 Building Good afternoon, and thank you for joining me today. This will be the last Welsh Government press conference to the pandemic. We've also been faced with the long-term effects of Brexit, the climate emergency, the unprecedented cost of living crisis, and most recently by the conflict in Ukraine and the humanitarian crisis that is on our doorstep. Llywodraeth i'r prysig a chenharu oedd nid, mae'n ffordd mae'n ffordd cyfnodd mewn pryd yn dweud rherod ar gyfer y gallu rhanigol i'r Gofnodau. Mae'n ffordd o'r broswell jyfodraeth i'n cael eu cyfnodd yng nghyffredigol a gyfnodd cyfnodd yng nghyffredigol i Wales. Rwyf wedi bod y Ffynedd yn ymddi'r ffordd o'r argyffredigol a'r pertyd ar gyfer y gyrfa'r Gofnodau. I'm going to focus on some of the progress that we've made over the past year, including within my own portfolio. At the centre of the election in May 2021, we made six top pledges to the people of Wales as they put their trust in us once again to form the government. In this first year, we've made significant progress against each of these pledges. We said we would fund and recruit an extra 100 police community support officers on top of the 500 that we already fund across Wales. And we have done just that. We said we would pay care workers the real living wage. And I'm proud that we announced this in April, together with an additional £1,000 payment for all those care workers eligible for the real living wage. This is part of our ongoing work to improve terms and conditions in the sector. Last week, the First Minister's legislative statements included a proposed new law to ban the most polluting single-use plastics. We're building new low-carbon homes for social rent, we have a target of 20,000 to meet over the course of this term, and we have a huge demand for housing at present. Both the Health Minister and the Education Minister have published plans, uninvested significant amounts of money to support our NHS and schools to help them recover from the pandemic. But coronavirus continues to place huge pressures on our public services, especially our NHS and social care. We're once again seeing a surge of infections in the community, which is in turn increasing pandemic pressures on our hospitals. There are more than 1,000 COVID-19-related patients in hospital at the moment, which would have a knock-on effect on our NHS's ability to carry on doing everything that we want it to do in our hospitals, in general practice and in community services. And you can help our NHS by choosing the right service for your care and following the simple steps that will help to keep you and Wales safe. And I'll turn to my own portfolio now. We made a commitment that no one would be held back or left behind in a recovery that would be built by all of us. That's why we launched a young person's guarantee, with the offer of work, education, training or business start-up help for everyone under 25. We're investing more than £1 billion to support 300,000 young people in their journey through education, training and work. Early this year, I announced more than £360 million for our apprenticeship programmes, and we're rolling out flexible course to help more people and lower paid work progress with stronger career prospects. Last month, I launched our new young person start-up grant, offering £2,000 to help young people start up their own business. This is backed by one-to-one business advice and mentoring, practical help for young entrepreneurs taking those first exciting steps. The grant opens for applications from today. More information about how to apply is available on the Big Ideas Wales website. I'm proud that our unique business Wales services delivering support that puts our values into practice. In recent years, the service has innovated with far-reaching responsive support for our economy. That's range from helping young Syrian refugees create a new food business to getting emergency code support payments to businesses who have been fighting to survive. But I want us to be more ambitious and to do more to help unlock the talent that exists right across Wales. As part of our anti-racist Wales action plan, I'll be reviewing our business support and employability services to make them more accessible. We'll roll out new quality training for staff and work with organisations, including the Centre for African Entrepreneurship, to develop support that works for the budding ethnic minority entrepreneurs that our economy needs. Wales is a great place to start and grow a business, and we know the economic advantage that comes as being an open, welcoming nation, where the government that champions equality and treats people with dignity. That's why Wales can be proud to showcase to the world as Cymru heads the men's football world cup later this year, and I look forward to setting out our plans to maximise that opportunity alongside the FAW in the coming weeks and months. For the year ahead, we'll be a challenging one for us all. Unfortunately, the cost of living crisis shows little sign of improving, and the chaos which continues to engulf what is left of the UK government means it will be some time before we see a stable administration in Westminster, capable and willing to address the root causes of this crisis. Here in Wales, we'll continue to do all that we can, using all the powers and levers available to us, to help people through this crisis, to target support to those who need it most, while we continue to deliver for the people in Wales and to stand up for Wales. Thank you very much. I'll now