 Boradal pub, thank you for joining me this morning I'm pleased to say that the Environment Air Quality and Soundscapes Wales Bill was introduced to the Centre of the World yesterday. This is an important milestone in our wider efforts to improve air quality and arrivats in Wales and delivers our programme for government and clean air plan commitment to deliver a clean air bill for Wales. The World Health Organisation has described air pollution as the world's largest single environmental health risk and noise pollution as the second in Western Europe. The bill will enable us to deliver actions to reduce air and noise pollution, protecting the health and well-being of current and future generations. Action delivered under the bill will also respond to our wider environmental challenges, including the climate and nature emergencies. The scale and scope of the bill reflects our commitment to improving quality of our air environment at a local, regional and Wales-wide level, and throughout society. In developing the legislation we have built on proposals consulted upon through the clean air plan and the white paper on a clean air plan. The Bill will enable us to set national air quality targets. These targets will provide a strong mechanism to deliver the Welsh Government's long term ambitions for clean air and associated public health and environmental outcomes. We are also amending legislation in relation to our national air quality strategy and establishing a duty to produce a national soundscape strategy. The Bill will align the two documents allowing us to publish them as a single document where appropriate. This will ensure the public are able to access information about the plans ministers have for air quality and soundscapes in the first half of the Senate's term. Wales will be the first in the UK to have legislation relating to soundscapes. We have brought forward these proposals in recognition of the importance of promoting the sounds that matter to people as well as seeking to minimize the noises people don't want to hear. The Bill will streamline, strengthen and enhance existing laws to provide local authorities with the tools they need to take bold action suited to their community's needs. In relation to the local air quality management regime, the Bill introduces a clearer requirement on local authorities to undertake an annual review of air quality and an obligation for air quality action plans to contain a projected compliance date. These legislative changes will be supported by updated statutory guidance to ensure the local air quality management regime operates proactively, preventatively and with a greater public health focus. We will continue to work in partnership with our local authorities and will support them to deliver air quality improvements. I'm therefore pleased to announce the launch of our local air quality management support fund which will make £1 million of funding available this financial year to support local authorities in improving local air quality. This is in addition to the £450,000 we awarded over the past two financial years through the pilot phases of the scheme. Through the grant we are inviting bids across three categories which are prevention, mitigation and innovation and I look forward to continuing to work collaboratively with our local authorities to deliver effective action. The Bill strengthens existing smoke control provisions in the Clean Air Act and introduces civil monetary penalties to replace the current criminal sanctions applicable when a person emits visible smoke in a smoke control area. We know that smoke emissions from chimneys and homes and businesses contribute to poor air quality in Wales and we want to help people understand how these emissions can be diminished by adopting best practice techniques. We are switching from a criminal sanctions regime to a civil one as we know this approach will provide a much more effective and fairer means of enforcement. As part of the proposed civil sanctions regime an advice-led approach can be taken by local authority enforcement officers when communicating with members of their community to inform them of the dangers of poor burning practices and the harness can do both to their health and well-being and that of their neighbours. We are extending powers to better enable the creation of clean air zones on trunk roads providing for a substantial intervention to tackle air pollution hotspots as stronger action is necessary to deal with persistent problems. Alongside this we are taking action to ensure that income from clean air zones on trunk roads can be utilised for a broad range of investments with a focus on measures that can further support air quality improvement. I would just like to confirm there are no current plans to introduce a clean air zone anywhere in Wales. However it is important we have the legislative tools to take action where needed. We are also taking steps to further prevent vehicle idling. Many drivers may not realise when they leave their car engine running while parked that they are creating air and noise pollution which is a negative impact on public health and well-being. Through enhancing Welsh Ministers powers we will be increasing local authorities ability to prevent and tackle idling. We will do this by giving Welsh Ministers power to set a monetary range of penalties and regulations. For the people in our communities across Wales this supports cleaner, quieter, healthier places and it will mean that local authorities will be further empowered to take action to protect vulnerable groups such as children, the unwell and