The next item is a statement by the Minister for Social Justice, an update on Ukraine. I call on the Minister to make the statement. Jane Hutt.

Diolch yn fawr, Llywydd. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to provide an update to Members about our ongoing work to support people from Ukraine seeking sanctuary in Wales.

When I last updated you in October, Wales had welcomed just under 6,000 Ukrainians under the Homes for Ukraine scheme, including under our supersponsor route. Arrivals have continued at a slow but steady pace, and just over 6,100 Ukrainians sponsored by the Welsh Government and Welsh households had arrived in Wales by 15 November. There have been additional arrivals under the Ukraine family scheme, but we are not given that data by the UK Government.

More than 8,450 visas have now been granted to people from Ukraine who have sponsors in Wales, so we can expect the number of arrivals to continue to grow. We are mindful that events in Ukraine can have a direct impact on the number of Ukrainians who may arrive in Wales, and although we have seen a small number of individuals seeking to return to Wales after a period back in Ukraine, we are not seeing a significant change at present. 

I was very disappointed not to see any clarity in the autumn statement about the financial future of the Ukraine schemes. We have repeatedly called for funding parity between the Homes for Ukraine scheme and the Ukraine family scheme and the Ukraine extension scheme. We urgently need confirmation of year 2 and 3 funding to support the delivery of public services, as well as continued and uplifted host 'thank you' payments. The latter would ensure hosting arrangements can continue despite cost-of-living impacts.

Without certainty around future funding, Welsh Government, local government and Welsh hosts are all facing difficult choices about the support we can provide to Ukrainians seeking sanctuary. We hope the UK Government will provide this clarity quickly. In response to my letters to UK Ministers about these issues, I am pleased to say that I heard from the new lead Minister for Homes for Ukraine, Felicity Buchan MP, last week. Despite this uncertainty about the finances, a meeting has been convened for Thursday with the Scottish Government Minister, Neil Gray MSP, and myself, regarding our financial position.

We remain focused on supporting people into longer term accommodation, so that they can have more settled lives. Over 700 Ukrainians being supported via the supersponsor route have now moved on from initial accommodation, over 500 of these within Wales, either with hosts, in the private rented sector or in other transitional and longer term housing. However, the wider pressures on housing across Wales mean that we cannot support people into longer term accommodation as quickly as we would like. We will therefore, continue to urge potential hosts to come forward and register an interest at gov.wales/offerhome. Hosting provides swift, flexible and cost-effective accommodation that enables people to regain some independence and to integrate with local communities. We know that some individuals and families have come forward to offer their homes and are still waiting to become hosts. I’m very grateful for their generosity. We are working closely with local authorities and Housing Justice Cymru to help support the matching process. But we still have nowhere near enough hosts to accommodate all who need support. We would also urge those thinking about hosting to visit Housing Justice Cymru’s website and join an introduction to hosting seminar to find out more.

I'd like to focus the rest of this statement on an important commemoration that we discussed in this Chamber in May. This November marks the start of the ninetieth anniversary of the Holodomor in Ukraine. This was the man-made famine that caused millions to die and was bravely exposed to the world, in part, by Welsh journalist Gareth Jones. The debate in May was an important reflection on those events and we committed to commemorating the event in Wales.

On the fourth Saturday in each November, Holodomor is commemorated internationally. We will be organising an event at Alexandra Gardens in Cardiff, alongside so many other important memorials to peace. The event will include participation by me, the First Minister and Counsel General, local government, religious leaders, and the deputy ambassador of Ukraine to the United Kingdom. Ukrainians will be invited to attend and we will lay wreaths to remember those who suffered during previous actions perpetrated by a government in Moscow. After the commemoration, we will promote Holodomor remembrance on our social media channels to try to raise awareness further. Last week, we also wrote to hosts across Wales to ensure they knew about Holodomor and encouraged them to discuss plans with their guests.

Putin’s current atrocities in Ukraine are part of a longer term pattern of aggression against the people of Ukraine stretching back many decades, and marking Holodomor in this way shines a light on this. Gareth Jones, the journalist from Wales, writing about the man-made famine instigated by Stalin made clear that the affected Ukrainians did not seek pity and he remarked upon their fortitude. I think we can all see those characteristics on show in Ukraine again today. And whilst we honour the resilience and courage of the Ukrainian people in the face of Putin’s aggression, we also reaffirm our commitment to help Ukrainians here in Wales to record their knowledge of war crimes committed in more recent times.

Through the founding of Donetsk and the reporting of Gareth Jones, as well as the more-than 500 Ukrainians who called Wales home before this conflict, our countries had several threads that connected us. Now, we are home to probably more than 7,000 Ukrainians and those many threads between our peoples bind us together more strongly than ever. I know all Members will join me in expressing Welsh solidarity with all Ukrainians on the anniversary of Holodomor.