take questions from journalists, and we'll start with Tuleri Glyn Jones from BBC Wales. Good afternoon, Planned out when you dug. If I could start with the hot weather we've been having or expected to have over the next few days in south Wales on Monday, it's predicted to be at the moment around 32 degrees. So what contingency plans do the Welsh government have in place to keep people safe and to avoid disruption? Well, we're asking people to follow all the advice that we'll be giving in to be fair. We know that public service broadcasters will be putting out as well. Everyone knows we're expecting very hot weather, and we know that causes issues for our health service. Some people, unfortunately, will become ill and will put extra pressure on the health service. You can help yourself and our NHS by taking simple steps about sun cream, being in the shade, being well hydrated, simple things we can all do together, and in particular to take care for people who are more vulnerable, the very old, but also children as well. Also, of course, for people to take care of their pets. We know about a third of households have a dog but other pets too, to take care and to think about the advice not to overexercise pets in extreme heat and to take care for them and make sure they're well hydrated too. We will always have emergency plans in place led by different partners if there is extreme heat and extreme pressures on services, but all of us can play our part in helping the country to keep functioning. Thank you, and the Welsh Government has launched a consultation into council tax today. The IFS and citizens advice say the proposed changes are a missed opportunity to overhaul the council tax system completely and to come up with something fairer and more progressive rather than tinkering around the edges with this consultation. What would you say to that? Well, we're looking to do what we can within the powers that we have to reform local taxation and the consultation that starts today on council tax allows us to do that. We know that, for example, the property valuations were done 20 years ago and they're out of date. We're going to look to a band that are more responsive to the realities of income levels as well as updated property values themselves, and then to try to keep the council tax system more updated in the future. We'll also look closely at the support we provide for people who need help in paying those bills. A broader look at local taxation is something that would be best done if we had a UK Government that was actually prepared to look again at the way in which local taxes are raised, but also how money is then divided and turned out through the country itself. The exercise we're undertaking is actually a really significant exercise in itself. It will take up lots of time, energy and effort within this government and indeed within local authorities and other stakeholders, too. We're open-minded about the future reform, as I say, on a much broader basis, but I do think that requires a UK Government on board and onside in taking those much bigger steps to have a much broader property revaluation, local taxation rethink for us and across the UK, and we'd want to do that in which our powers are probably exercised. Next, I've got, oh, I'm Philip, from ITV Wales, and I'll take a drink before answering. Yeah, if I could continue on that topic, and I'm sure some people would be worried that this will mean they're going to end up paying more, what would you say to those concerned? Well, if we want a fair council tax system and we recognise that the current property base for that was done 20 years ago, then it's plain to see that some properties will have risen in value and others won't have done. That means there's unfairness built within the system that we have now, and unfortunately, the argument that you might pay more if you've done better and if you earn more than your council tax ban suggests you to, then actually that makes in a different element of unfairness. There are people who may need more help who we can't help because of the way the system is currently constructed. So when having more bans to reflect where people are with property values, but also income levels as well and support that goes alongside it, our aim is to make council tax fairer, and that's what we're setting up in the consultation. It's important to reflect, though, I think, Owen, that what we're doing in this consultation now is getting ready for changes that would come in in 2025. So this is a long look at what can be done, how it can be done to get ready for changes that will come in later in this year. And I think that's the right way to go about something of the sort of significant scale of chains that we're talking about. Currently, there is some variation, isn't there, between local authorities, so the same bans are different. Do you see this as an opportunity to revisit that as well? Well, local authorities will still get to make choices about the rates they set for different bans, and that's the issue, I think. We'll have more bans, that's our aim, to have more bans to make the system fairer, to reflect those people who have less income and properties of lower value, but also those of properties and incomes of higher value as well. Now that will then go into the support we provide, because about half of households in Wales get some form of support in paying council tax because of the range of exemptions. We want to make that simpler and easier for people to understand. We want to introduce more fairness