the elderly. It is crucially important we ensure high levels of awareness so that we can all protect our health and the health of our local communities particularly those most vulnerable to air pollution. We are therefore proposing to place a duty on Welsh Ministers to take steps to promote awareness of the impacts of air pollution and ways in which it can be reduced. Everyone deserves to breathe clean air and experience a good quality sound environment. Through this bill and our clean air and noise and soundscape plans we have set out our commitment to take the action needed to protect public health and the environment. I strongly believe this bill strengthens our ability to collectively deliver action to secure clean air and positive soundscapes for current and future generations. I'm delighted we have reached the first stage in our legislative journey which will lead the way to a cleaner, greener and healthier future. Thank you, Diolch yn fawr. I'll take some questions next. You just find a sheet. I think the first person is Dan Davis. Thanks Minister. You said that the legislation will allow you to take action on cleaner zones where needed even though you have no plans to do that now. Can you explain to us under what circumstances you would introduce these zones whereby drivers of the more heavily polluting vehicles would have to pay? Yes, thanks Dan. It's crucial to see this bill as part of the package of measures that we're taking, not as a standalone item. We've got a clean air plan that reduces airborne pollution and improves our environment in Wales. It strengthens a suite of existing legislation to make it more effective and it complements existing legislation. What we've put into the bill is a backstop. What we're relying on now is working with our local authorities and with the people of Wales, across Wales, to make them understand what happens when they do particular things, burn particular substances, why that's better for both them and their immediate environment if they don't, enabling the local authorities to take action immediately, and then, if necessary, will plan to produce additional control areas. But I think there's every chance now that we can persuade people with the additional measures in this bill, particularly the move to civil enforcement, that actually they just need to do the right thing. It allows our local authorities officers to engage in an education type programme with people who are perhaps doing the wrong thing and get them to encourage them to understand it. I don't think a criminal sanction regime really allows that, and I'm very pleased particularly with that aspect. Can I forgive me, but I was referring specifically to clean air zones on the trunk road network. As you say, you have no plans to bring them in, but that you bring in this legislation in case they need to be introduced where needed. Can you explain when and where you may take that step on the A470, wherever else? At the moment, as you know, we've reduced the speed limits to 50mph. That's to protect the emissions cars, to let petrol and diesel cars emit a lot less particulates at 50mph. We want to see if that works. We hope it will work. We hope people will comply with that, and obviously we've gone to enforcement now on that regime. If it doesn't work, but I do expect that it will, but if it doesn't work, then we'll look to see if we put control zones in place. But I think it will work. Thanks very much. Dan Bevan from LBC Next. Thank you very much Minister. I'm sure you're aware of the report out today that secures the Metropolitan Police force of being institutionally racist, homophobic and sexist. I appreciate that, of course, it's a London-based force, but when it comes to UK-wide issues like counter-terrorism, they lead on that. So it does have an impact here in Wales. There are calls now off the back of this report to disband and break up the force. Can I just get your thoughts on that, please? Well, that's obviously not a matter for us. What we will expect is that our local police force here in Wales reads the report carefully and makes sure that they also learn the lessons set out in that report. But clearly, how the Metropolitan Police is organised is not a matter for us. I'll follow up on that before my second question. Do you think that there are some of the problems that have been referenced here reflected in forces here in Wales? I really don't know. I'm not the minister with responsibility for that, but I would expect that any organisation in Wales, when a report of such significance comes out, would look through that report and make sure that any strengthening methodologies that are set out there for the Metropolitan Police are absolutely enforced. In their own particular patch, so we would expect them to read and learn the lessons of the report, but it's not a matter for us how the Met Police is organised. Of course. And if I can ask about Boris Johnson going in front of the Privileges Committee tomorrow, what do you hope as a Government or personally comes out of that evidence hearing and what do you want to hear from the former Prime Minister? Well, again, it's not a matter for us what the Parliamentary Privileges Committee does. It's obviously very much a matter for us that people understand the rules, obey them, and we set a good example, which we certainly did in Wales. Apologies, but it's still a bad question, isn't it? What do you want to hear out of that evidence? I just hope the committee does their job effectively and efficiently, and I'm sure they will. Thank you. OK, next is the Clare Board from Barmidea. Thank