First Minister's Questions: As it happened on 12 March

1. Mark Drakeford takes questions for the penultimate time as first minister.

Hwyl fawr

The ninth FMQs of 2024 comes to a close.

Thanks for following - join us again next week for Mark Drakeford’s final session as first minister.

Education

BBC

Mark Drakeford

Conservative Laura Anne Jones says the Welsh government's record on education over the last six years "can be summed up in one word - failure".

She elaborates, "Since you became first minister, your government has cut education budgets to the bone year on year in cash terms - to the tune of £56 million was the most recent one. The government has failed to address the teacher recruitment and retention crisis in Wales - and it is a crisis, particularly this government failing to attract teachers to teach in the medium of Welsh in core subjects. There has been a stark rise in bad behaviour and violence."

The first minister says "in the last six years we have fundamentally reformed services for children with additional learning needs, developed and implemented a new curriculum for Wales, created a new commission for tertiary education and research. These, and other developments will go on improving education in Wales for many years to come."

BBC

Laura Anne Jones

Recycling

The first minister says the amount of waste going to landfill in Wales has dropped from 42% to 1.6% in a decade, but he acknowledges that further progress is needed in recycling rates.

From next month, the workplace recycling regulations will require all business, public and third sector workplaces to separate key recyclable materials.

Welsh government

Accountability

Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth also asks why the first minister was willing to answer questions to Times Radio and not in the Senedd about the Covid inquiry.

Mr Drakeford replies that he answers questions at the appropriate time, and that Rhun ap Iorwerth "ought to know better" than to accuse him of avoiding parliamentary scrutiny.

Rhun ap Iorwerth says "it is our job to scrutinise, the first minster's job to open himself up to scrutiny - as, of course, he does on many occasions - but we get to choose when we ask the questions that we want to ask".

Rhun ap Iorwerth also asked "when the would-be Labour Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, refused to rule out spending cuts in some areas, did the first minister text Keir Starmer then to spell out how disastrous that would be for Wales?"

The first minister replied, "His question, designed to suggest that, somehow, a call from me on that matter would be consequential, is so removed from the realities of how parties that have to be in government, rather than in the business of pressure groups and, well, I'll stop there - parties that operate on the basis of being pressure groups, rather than being serious parties of government - I'm afraid his question simply exposes the gulf that still exists."

Labour has a co-operation agreement with Plaid Cymru in the Senedd.

BBC

Rhun ap Iorwerth

Covid inquiry

Andrew RT Davies, leader of the Welsh Conservatives in the Senedd, accuses the first minister of refusing to answer questions in the Senedd about the Covid inquiry but doing so in response to the media.

The first minister replies he has not pre-empted anything in response to questions by the media, but only repeated information already in the public domain.

The first minister will take the witness stand and answer questions under oath tomorrow.

For the second week in a row, Mr Drakeford is asked about the use of WhatsApp.

Mr Davies asked why Mr Drakeford was able to “wax lyrical” about Covid in a Times Radio interview at the weekend, after declining to answer questions about WhatsApp in the Senedd.

Mr Drakeford said his answers in the interview were “carefully crafted to make sure that I said only things which I have said time and time again already here on the floor of the Senedd and elsewhere”.

BBC

Andrew RT Davies

Port Talbot steel works

As the end of the 45-day formal consultation on the restructuring in Port Talbot steel works approaches, the first minister says his government's focus is on supporting the unions' "credible" alternative plan.

"Domestic steel production is of strategic importance to Wales and the rest of the United Kingdom. Expert plans, developed and presented by the steel trades unions, provide a credible and immediate plan to retain steel production in Wales," he says.

Economy minister Vaughan Gething is meeting the chief executive of Tata Steel in Wales tomorrow says the first minister.

Getty Images

Public transport network

Llywydd Elin Jones conducts a ballot to determine the names of members who may table questions to the first minister and Welsh ministers.

Plaid Cymru’s Llyr Gruffydd asks what steps is the Welsh government taking to improve the national public transport network.

The first minister says its sustainability will depend on passenger numbers returning to pre-pandemic patterns.

Llyr Gruffydd says he "understands the tension... between funding buses and funding railways, and we're aware of the £235 million of additional funding that's been provided to Transport for Wales for railways.

"But bearing in mind... that three quarters of all public transport journeys in Wales are undertaken on a bus, do you believe that your government's got the funding balance between funding trains and funding buses right?"

The first minister replies, "the problem is that it is nearly impossible to withdraw funding from rail because there are always costs there".

BBC

Llyr Gruffydd

Croeso

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the ninth session of First Minister's Questions in 2024, and Mark Drakeford’s penultimate session as first minister.

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.