Mark Isherwood. [Interruption.]

Thank you. It's not often I start with a splash. [Laughter.]

Thank you for your statement. As you said, events in Ukraine can have a direct impact on the number of Ukrainians who may arrive in Wales. You referred to the UK Government figures showing that more than 8,450 visas have now been granted to people from Ukraine who have sponsors in Wales, and that just over 6,100 Ukrainians sponsored by the Welsh Government and Welsh households had arrived in Wales by 15 November. What, therefore, is the current position regarding housing for these Ukrainian people seeking sanctuary in Wales in terms of welcome centres, hotels, private homes and emergency provision?

When I responded to your Ukraine statement four weeks ago, I referred again to discussions you had or were planning to have with the UK Government regarding a possible uplift to the monthly £350 payment to people housing Ukrainians in their own homes. In your statement today, you said that you urgently need confirmation of year 2 and 3 funding to support the delivery of public services, as well as continued and uplifted host 'thank you' payments, stating that the latter would ensure hosting arrangements could continue despite cost-of-living impacts. But you also added that you're pleased to have heard from the new lead UK Minister for Homes for Ukraine, Felicity Buchan, last week. Will you, therefore, keep us updated on progress regarding both this hopefully developing engagement with the UK Government and the meeting convened for Thursday with the Scottish Government Minister Neil Gray MSP regarding your financial position with this?

We support you in your continued focus on supporting people into longer term accommodation so that they can have more settled lives. However, how would you address the statement made by a local authority housing representative at this month’s meeting of the cross-party group for north Wales—and I quote—that 'there is incredible additional pressure because of homelessness and having also welcomed refugees from Ukraine, and if refugees from Ukraine are housed by housing associations, this can create a perception to others that certain groups are being housed ahead of them', highlighting the will of local authorities to help, but the concern about how some in the public may respond?

You rightly state that Putin's current atrocities in Ukraine are part of a long-term pattern of aggression against the people of Ukraine stretching back many decades. This November marks the start of the ninetieth anniversary of the Holodomor in Ukraine, the man-made Soviet famine which caused millions to die. Although we welcome your organisation of a Holodomor commemoration event in Cardiff next Saturday, we also recognise the need for similar commemorations elsewhere in Wales. What consideration will you therefore give to organising such events, either alone or with regional partners, in the future in north Wales and other Welsh regions?

Responding to your Ukraine statement last month, I again referred to the document I sent to you produced by the Polish Integration Support Centre, or PISC, in Wrexham, detailing their humanitarian efforts to help Ukrainian refugees and their proposal for consolidated and sustainable support for Ukrainian people, including the construction of temporary housing, and asked you what engagement have you or your officials therefore subsequently had with them regarding this. Yesterday, I again attended a meeting with PISC, local government and business representatives, other agencies and volunteers, to discuss continuation of the humanitarian corridor organised by PISC to get vital supplies to specific charities supporting people in Ukraine, and in particular their Christmas Bridge project collecting shoebox donations for delivery to someone in need in Ukraine this Christmas, particularly 3,000 orphans living in basements due to air raids, but also older people, disabled people and soldiers in the trenches. They told me that they had not yet been contacted by you or your officials and asked me to ask you both whether you can use your position to help with their Christmas bridge project and whether you will meet them in the new year to discuss their continuing projects. I’d therefore be grateful in conclusion if you could also respond to these questions. Diolch.

Thank you very much, Mark Isherwood, and thank you for welcoming this statement. Your first point, of course, is about how we are progressing with our supersponsor scheme. I’m very pleased to say that we’re working hard welcoming Ukrainian guests into our welcome centres, but also we’re ensuring that people are moved on as quickly as possible from the welcome centres, with the help of local authorities and indeed third sector organisations as well. It’s the sort of initial accommodation that means that they get wraparound support in our welcome centres. But actually, as arrival trends have decreased in recent months, we’ve consolidated which hotels and welcome centres are the most appropriate. We’re reviewing the support we’re offering to promote personal independence.

I visited a welcome centre in north Wales where people were self catering, which is what people like to do and have more independence. We don’t publish the location of our welcome centres, but we have learnt a great deal as a result of working with our Ukrainian guests and local authorities. One of the interesting things—and you will know this, all of you, from around Wales in your constituencies—is that, actually, many Ukrainians are now working in the system. They’re working in local authorities. I certainly know in my constituency, they’ve got jobs, because they’ve got skills. It's wonderful when you go to a welcome centre or meet with a local authority and you've immediately got interpreters, you've got people who are working on Communities for Work, job opportunities. So, the welcome centre route is working, and we do seek to ensure that we can support the guests with the best wraparound support.