you, Minister. So one of the easiest ways to reduce emissions for travelling is to get more people using public transport. It's a clear solution to these problems. So what works being done in Wales to improve their train infrastructure and buses, because at the moment many people would say they are subpar? Yes, so that's quite a complicated answer, I'm afraid. A number of things are happening. We are working, of course, on a much more integrated metro system, both in the north and in the south of Wales. We hope that will come to fruition over the next few years. We are working with our bus companies to make sure that they continue to be viable post COVID. Unfortunately, people haven't returned to public transport in the numbers we'd like to see, nor in the patterns of pre COVID. So we're having to take that into account. We have a bus bill coming forward in this Senate term, so we need to keep the industry viable until then. But there are much-needed reforms here, too. The deregulation that happened in the bus industry during the Satcho regime, which is, I'm pretty sure, prehistory for you, but I remember well, really needs to be undone. We need to be able to regulate the public transport in a way that benefits our citizens and allows us to put investment in that we are sure will actually improve the service. And so we're working on that. A bus bill will come forward. And in the meantime, we're working with the industry to try and make sure that the funding we have will span the gap between them. But post COVID it is very difficult situation as people haven't returned in the numbers we'd hope. So I'll take this opportunity to encourage people to use their local service. And also we've seen you not rolling out charging people for having vehicles with higher emissions should these other measures not work. We've already seen in London a push back to something very similar to Eulus compliance in London. Is it fair to expect people to have to, if they do have higher emission vehicles, to buy completely new vehicles even if they can't afford to, whilst costs are still really high with the cost of living crisis? So that's a really complex question as well, isn't it? Because we need to get our emissions down. We need to get our clean air in place and people in lower socioeconomic groups unfortunately tend to live in places where emissions tend to be higher. So we know that there's a social justice issue in this and that's why I'm so delighted to be introducing the bill. We also know there's a social justice issue in the way that media, sorry, what am I talking about, media, math, transit works. So basically women use buses more than anyone else and women in lower socioeconomic groups use buses more than anything else. So what we need to do is make sure that the service is fit for what they need. And as I say, there's a complex, far too complex for this short answer I'm afraid, but there's a complex equation between the regulation that we want to put in in our coming bus bill and the amount of money that we put in as an investment and what we get back for that. At the moment we put an enormous amount of money in, but what we're effectively doing is supporting a service that doesn't really work for people. So we need the bus bill to come in to correct that situation, to help our SME providers, for whom I have the greatest of sympathy by the way, and they employ people all over Wales, to help them transition to the new system and basically to help them access low emission vehicles as well because our public transport vehicles also need to be low emission. And in doing that we can help people not need a car at all, which would be ideal in some places in Wales. And then in other places in Wales we need to make sure that where they do have access to a vehicle that we can make sure that those vehicles can be as clean as possible. So it's quite a complicated picture I'm afraid. I think the next one is Issa Fafor from ITP Wales. Yes, good morning Minister. I would like to put the concerns of one mother who lives in Mertha over to you Minister. So yesterday I met Joe aged 47 who has severe asthma and moved to Mertha ten years ago. At one time she was admitted to the hospital up to eight times a year. She was diagnosed with, when she was 18, both of her grandmothers who are from the valleys died of a lung condition. And now she worries about her kids having no choice but to breathe polluted air. What can you tell Joe to assure her that the Welsh Government is listening and that we are doing everything possible to tackle this health inequality and pollution in Wales? Thank you very much Issa. Just to start off by saying that my heart goes out to any family struggling with that kind of condition across Wales. And we have a multifaceted approach to that. So this clean air bill is part of that. We'll make sure that emissions in their local neighbourhood go down. And so the air that you breathe if you're outside playing for example is much healthier. We will have an education programme that allows us to help people understand what to do to keep themselves safe. And actually, and perhaps somewhat counterintuitively, we have a house building programme across Wales for low carbon social housing, which actually improves the air quality inside the house as well for people. So I very much hope that we can roll the housing programme out. We will also be improving the quality of housing in both the private rented sector and in the occupied sector as we go. So there's a combination of things that are happening. And I think the advent of this bill and its passage through the Senate will