Minister in the First Minister's question session that we had this afternoon. The one overriding narrative that has dominated the last 12 months has been the NHS waiting times, and the scale of that challenge has got deeper and darker as each week and each month has passed, with 700,000 people on a waiting list today here in Wales—one in five of the population—and 68,000 of those 700,000 people waiting two years of more. That is a massive challenge that this programme for government statement today, or debate today, does not do justice to in the way the First Minister's addressed it, I don't believe.

You can point to other parts of the UK that have faced the same COVID challenges that we have here in Wales, and who have actually turned the corner in their numbers. As I highlighted in First Minister's questions today, in England it went as high as 23,000, the two-year wait, but it's now down to 12,000. So, we do need a more coherent plan forward from the Welsh Government on this key issue. We do need to have confidence that the First Minister and his Government have the recruitment plans in place to rejuvenate and revitalise our NHS workforce. As I've raised with him before, such as doctors and doctor recruitment, for example, with training places required by the British Medical Association's own estimation of 200 places a year, and the First Minister acknowledging that that, potentially, could be a true figure, when in fact the Welsh Government are funding anything from 150 to 160 places for doctor training. So, this report doesn't offer us a road map in the way the Government are tackling the serious fault lines that exist within our NHS.

And only last week, I pointed out to the First Minister the Labour commitment on childcare and children in care being housed in bed and breakfasts and unregulated environments, where the BBC report highlighted that 50 children were exposed to risk and 270 children were in an unregulated accommodation setting, despite the Labour Government having this as a key requirement to phase this out as far back as 2015. It's nearly seven years ago that commitment was in place. I understand it's the Government's commitment today to do it, but that situation is still in place.

And then when we look at the cladding issues on housing, whether that be in Cardiff, Swansea, north Wales, across the whole of Wales, residents have felt left adrift by the inaction of the Welsh Government in addressing this key issue. I don't doubt the Minister's own personal commitment to this, but when you look at other parts of the United Kingdom facing up to the developers and actually using the legislative tools that they have to bring the developers to the table, so they contribute to what is their fault—not the residents', not the leaseholders' fault—and putting the remedial measures in place, this debate this afternoon does not talk to those real concerns that people are living with day in, day out, every day of the week, and that is a lack of progress directly at the door of the Welsh Government.

I fully endorse and support the actions that the Welsh Government has taken when it comes to the war in Ukraine, and the supersponsor status that the Welsh Government brought forward in April is something to be commended. However, as I pointed out to the First Minister only two weeks ago, with the First Minister suspending the current applications into the scheme, where there are still some 3,000, as I understand it from the Welsh Government's own figures, refugees waiting to come to Wales, there is a degree of pace needed to be introduced into the scheme so that it can be reopened, reactivated, and where we can house and shelter and offer that comfort blanket of security, we should be doing that. As I said, I commend the Welsh Government for what they have done on this particular agenda item, but it is critical that we get that scheme back up and running and that the energy of Government is directed to doing that.

I could talk a lot more, but I appreciate I only have five minutes to do that, which in itself doesn’t do justice to a complete programme for government debate. On the legislative statement, I did point out last week to the First Minister that, as Welsh Conservatives, we’d like to have seen an autism Bill and we’d like to have seen a British Sign Language Bill—two things that would have empowered people through the legislative process in our communities to receive real guarantees and security, having redress to the law when they feel that the actions of the provider have not been met. Sadly, we don’t see that in the legislative statement, and so clearly we could not support or endorse the progress that this motion talks about the legislative statement having. Therefore, I formally move the amendments in the name of Darren Millar on the order paper today, and I hope that they’ll be supported across the Plenary.

I call on Rhun ap Iorwerth to move amendments 2 and 3, tabled in the name of Siân Gwenllian.

Amendment 2—Siân Gwenllian

Add as new point at end of motion:

Welcomes that the Co-operation Agreement between Plaid Cymru and the Welsh Government has secured the inclusion of a number of transformational policies in the Programme for Government.

Amendment 3—Siân Gwenllian

Add as new point at end of motion:

Believes that the annual report and legislative programme demonstrate that the Welsh Government does not have all the levers necessary to ensure meaningful and sustainable improvements to the lives of the people of Wales and that independence is the most feasible means of achieving a truly stronger, greener, fairer future for the people of Wales.

Amendments 2 and 3 moved.

Thank you very much, Llywydd. There is so much that I could, and I do regularly, criticise the Government for. I take my role seriously as health and care spokesperson for my party, holding Government to account on the health service, and I will continue to do that until I see that the people of Wales are getting the health and care service that they deserve. But in the spirit of the end of term, I will start, at least, on a positive note. The annual report makes reference to a programme for government that builds a nation, and I think, thanks to the Plaid Cymru contribution, that we have a programme that can bring real benefits to the people of Wales.