It is interesting to remember, and it's not that long ago, that we committed to support 1,000 Ukrainians through our supersponsor scheme. We've now welcomed 3,000 through the supersponsor route. We also, actually, have a further 1,600 who we've sponsored who have visas but haven't arrived.

I'm looking forward, very much, to meeting Felicity Buchan next week, alongside my colleague Neil Gray from the Scottish Government, with whom we have worked bilaterally, and with former Ministers throughout our humanitarian response of welcoming Ukrainian guests. We will meet on Thursday this week, we've got the date in the diary. We will raise the issues about funding, particularly in terms of the £350 'thank you' payment for hosts, which previous refugee Minister Richard Harrington suggested should be up to £500 if not doubled. So, we are hoping that this will be something that we can progress with them. Of course, I will report back, I'll do a written statement following my meeting with the new Minister and take that forward.

Onward accommodation is crucial, and that's where we work with local authorities. It's good to have that feedback from north Wales. We have a framework for accommodation that sets out expectations for local authorities, and it actually makes sure that we're working together on how we can rehouse and support Ukrainian guests as they move into longer term accommodation. It's a mixture of accommodation, as I've said. Some people are moving into hosting arrangements from a welcome centre, others into the private rented sector and other forms of good-quality transitional accommodation. But you've made the point very clearly, Mark; as we recognise, we've got nearly 8,500 people in temporary accommodation already in Wales, and these are housing pressures that will only increase with the cost-of-living crisis. So, it's a huge challenge. I'm working very closely with the Minister for Climate Change, Julie James, on this issue, and working with the local authorities.

One of the key opportunities is the £65 million transitional accommodation capital programme that is supporting a range of initiatives by local authorities and registered social landlords. They are coming up with all sorts of options and opportunities regarding providing empty homes, transitional accommodation, a whole variety of ways in which people can be supported into next steps for onward accommodation.

Yes, we're having an event in the capital city of Wales on Saturday for Holodomor, but I know that, because there are so many networks across Wales of Ukrainian guests, hosts are organising memorial events as well. I'll make sure I can share any further information that my officials are aware of, and, indeed, through our contacts with Ukrainian guests.

You will know, Mark Isherwood, that I work very closely with the third sector group. I met them only a couple of weeks ago. That includes the organisation from north Wales who I regularly meet and you introduced me to, but also all the county voluntary councils as well as British Red Cross and now, increasingly, Ukrainian guests themselves. We actually have developed with them a participation and engagement strategy to ensure that we can engage with Ukrainian guests and much more co-produce policies for the way forward, and get their feedback. That is being implemented. Can I suggest that I actually meet with the Polish integration society on my next visit to north Wales, to Wrexham? We congratulate them on all that they've done, and particularly welcome the Christmas Bridge project.

Thank you for your update, Minister. It's disappointing to hear that there hasn't been a clear response as yet from UK Government regarding greater funding for hosts and local authorities to assist with the provision of support for Ukrainian refugees in Wales during this cost-of-living crisis. For all Rishi Sunak's warm words in Kyiv, the Westminster Conservative Government is not showing proper support for the Ukrainians in Wales forced to flee their homes.

The Europe director of the World Health Organization said yesterday that 700 attacks on health infrastructure have been documented since Russia's invasion of Ukraine began. He called the attacks a breach of international humanitarian law and the rules of war—if there are such things—and warned that millions that Ukrainians would face life-threatening conditions over the winter. The WHO has called for a humanitarian health corridor to ensure that supplies can reach those who need them most, and said that the only sustainable solution for Ukrainian's health system was, of course, for the war to be brought to an end. It's my understanding, Minister, that we sent our first batch of medical supplies to Ukraine from Wales in March. So, could the Minister please update us on what other shipments of or funding for medical aid from Welsh Government to Ukraine have been made since? And is it possible at all to have more targeted supported coming from here in Wales?

UN Women have recently released a policy report on the gender impacts of the crisis in Ukraine. They note that gender equality considerations are missing from discussions in the Ukraine crisis and recommend, among others, the following: tailored food assistance with an emphasis on improving access to adequate and appropriate nutritional food to meet the specific needs of women and girls in a situation of conflict and crisis; source food for food-assistance programmes from women-owned and women-led farmers co-operatives and organisations for humanitarian response and public provisioning; and ensuring, of course, that healthcare, including sexual and reproductive and mental health services, is provided to those subjected to sexual exploitation and abuse and trafficking in the context of food and security and humanitarian crisis.

