Minister, I recently met with some of the fantastic staff at the Welsh Refugee Council in Newport, alongside several asylum seekers. It was an incredibly informative meeting, and we discussed a range of issues that the organisation, asylum seekers and refugees face. One in particular that stuck with me was the welcome ticket scheme, which gives all refugees unlimited travel on trains and buses until the end of March next year. It's a fantastic initiative, and it has my full backing. However, after talking to the refugee council, it's clear the scheme could be drastically improved.

Refugees have to either show a biometric residence permit, a letter from the Home Office, or passport, to be allowed onto a bus or a train in Wales. These are extremely important documents, I'm sure you can agree, that the refugees are having to carry around with them and show every single time that they want to get on to public transport. Anecdotally, I've heard some parents are in fact too worried about their children losing these documents—as one would. And to make matters worse, some Transport for Wales and bus services do not even recognise the welcome ticket. Specifically, there is a misunderstanding of the various types of status on biometric residence permits. It's extremely embarrassing, and it's putting a lot of people off from using the scheme. Surely, the Welsh Government can work with its partners to roll out a special card that would be universally recognised by train and bus drivers, instead of forcing them to carry important papers. Minister, sadly, asylum seekers are not eligible for the welcome ticket. Asylum seekers live on a mere £40 a week and often wait years for their application to be processed, which I understand is not a devolved matter, yet, by extending the scheme to include asylum seekers, it would enable them to attend English lessons, community-based integration and allow them to start volunteering. I appreciate there may need to be some cross-Government work on this, but I'd be very grateful for a statement from the Minister for Social Justice outlining how the Welsh Government plans to address the concerns I have just raised surrounding the welcome ticket here in Wales. Thank you.