Thank you very much, Llywydd. I'm pleased to present the two documents laid before the Senedd today, namely the annual report on the Senedd official languages scheme for 2021-22, and the official languages scheme for the sixth Senedd.

Let me turn first to the annual report. Members will be familiar with the procedure of holding an annual debate on our work during the year. In accordance with the requirements of the National Assembly for Wales (Official Languages) Act 2012, the Senedd Commission must report annually on its work in providing bilingual services, and any complaints or cases of failure to comply that have been observed. As usual, the report was published in conjunction with the annual report and accounts of the Senedd Commission, and the annual reports on diversity and inclusion and sustainability, in June.

This year, the work of the official languages team has mainly focused on the process of preparing the official languages scheme for the sixth Senedd—I will turn to that scheme later on—and drawing to a close the scheme for the fifth Senedd.

During the course of the year, we welcomed a large number of new Senedd Members, and the team worked with those Members to ensure that they were aware of the requirements of the scheme, and also to ensure that they could work in their official language or languages of choice by default. I would like to thank all Members and their support staff for their support as we implement the requirements of the scheme, and for providing feedback, which is so important, on our bilingual services. 

In discussing bilingual services, it's also important to note that the number of learners who are having lessons from the tutoring team has increased; that's always great to see, whether those be re-elected Members re-engaging with their lessons, or those who are completely new learners. It is nice to see the Members who are learning using their skills during proceedings, and the way in which their fellow Members across the Chamber celebrate their successes as they contribute, perhaps for the first time, publicly in Welsh. It's not easy to give it a go and that support is vital in order to encourage Members to keep on learning, on the one hand, but more importantly, certainly, to use their Welsh.

Members will be aware of the statistical information that now forms part of the annual reports. This information is important. It allows us to monitor several areas, including the number of posts advertised at courtesy level, or that have a requirement for skills at a higher level, which forms part of our ongoing language planning processes. We also monitor the percentage of Welsh-medium contributions made in Plenary meetings like this, or in committee meetings. Gathering information of this kind helps us to monitor the effectiveness of the support available to Members, to assist them in using their preferred language when preparing for and taking part in proceedings. We will continue to monitor and to look for ways to nurture confidence in using the Welsh language, and to understand and remove barriers that exist from time to time, in order to ensure that the generally positive pattern continues.

And of course, this is equally important in making people who come into contact with the Senedd feel comfortable in using Welsh—witnesses in committees and so forth. I've previously mentioned that I believe that working online as a result of the pandemic has removed some of those barriers, in some ways, that translation happens naturally and flows better in some ways, without the need to put on or remove headphones. We need to learn from that, I think, for face-to-face and hybrid meetings as well.

Before I turn to the new scheme, it's worth highlighting the fact that no complaints were received this year about our bilingual services, and that there have been very few cases of failing to comply with the scheme—perhaps reflecting the fact that the principles of the scheme are embedded properly in the processes and everyday work of the organisation. Of course, when such cases arise, we will ensure that we take action to rectify that situation and record and share any lessons learned in order to avoid similar cases from arising in the future. And we are always learning.