3. Will the Commission provide an update on its strategy for reducing energy bills on the Senedd estate? OQ58837

Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd, and thank you again to my colleague Jenny Rathbone, because this is not the first time—it's fair to say that you are very proactive on making sure that we do reduce our energy on this estate. I’m pleased to confirm that the Commission has agreed to implement a range of additional energy saving measures on the Senedd estate to support its 2030 carbon neutral strategy and in response to rising energy and utility costs. These include reducing the heating setpoint across the estate by 1 degree centigrade to 20 degrees centigrade; switching off the heating in lift lobbies and in areas that are unused on some days, such as Siambr Hywel; switching off heating to areas that have low or no occupancy on some days, in both Commission staff areas and Welsh Government areas; and encouraging those staff to use smaller heated areas. Changes have also been made to building operational time schedules at the start and end of days where applicable. It is estimated that these changes will enable a 15 per cent energy saving. The Commission is obviously keeping this issue under constant review, and I have more notes on it if the Member would like me to circulate these notes to you, as to greater detail in terms of everything that's happening on this estate.

Thank you, Janet Finch-Saunders, for your response. I think it's really important that we are seen to be doing what we ask other people to do. So, I think there's much more progress being made on making the electric lights only turn on when we actually need them, and I have noticed that we're not now heating parts of the estate where we're not actually needing to sit or have a meeting. Many of our staff are actually not turning on their heating at home, because I had a conversation on this only this morning, about everyone being with a blanket on them, because so many people are terrified of turning on the heating.

So it's great to see that you hope that you're going to make a 15 per cent energy saving. What I would really like, in due course, would be to capture the energy saved between December and February, which are the coldest months, compared with December to February last year. It won't necessarily be a financial saving, but hopefully it will be an energy saving.

As I say, there are a lot of positives as to what everybody's doing here. What we say, though—as well as these measures being introduced, it's down to all of us as building users to play our part in assisting with energy-saving measures. I take the point that you said about January and February, because they are, I think, for everyone who budgets for a household, the critical times. Members themselves can adjust the heating and cooling set points in their offices to further reduce energy and utility usage, and they can also ensure that equipment in their offices is turned off when not in use. We already have, as a Senedd, a number of systems that are controlled by movement sensors—for example, in office areas, lights will automatically switch off when movement is not detected—and similarly, in dining rooms, air conditioning will switch off when movement is not detected. This, of course, all helps to play a significant role in ensuring that energy is not wasted in unoccupied areas. These changes have been communicated and agreed with a range of stakeholders, including chiefs of staff, us as Commissioners, trade unions and networks, and information about these changes has been communicated on the intranet. 

As the Commissioner for sustainability, it's important that we make real certain that it's not just the fact about the energy and our climate and carbon objectives; it is about cost as well, because, at the end of the day, when people, as you rightly say, are frightened to put the heating on at home, it would look really bad if we were wasting energy to any degree here. So I can assure you that I'm working with the department to ensure that we run the Senedd estate in the most efficient way possible. Thank you. 

And finally, question 4 will be answered by Ken Skates, and I call Huw Irranca-Davies to ask his question.