within the system, and then to keep the system more up to date. I think that's a good basis to consult at an early stage, and to make sure we really do achieve what we want to with a fairer system and how to generate local taxation that still means local authorities will have the ability to make their own choices about the rates of council tax to set for their local communities who they are responsible for. Yes, thanks. I've now got Ruth Mosowski from Wales Online. Good afternoon. Continuing on council tax, can you, one of the most common comments we've had from readers since this announcement was, are people who've had an extension or done a lot of work on their house, are they going to be effectively punished by these changes? It's the wrong word, Ruth. We're looking at, and it's one of the questions in the consultation. It is a question, not a decision, about whether you should reflect those changes and the value that may add to the property at the time or near the time the work is done or when there's a future valuation at the moment. That doesn't really happen until the property is sold. So it's part of the challenge in keeping our system up to date and how to do this. That's an open question. And it's a deliberate question being asked in there because, again, if you want the system to be fair and part that's still going to reflect the property values, then you need to think about the way in which properties are altered during their lifetime as well. So it's an open question and I'm sure there will be lots of people who will be reflecting and commenting on that. And I'm sure there will be people commenting on more than one side of the debate. Thank you. And then, sort of carrying on from what Owen was asking, really, that there are differences. So the average of a bandit in Buena Gwent is £2,097, whereas in Cardiff a bandit property we're paying just over £1,500. Do you see this if it goes ahead and I accept this consultation? Do you see that sort of balancing out those sort of rural or valley areas with the big cities? Do you see those figures coming more into alignment? Well, it's one of the things we'll need to consider in the consultation routes rather than setting out an objective to see those rates squeezed up or squeezed together. We'll need to see what happens in the consultation and those points about how local authorities themselves, how their own elected leaderships choose to set council tax rates. There's more than one reason in which the rates go up and down. There are sometimes different priorities in terms of what local authorities want to do to spend or to maintain public services. And you see that during an administration's lifetime with their local authorities that the rates of which council tax will rise will change in different circumstances in different parts of Wales. And if you're going to have that and you're not going to have a national formula for council tax rises or new rates, then you're going to have to wear the fact that there will be a variation in the way that different authorities set their rates on what those end up being. What we're trying to do though is from the points at which we have responsibility within the system to try to make that fairer and more responsive and up to date. And that's exactly what we said that we'd want to do in our manifesto at the last election. Thank you, Ruth. The next question, I'm going to lose all my journalists. The next question is from Mark Powney from Business News Wales. Thank you, Minister. I noticed there was no mention of free port status within your speech. Is this still a priority for you? And has the recent, I guess, UK government turbulence had any effect on this? Well, in the presentation I gave, it was about our top six pledges from the election and what we're doing to deliver them and what was in our programme for government. So, it should be a surprise that free ports didn't make a mention because that wasn't one of our top six pledges that saw the people of Wales reelect a Welsh Labour government. We are, though, carrying on conversations with the UK government around the design of a free port prospectus. That would include the points that we finally won and agreed with the UK government about respect for our views on environmental regulations and protections and fair work and the sort of investments we want to see to improve the economy in Wales. Our challenge, though, is a very practical one. Because of the chaos within the UK government, the reality is that we don't have the full range of decision-taking ministers, so the work of our officials will still need an alternative minister in the UK government to make a decision alongside me. Now, for all that the Welsh government is strong and stable, whilst we have that chaos in the UK government, I'm not sure that there'll be a UK minister who's prepared to make a choice on going forward with a free port prospectus for Wales until the leadership contest has been played out. So, there are practical things that we can do and will continue to do and talk to stakeholders here, but we also need a decision-maker to work alongside us to make sure that the free ports prospectus can be published and we can then move forward with that. Thank you, and a slightly niche question. With the economic issues we've got looming, particularly around the energy crisis, moving forward our renewable space is clearly an economic priority for you. However, this quality of barriers, and one of the barriers in place is around consent, and having interviewed over 30 marine experts