The recommendations in the committee's report and the positive response from Welsh Government are very welcome. We only need to look back as recently as lockdown to see how important it is to have sufficient access to broadband. It was one of the very few avenues many of us had to avoid isolation and stay connected to friends and loved ones. The pandemic forced us to ask questions on how we best bring resources to bear on pressing societal challenges, and I was very recently reminded of this when I visited Bridgend College's Pencoed campus. Several students recounted their lockdown experiences there and how their lack of access to decent broadband and hardware, such as laptops, meant that they fell behind on school work, or had to use their mobile data. One student told me how she had practically missed out on a year's worth of education because of her Wi-Fi being so poor.

In the age of digital literacy and connectivity, communities without access to the internet are at an overall disadvantage, not only socially, but also in terms of education and employability. This is especially so since the pandemic, with more jobs being offered remotely. Remote working affords people the chance to work from home, remain in their communities, contribute to local economies and, ultimately, remain in Wales, but it isn't possible for everyone. In light of this, the Welsh Government's acceptance of all the committee's recommendations is heartening. That said, it is still concerning that, according to digital inclusion research from the Welsh Government, 7 per cent of adults are not online. The same research shows that this inequality feeds into and has the potential to exacerbate wider inequality. So, for example, those who are digitally excluded are some of the biggest users of health and social care services, and therefore risk being left behind when it comes to digital-by-default services. Ofcom also estimates that around 10,000, or 0.6 per cent of premises in Wales cannot get a decent broadband service of at least 10 Mbps per second downloading speed, and 1 Mbps per second upload speed. I look forward to seeing any progress on ensuring that this final 1 per cent of people have access to decent broadband, as recommended by the committee. 

We need to engrain the idea that, today, the internet is far from a luxury; it is a necessary and enabling service and something that everyone must be able to have access to in a modern society. Older people, those living with disabilities, the unemployed and low waged, those living in rural areas and many other groups of people are all at risk of being left behind. While I'm aware that several broadband providers offer lower cost social tariffs to eligible households, uptake of these is minimal. As we've already heard, only 3.2 per cent of households receiving universal credit are on a social tariff, as of September 2022. And, as I mentioned in the Chamber recently, I believe that it is incumbent on Government to ensure that people are aware of what support is available to them.

But it is safe to say that the UK Government has been failing us here in Wales in this reserved area of competency, making us spend the millions on infrastructure and other areas where they should have been investing to ensure that everyone has access to adequate broadband. That's money spent by the Welsh Government where it shouldn't have to be spent, and money we could have invested elsewhere, had the UK Government been investing properly. That's money that could have gone towards helping struggling families during the cost-of-living crisis, for example. This is quite simply not good enough. We deserve better. Our communities, which are currently without connection, deserve better. This is one of the reasons that I am a vocal advocate of universal basic services. It is certainly my hope that, over the course of the coming years and decades, our vision of what services should be universally available will continue to expand and come to encompass a service such as universal basic broadband.