accelerate that process and give local authorities more powers to act against people who are not complying with the regime, but actually much more importantly to educate people about how to comply and why it's so important. So I really do think it is a real beacon of hope for people who struggle with things like asthma and other lung conditions. It's been welcomed by a number of the groups working in the area. And I'm really looking forward to working with them as we take the bill forward through the Senate to make sure it's as effective as it can be. Minister, if your current plan fails to bring the pollution level down, what's your plan B? Are we more likely to have clean air zones in the future? So the bill has a backstop provision in it, and that's the whole point of it, isn't it? If it doesn't work, then we will be able to do that. But I see no reason why it won't work. We work very closely with our local authorities. We're putting resource into the local authority to help them work with us. We'll be working closely with the WLGA as an organisation. I meet with the Cabinet Members responsible for this. We'll be able to roll out the training across the environmental health officers and so on, who help implement the legislation. I think we'll see a real step change. And as I said to Dan at the beginning of this set of questions, this is just one in a suite of measures that we're taking forward. So this shouldn't be seen in isolation. It's part of a much wider plan to improve both the air pollution and sound pollution, and it's important, too, as part of this. So I really do think it is a beacon of hope for people who have been struggling, and we will be working with our local authorities to bring it in as effectively and as efficiently as possible. Thank you. And the last one is David Nicholson, sorry, from the Morning Star. Morning Minister. Just before I move on to the questions, I just wanted to clarify something. You said the £1 million available to local authorities will be this financial year. Do you mean 2022-23 or 2023-24? 2023-24, sorry. I've moved my head into the next budget now, having put the last one to bear. Apologies. So, yes. 23-21. That's a lot of money you're spending in a few weeks, isn't it? Apologies. OK. OK, on the noise side of this, how is the Welsh Government proposing to minimise noise pollution? And what noises are we talking about? So a noise is a really aggravating factor for many people. It can be something that you're not even aware of that's actually causing you real serious stress. So what we're going to do is work with our local authorities to do soundscape plans to understand what the ambient noise, that's what it's called, the local level of noise should be and how it's affecting people. And then we work with people to make sure that that's reduced. So if you're close to a high sound industry, for example, we've worked very hard with our steel industry over the years to make sure that both our emissions and the sound that they emit is much lower than it would otherwise be. And there are lots of other examples around Wales where... And then the other thing to say is we want people to be able to hear the sounds of the natural world. We want people to be able to hear birds singing and so on. So we need the ambient noise level to be sufficiently low for them to be able to reconnect to natural sounds in their area. We know that has a major boost on mental health. And this is something that many people across Wales have been calling for. And I'm pleased to be one of the first... Well, the first government to introduce such a plan. OK. On idling of cars parked by schools, et cetera, how's that going to be policed and by who? Are people going to have a tap on the window of their car or are they going to turn the engine off? And if so, who's going to do that? We'll have both an education programme coming out from the local authorities and via our schools to make sure that people are aware of the effect of idling and understand exactly what's happened. There's a myth-busting fact sheet. So a lot of people think, for example, it's more expensive in fuel to turn your engine off and on. That's not so. So there are myth-busting things and I think people just really need to understand what they're actually doing to the local environment of their own children if they're idling outside of school. So the big piece of this is the education piece, but there are enforcement powers that go with it. So if you've been spoken to, it's been explained to you and you appear now to be woefully doing it knowing what the harm is, then there is an enforcement regime. I'm pleased to have gone to a civil enforcement regime because that's much more easy to administer and much more likely to happen. Criminal sanctions are far too much for people to want to impose and we've seen that from experience. So I think this will have some teeth. It will have the right kind of teeth, but the education piece is the most important piece. We need people to understand the effects of their own behaviour and then modify it. Sorry, just to come back to that question, I'll ask. So who in the local authority? I mean traffic wardens or people who will be talking to? It will very likely be an environmental health officer and there may be other enforcement officers who work with the local authority. We will work with the local authorities to ensure that they have a regime that's fit for purpose. So I can't answer that individually for each local authority, David, but we will have an enforcement regime which includes that education piece. Okay, thank you very much, Diolch.