in the last couple of months, it's clear the consent and process in England is more efficient, it takes a lot less time. We've investigated further and it seems the issue is with skills on the ground, and specifically within consent. I understand this is an area that will be with his other minister colleagues, but I just wanted to know if the minister was aware of this specific problem and if there was any funding likely to be put in place to up our skills within marine consent, bearing in mind how critical this area is to the economy. Yes, and I'm sure you've heard the Minister for Climate, James, Julie James talk about this as an area where we know that we're looking to look again at the marine consenting and licensing process. It's not just about the balance in the significant opportunities that do exist in generating renewable power on and off our coasts, but it's also about the balance in what our sensitive marine environments. That's something that's recognised by people in the renewable industry itself as well. They recognise there's got to be a proper process to go through to protect that marine environment at the same time to be able to generate the significant renewable power. And in particular, from my point of view, to try to make sure that we capture the value, the economic value in having a supply chain and jobs that are near to where those renewable opportunities exist. So yes, it's essentially we're aware of. Yes, there are active discussions. Yes, my colleague, the Minister for Climate, James, Julie James is well aware of it and not just the money, but it's more about the skills as well and the people. And that's one of the significant channels that we face in most sections of the economy. So you can expect Julie James to have more to say in this as we continue. Thank you, Mark. I've now got Tom Magner from Careers Worldline. Thank you very much indeed, Minister. The Welsh Government has committed to four and a half million pounds to investigate and learn from the hospital acquired COVID. But what about care home acquired infections? Is there any investigation there? And if not, should there be one? Well, we've had work done throughout the pandemic with a range of people looking at COVID acquired infections in care settings. Because there are the advice we received at various points in the pandemic, it actually led to changes in both testing and PPE policy as well. And within, we have to balance some really difficult challenges because if you want to maximise the ability to keep COVID out of care homes, then that has an impact on the number of visitors and what they need to do to get into a care home. We also know that has a direct impact on residents in a care home as well. And the connection with people that they're familiar with and loved ones is actually really important for not just mental health and wellbeing, but actually we know there's a really cross-inter-direct physical outcomes as well. So yes, there's evidence that we've been looking at on an ongoing basis. And yes, we do have group between the Welsh Government, between Public Health Wales and indeed between the sector. But I'm sure we can provide you with more detail if you wish it, Tom, either from the minister or the people directly engaged in the work. That's certainly something over the summer recess we'll be looking into and your help will actually be appreciated. With hospital-acquired infections, a topic of conversation now, particularly in England and the fear that it would be necessary to reintroduce measures if the backlog isn't sorted out in time. What's your assessment of the situation in Wales? Well, Covid certainly hasn't gone away. As I said in my initial remarks, there are about a thousand, more than a thousand people Covid-related who are in hospital beds across Wales. That's a significant chunk of our hospital capacity and that affects our ability to move as quickly as we and our NHS wants to in addressing the backlog of planned care as well. It's also a fact that more than 2% of our NHS staff are out of work isolating because of Covid as well and that in itself has a direct impact as well. So there are reasons why, this underpins why the chief medical officer has been, I think, been very clear about the fact that we are within a Covid surge in Wales at present and people need to think again about the simple measures that we can all take to protect ourselves and loved ones. That's why every health board has reintroduced a request for visitors to wear a mask. That's why if you visit a care home, you can expect to wear a mask. So simple things that can help to protect us and to avoid, as we want to, the need to go back into more invasive measures later in the year. And also, should we be in a position as the health medicine first minister has indicated is likely, where we're going, if we have not just a autumn and winter flu vaccine campaign, but also a booster campaign for Covid, we'd want everyone who's eligible to take the time to prioritise the time and to get that protection, to protect not just our most vulnerable citizens, but of course, the rest of us from the sort of interventions that we've had to take that all of us here in the government, I'm sure the wider country, hope we won't need to see again. So simple steps to help each and every one of us to keep well safe and to keep us all moving. Thank you all for your time. Have a great summer, everybody. I'm sure we'll see you in a different brighter screens in a return to press conferences of this sort in the autumn term. Many thanks.