Than you for the statement, Minister. I am pleased with the emphasis that you placed on the ability or lack of ability of different groups to cope with the cost-of-living crisis and increased prices. Women, of course, are one of those groups: 46 per cent is the number of single-parent households living in poverty—it's a shocking figure, two times higher than the general poverty rate in Wales, which is 23 per cent—and 86 per cent of single parents in Wales are women. The caring responsibilities of women as well as a lack of affordable childcare mean that they often are less able than men to increase their working hours and pay to be able to cope.

A lack of affordable childcare provision means that many women would be at a loss if they were to increase their working hours, because the cost of childcare is higher than the wages that they would earn, and, of course, with flatlining wages, this leaves many without any means at all of keeping up with increased costs, and, without urgent action, it will lead to many more women and children falling into poverty. Only for children of three and four years of age is free childcare available, with very limited provision, 12.5 hours a week, for those of two years of age in Flying Start areas. Even those who are eligible often fail to access free childcare, and the 2022 review of childcare of the Family and Childcare Trust said that less than a third of local authorities have sufficient provision in terms of the childcare offer. Work is under way to expand free childcare, thanks to the co-operation agreement with Plaid Cymru, but what assessment has the Government made of accelerating that work of expanding access to affordable childcare as a way of protecting children and women in Wales from increased prices and poverty?