First Minister's Questions: As it happened on 7 June

1. Mark Drakeford faces questions from MSs, for the first time since the Whitsun recess.

Hwyl fawr

The seventeenth FMQs of 2022 comes to a close.

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The Senedd will once again be lit tonight in the blue and yellow colours of Ukraine’s flag as a sign of solidarity with Ukraine and its people.

Senedd Cymru

'A dog to a lamppost'

The first minister talks of the importance of Welsh-based journalism.

He says, "amongst the actions taken to promote Welsh-based journalism is a commitment to provide financial support to public interest journalism. That support will continue over three financial years, as confirmed in the co-operation agreement."

He admits, "It's always a slightly tricky thing, isn't it, for government to invest in journalism", citing the quote "the relationship of a journalist to a politician should be that of a dog to a lamppost” - a statement credited to American journalist and critic H. L. Mencken.

BBC

Mark Drakeford

Children in care

Liberal Democrat Jane Dodds expresses concern about "the growing number of children who are subject to a child protection plan".

The first minister rejects her call for an independent inquiry, stating there is no shortage of advice and reports.

He adds, "we know we have to tackle issues of recruitment and retention in this workforce. We know that we have to invest in prevention and de-escalation in the system. We know that regional working is an important component in the answer to the challenges that children's services face today, so I think it is incumbent on people who argue for a public inquiry to articulate where they think the gaps in our knowledge are to be found and where they think we would learn something that we don't already know about the challenge facing those services and the answers that have already been devised to meet those challenges."

BBC

Jane Dodds

'Transgender women are women'

Questioned by Conservative Laura Anne Jones about the inclusion of transgender people in sport, the first minister replies "my starting point is the same as Penny Mordaunt, the UK minister responsible at the time, who said that the UK government's starting point was that transgender women are women".

Laura Anne Jones says "protecting women's rights does not for one moment mean that your anti-trans rights. Female competitors deserve the same rights as male competitors. We all know the huge benefits that sports can offer, and we all, I'm sure, want to ensure trans athletes can participate in sport. But what we don't want is a situation where we're trying to be so inclusive that it is to the detriment of a particular group."

The first minister says "in such a potentially divisive issue, the responsibility of elected representatives is not to stand on the certainties of their own convictions, but instead to work hard to look for opportunities for dialogue, to find ways of promoting understanding rather than conflict, and to demonstrate respect rather than to look for exclusion."

BBC

Laura Anne Jones

World Cup 2022: 'exploit the wonderful opportunity'

Plaid Cymru leader Adam Price calls on the Welsh Government to "exploit the wonderful opportunity" of Wales being at the World Cup for the first time in 64 years.

Mr Price says "isn't Wales not only 'yma o hyd', still here, but, in terms of this generation, ready and confident that they can succeed on any stage, nationally or internationally?"

The first minister replies that his government will work alongside the Football Association of Wales to "maximise" opportunities.

Mr Drakeford adds, “We are absolutely delighted that Wales will be represented at Qatar. But we should not look the other way from reservations that we would have as a nation from some of those human rights issues that we see there.”

He says economy minister Vaughan Gething raised human rights issues directly with Qatari authorities when he visited in May. “We must ourselves make sure that those opportunities are not missed while the eyes of the world are on that country.”

Getty Images

Yma O Hyd, which was originally recorded in 1981 and released in 1983, means "still here" in English

'Traffic chaos'

Andrew RT Davies, leader of the Welsh Conservatives in the Senedd, refers to "traffic chaos" when Ed Sheeran and rock group My Chemical Romance were playing in Cardiff.

First Minister Mark Drakeford replies that "Transport for Wales are currently in the process of loaning two trains from Northern Trains, in addition to the new CAF trains that are planned to enter service this summer, in order to allow them to provide that additional capacity when we have busy events and a confluence of different factors that leads to the sort of delays that we saw over that weekend."

He warns "you can't magic trains out of the air".

He says he accepts the importance of real time "good information about what is happening" and that Transport for Wales should make every effort to ensure that is provided.

Mr Davies calls for a review of Welsh government transport strategy "so that we can cater for these peak demand moments that obviously affect the freight industry, affect people going on holiday and people going about their everyday lives, because we cannot have the 'closed for business' sign over the gateway for south Wales".

The first minister says "the real solution is through the UK government's union connectivity review... if we can get the union connectivity review to put that investment into the second line—the line that is there alongside the current mainline—that will allow for far more services to be run on the railways between south Wales and on past Bristol into the rest of England."

TRAFFIC WALES

Long delays and queuing traffic were reported in the M4 westbound between the Prince of Wales Bridge and J26 in the last weekend of May

Senedd reform

The Llywydd conducts a ballot to determine the names of members who may table questions to the first minister and Welsh ministers. Each member may enter their name into a ballot.

Conservative Darren Millar calls on the Labour government to hold a referendum before expanding the Senedd.

First Minister Mark Drakeford replies that "the public have already had their say. They elected members to this Senedd in a sufficient number to bring about, as Darren Millar said, the greatest reform of the Senedd since its inception. Those of us who stood on manifestos in favour of reform look forward to taking this to a conclusion."

Labour and Plaid Cymru have agreed on a 96 seat parliament, 36 more than now, with mandatory gender quotas.

Under the plans the public would vote for parties, rather than candidates, with 96 Members of the Senedd (MSs) spread over 16 constituencies.

BBC

'How proud we all are as a Senedd of their tremendous success'

The Llywydd (presiding officer) Elin Jones begins by congratulating Wales' men football team on their success in qualifying for the World Cup.

She says "before any of you try and get in on being the first to congratulate the Welsh football team let me the person to do that on all our behalf, and to say to the football team, and the Football Association of Wales, how proud we all are as a Senedd of their tremendous success.

"And I can tell Members that I'm already looking into whether there's a conflict of timing between games and plenary sessions in order to see how we can sort that out later on in the year."

Getty Images

Wales players celebrate qualifying for their first World Cup since 1958

Croeso

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the seventeenth session of First Minister's Questions in 2022.

The meeting is held in a hybrid format, with some members in the Siambr (Senedd chamber) and others joining by video-conference.