In that sentiment, I move the first Plaid Cymru amendment, which welcomes the co-operation agreement between Plaid Cymru and the Welsh Government on the programme for government. The annual report provides a focus on how the Government could operate preventatively, and that’s particularly relevant in terms of healthcare. But to see that preventative approach having a real impact, so that fewer people ultimately rely on health services, rely on the justice system, for example, an intention isn’t enough. You need funding, you need radical policy, too, and thanks to the co-operation agreement, preventative interventions that are crucial and radical are being implemented, such as free school meals for all primary school children, and the provision of childcare has been expanded. That’s been prioritised, at last. Yes, they’re expensive, but we will as a nation benefit from these in ensuing years when we will have given the best possible start to our youngest generation.

With only six months of the agreement behind us, there are a number of milestones that we’ve already reached—the process of introducing free school meals is in train, we’re expecting Senedd reform legislation, a package to tackle the housing crisis, which is pricing people out of their own communities, and today a consultation was launched for a fairer council tax. Every one of these policies makes its own important contribution to making a future that focuses on the well-being of the next generation. We now have to ensure that the ambitious policies are adopted at all levels of government—here, in local government, where there will be councils from the First Minister’s party and my own responsible for delivering many of these initiatives.

Of course, there are limitations placed on the Government, reflected in the second Plaid Cymru amendment. As one who’s believed in independence throughout my life, I’m always frustrated in thinking what could be. Laura McAllister was discussing railways over the weekend, when she said,

'It seems obvious that doing things better within the current non-devolved system can surely only lead to marginal improvements'.

Although we are doing our best for the people of Wales in this Senedd, the failure to integrate policy decisions and fiscal decisions at the highest level has prevented real transformational change. In the context of railways, transport may be devolved for Wales, but whilst Westminster still holds the power for rail infrastructure, we will continue to suffer underfunding of billions of pounds, and a lack of investment in any new infrastructure, in any single piece of new track. I couldn’t put it better than what’s contained within the annual report:

'In Wales, we know best what works for Wales.'

But when we get the priorities right, we don’t necessarily have the powers to deliver. We want to safeguard workers. The UK Government wants to revoke the Trade Union (Wales) Act 2017. We are funding support for our friends from Ukraine. We are innovative in welcoming refugees. The UK Government is taking money without asking towards military aid. I'm not making a comment on what that money's being spent on, but the fact that it is being taken without consultation from health budgets, education budgets and climate change budgets, when Welsh taxes have already contributed to the UK's defence spending. 

We want to innovate in renewable energy, but Westminster Ministers deny us the ability to use our natural resources to generate revenue by devolving the Crown Estate, something that they have done in Scotland. And despite a clear pledge from the Prime Minister that Wales wouldn't be a penny worse off in leaving the European Union, the UK Government is pocketing £1 billion of funding that should have come to Wales. The more the Westminster Government breaks its promises, the more it destroys the United Kingdom, but likewise, the longer the Welsh Labour Government denies that, the further Wales will be left behind in whatever remnants of the UK remain. 

My contribution is going to be more technical in nature, I think. Firstly, First Minister, can I thank you for bringing this annual report forward, the first of this Senedd? An annual report is something we should look forward to. It gives an opportunity to praise success, but it also should give an opportunity to demonstrate where things are wrong. It should demonstrate self-awareness of the Government to know where things are in the scale of things.

Ten well-being objectives are welcome. I was looking forward to reading through the report, and I was looking forward to getting to the evaluation that I am so used to as a past council leader, having to prepare for regulators, for audiences who might be inspecting my annual plans that I presented. But, I was disappointed to find that there was no way of evaluating the story that we're told. Whilst there are many good things in the report, I'm sure there are many areas where the people need to understand a little more about what has gone wrong, what is needed to put things right, and how those things would be measured. Performance management is key in any organisation, and we shouldn't take it as just read when presented with an annual report. We should be able to scrutinise that as a Senedd and challenge, and understand what needs to happen to make things better. 