And lastly, on your comments regarding Holodomor remembrance and the need to ensure awareness of this long history of aggression against the people of Ukraine, and the role of the Welsh journalist Gareth Jones in revealing this to the world, I recommend the excellent film Mr Jones by Agnieszka Holland. It should be watched by everybody. It underlines not only the resilience and courage of the Ukrainian people in the face of terrible and terrifying oppression, and one individual's incredible bravery in revealing this, but also the importance of truth, which is so often called, of course, the first casualty of war, and the crucial role of the press in the face of the self-interest of the state. Diolch.

Thank you very much, Sioned Williams, for your very important question.

I am hoping that we will hear some news next week about the financial position. I suspect that we won't get the full assurances that we need, because this is not just about the 'thank you' payments, which are urgent, but the funding for the next two years, which is the tariff for local authorities, which are helping them provide the wraparound support for people who are hosted, and support through our welcome centres. 

I certainly will look further at the statements that have been made about the tax on the health infrastructure in Ukraine—the humanitarian health corridor, the calls for this. And also, I think we need to look at—. I need to go back to the Disasters Emergency Committee, where we gave £4 million, to get more feedback on how that money is being used and distributed, because it is money that we in Wales have given through our budget. I think the issue about the gendered nature and the context of the circumstances of women and girls in Ukraine is crucially important. One of the things that we have got is the opportunity to engage with so many of the women who've come. The majority, of course, of our Ukrainian guests are women and children, so I will put that on the agenda of the next meeting that we have with them, with the Women's Equality Network.

I think colleagues are aware that Mick Antoniw is leading a convoy in the next week or so. I know it's cross party, whether everyone can go, but I think there have been volunteers from parties; if they want, they can go with him. He is taking a shipment, and he will be reporting back to us on that. He's got a vehicle and he's got the equipment. Actually, he's raised a lot of money, which you probably all contributed to, in recent weeks. Throughout Wales, there has been so much giving. There have been shipments. You all know, probably, people in your constituencies who actually know of that quiet way in which people just get on with it, get a lorry and drive there.

Holodomor—yes, I think that the awareness is really important. I have to say that, as well as the film Mr Jones, recently, in Barry, in my constituency, a plaque was placed on the wall when the ambassador came, in memory of Gareth Jones, who was vilified for exposing the Stalin-made, man-made famine in Ukraine. He was an extraordinary young man who was ultimately murdered for his strength and independence as a journalist.

Thank you, Minister, for your statement. You may already be aware, Minister, that some local authorities—for example, Monmouthshire—have set up a guarantor scheme for Ukrainian families that mirrors existing support available to residents to prevent or relieve homelessness. This is intended to help them secure housing, which, of course, is an important platform to enable families to find a job and educational opportunities. However, it seems that there are some unintended barriers within the scheme that may prevent people from securing a home. There appears to be a potentially lengthy application process and affordability assessment that may prevent people from getting the necessary documentation quickly enough, meaning that they lose out on a property to other people. This has meant that a Ukrainian family within my own constituency have had to use their own very small amount of savings—they had to drag it together—to put down the bond to set up their own home. Then, disappointingly, they found that they cannot retrospectively apply to the local authority for help, which they were originally not aware that they were entitled to.

Minister, I would like to ask what guidance the Welsh Government is providing to local authorities to help them better support Ukrainian families living in Wales to find longer term accommodation. And, what discussions have you had with your ministerial colleagues elsewhere about what other support can be put in place to help Ukrainian families who are looking to settle in their community for longer periods, but have very little financial support?

Thank you very much, Peter Fox, and can I thank Monmouthshire County Council and other local authorities that are using this provision? They have got a provision to provide the guarantor scheme bonds. People accessing private rented sector accommodation will be aware of this. I will ask my colleague, the Minister for Climate Change, Julie James, about the application process documentation—where this lies in terms of responsibility.

I think that this is part of, also, local authorities’ ability with the £6 million that has gone from the Welsh Government to help prevent homelessness. Actually, what’s important now is that we are looking at everybody who is in housing need. We need to treat them with parity. So, I think that this is part of the funding and the guidance to enable them to do that. So, I will certainly take that back and look at this.

I have already mentioned the routes to onward accommodation. We have got a framework for accommodation that has been drafted with the local authorities. In fact, I have been meeting with leaders of local authorities every two or three weeks. We have been sharing best practice. They had a seminar on 8 November. They are working closely with us, and we are doing everything that we can to lever in, not only flexible guidance, but funding to enable people to move on. As you say, people want to be independent, but rent levels are really very prohibitive in many areas of Wales.

So, this is something that I will also be raising with the Minister on Thursday, because we need to look at ways in which they can support us. The First Minister also raised with the Chancellor the need for more support for local housing allowance and discretionary housing payments, because that would also help local authorities with these arrangements. 

Thank you, Minister. That brings that item to a close, and it brings our proceedings to a close for today. Thank you.

The meeting ended at 17:40.