The first FMQs of 2024 comes to a close.

Thanks for following - join us again next week.

Happy new year!

The first minister says the Independent Culture Review into the South Wales Fire and Rescue Service was a "shocking report to read".

"This is a highly critical report that exposes underlying failures in leadership, governance and decision making within the service. It demonstrates the need for fundamental cultural and managerial change," he adds.

The fire service tolerated sexual harassment and domestic abuse outside work, according to the damning review.

The report also detailed how the service "tolerates" firefighters posting sexualised images in their uniform on adult platform OnlyFans.

The chief fire officer Huw Jakeway has apologised and will be stepping down.

The review found "serious deficiencies in the service" after surveying more than 450 staff.

It followed an ITV news report in 2022 claiming firefighters had kept their jobs despite allegations they had sexually harassed and abused women in the service.

Image source, SOUTH WALES FIRE AND RESCUE SERVICE

Plaid Cymru's Cefin Campbell expresses concern about the impact of the Welsh government's draft budget on community safety.

The first minister replies that "next year's revenue budget is worth £1.3 billion less than Chancellor Sunak said was needed for Wales when setting that budget in October 2021. The draft budget focuses on those community safety responsibilities devolved to the Senedd. There is simply less money available to fill gaps in services that remain the responsibility of the UK Government."

Conservative Laura Anne Jones says "in the summer the UK Labour Party finally u-turned and abandoned its support for self ID, after realising the profound impact it would have on fundamental women's rights. It's a world away from your stance on the issue here in Wales, where you seem intent on imposing self ID".

The first minister replies that his government's policy is to "recognise the rights of trans people here in Wales, a group of people who are more ostracised and unprotected than almost any other group, and where hate crime against trans people in Wales increased by 11 per cent in the last year. I make no apologies at all for making sure that our actions as a government are designed to recognise the rights of those people, and to make sure those rights are respected".

Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth says "there is no more important a priority now, I guess, than fair funding for Wales" from Westminster.

He says "the Tories won't pledge more money for Wales. They're not interested. And as we've seen with HS2 consequentials, Kier Stammer is refusing to make that pledge too."

Mr Drakeford replies that "the position of this party has always been that fair funding needs to come to Wales, that the Barnett formula is well past its effective date, and that funding based on need would see a different flow of funding here into Wales. That is the policy of the Welsh Labour party and the Welsh Labour Government, and we will continue to mount the arguments for it."

Andrew RT Davies, leader of the Welsh Conservatives in the Senedd, says the new 20mph speed limit is "deeply unpopular" and will lead to confusion.

He adds, "it has caused huge amounts of concerns the length and breadth of Wales, and the way it will be implemented and the fines that will arrive on people's doormats will jeopardise livelihoods and lose people's jobs".

First Minister Mark Drakeford replies "where people are genuinely confused, then the system will seek to engage and to educate them. Where people claim to be confused but there is no evidence that confusion lies at the root of their behaviour, then they cannot expect that enforcement action will not be taken".

Enforcement of the policy in built-up areas in Wales began yesterday.

Image source, Getty Images

The sharing of misinformation online is a "deeply harmful feature of all democratic societies", says the first minister.

He adds, "we work with groups within Wales and across the UK to combat the misinformation itself, to help informed citizens to identify misinformation and to provide authenticated sources of information on which individuals can rely."

The current model of primary healthcare is "in fundamental need of reform" says Labour MS Hefin David.

He raises the case of the Bryntirion surgery in Bargoed, which he says "has long been under the control of the Aneurin Bevan health board, because they couldn't recruit practice managers - GP practice managers - to the northern Valleys, and Bargoed in particular. The health board has now found a resolution to that by advertising and giving the practice to English-based GPs, who will run the practice, and, it appears, will run the practice from a distance. While I'm really glad that the GPs are taking over, because it will mean that they're less likely, in Bargoed, to see locums - they'll see more full-time GP staff there - at the same time, as a socialist, and from the perspective of a socialist government, this is effectively moving from public sector-provided healthcare to private sector-provided healthcare".

First Minister Mark Drakeford replies "we have moved into an era of a mixed economy in terms of primary healthcare".

He adds, "there are far more salaried GPs employed directly by health boards, but also employed within practices themselves, and we know that, for many of the people who have entered, and are now leaving medical training, that is a model that suits their future needs better than the old contractor model. But there is life in the contractor model as well."

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the first session of First Minister's Questions in 2024, and the first since Mark Drakeford announced he is quitting after five years in the job.

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

You can click on the play button above to watch the proceedings from 1.30pm.