I'm used to looking at RAG tables—I'm sure many of you know those; red, amber, green tables that accompany reports. Llywydd, how does the Senedd truly evaluate these sorts of reports, or how will it moving forward? I know I'm probably being naive in expecting such things, but I think it's good practice that we should be able to look at how things are progressing, and how does the Government itself evaluate progress against its objectives. Are there targets? What targets are aligned to these 10 well-being goals, and how do we evaluate those? Without robust challenge of data, surely the Government is at risk of believing positions that may not always be correct. For example, when you read objective 1, 

'Provide effective, high quality and sustainable healthcare', you could be lulled into a sense that things are not too bad—that things may be amber, erring on green. However, as Andrew R.T. Davies pointed out this morning and again today robustly, and many others report this every day to us—. Indeed, I sat in a meeting last night where we heard of terrible performance in our health board. So, the real position is that, on a RAG rating, this would be a red—a significant red—and I'd be held to account if it was my organisation by the Minister for local government at that time, and have been challenged many times in the past. 

There are many areas that deserve recognition, but I appeal to you, First Minister, that in future annual reports we have the full picture, the opportunity to challenge robustly the direction of this Government, and how things are being achieved, because at the moment, I feel at a loss. I have to take it as read that this is what we're doing. How do I know how we're going to do better? Thank you, Llywydd.  

The First Minister to reply to the debate.

Llywydd, diolch yn fawr. Can I thank Andrew R.T. Davies for what he said about the ability to work together when the circumstances allow for that? There will be opportunities in the coming year as well to continue to do that where we have some shared agendas. It's the business of opposition parties to oppose, Llywydd, so I understand that when the leader of the opposition grasps a single statistic from somewhere else and tries to build a whole edifice upon it, he's doing the job that he's expected to do. That shouldn't stretch to not giving proper recognition to things where that credit is deserved. The Minister met with housing developers and building developers only yesterday in order to make sure that they live up to their obligations here in Wales, just as they are expected to live up to them elsewhere. 

Where children living in temporary accommodation is concerned, it does remain the objective of this Government to eliminate that use, and I look forward to being able to work together on some of the challenging policies that we will need to bring forward in order to make sure that we can achieve that objective.

I thank the leader of the opposition for what he said about the actions taken to support people coming from Ukraine. He will have seen that Scotland has today also had to suspended its supersponsorship platform, and that is simply because the pace at which people are arriving in Wales and in Scotland now means that, in order to be able to go on looking after people in the way we would wish, we have to get the system into balance, where people leaving our welcome centres is broadly in balance with people arriving. I hope we'll be able to do that more quickly, but we also need to make sure we get it right. When we offer people the opportunity to move into those longer term arrangements, we want to do it on the best possible basis and with the least possible risk that those arrangements will break down. 

I thank Rhun ap Iorwerth. Of course, we want to co-operate with Plaid Cymru on everything that's in our agreement. As he said, we have started on that work quickly already, and I'm looking forward to December when we will have an opportunity to report on everything that's in the agreement fully. We have been talking today, Llywydd, about a number of things where we have already co-operated—council tax reform; only today, the finance Minister has announced a number of challenging possibilities and radical possibilities. But, if we are going to do things that are radical, we will have to do things that are challenging as well. That's the purpose of co-operation, to press ahead with those kinds of issues. Of course, the devolution journey is not over. But, when you work within Government, you have to focus on the things that we can do today, and not just talk about the things that we can't do. The Government's job, as we've shown in the annual report, is to use the powers and the responsibilities that we already have.

I thank Peter Fox for what he said. I'll think carefully about what he said. I have to say, Llywydd, we are awash with data. We publish a mountain of data as a Government. It's not a problem of having insufficient data, what we don't always do as much as we would wish to do is to focus on the explanation that lies behind that data, the understanding of it. If there's more we can do in future annual reports to reflect that, as I said, I'll give careful thought to what he said.

In the meantime, Llywydd, this is the first annual report of this Senedd term. It shows, I believe, the strong start that has been made on delivering on those well-being objectives, despite the fact that, in any form of government, you spend a great deal of your time dealing with things that were not part of your plan and indeed were well beyond your own scope. So, whether it's Brexit or COVID, or the cost-of-living crisis, or war in Europe, all of those things press on Government every day. And yet, the annual report demonstrates that we have been able to make significant progress, setting out the foundations for the coming years, to deliver on the mandate given by people in Wales to this Government. We will continue to do that.

We will not be able to support the amendment in the name of Darren Millar. We will support the first amendment put forward by Siân Gwenllian. We'll not be able to support the second one. And, then, I hope that Members will be prepared to support the amended motion, if that is what is what is in front of us for determination. Diolch yn fawr. 

The proposal is to agree amendment 1. Does any Member object? [Objection.] There is objection to amendment 1 and, therefore, we will defer voting on that item until voting time. 

Voting deferred until voting time.

That bring us to voting time. So, we'll take a short break in order to prepare for that vote technically. 

Plenary was suspended at 19:16.

The Senedd reconvened at 19:18, with the Llywydd in the Chair.