, Plenary
Questions to the Minister for Finance and Local Government
Thank you very much, Minister. Does she think it's right that an area that has the highest proportion of children in low-income families in Wales, a third in relative poverty and over a fifth in absolute poverty, has the largest relative decrease in standard…
, Plenary
Questions to the Minister for Finance and Local Government
8. Will the Minister make a statement on Welsh Government financial support for Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council? OQ59849
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Papers to note
—a clear statement that there is a need for a better financial framework in the UK.
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Papers to note
Llyr and I are old stagers on the Finance Committee, and there's a risk that we'll be re-discussing the discussions of the last decade. But this reflects a problem with the finance decision systems of the UK as a whole—the fact that the Westminster Government…
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Papers to note
I don't disagree with that, but the problem Welsh Government has, of course, is that the Westminster Government hasn't made decisions and then everything flows from the Westminster decisions. So, it's very difficult to be critical of the Government here—
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Pre-appointment scrutiny hearing with the preferred candidate for the post of Chair of Amgueddfa Cymru
Okay, I'm grateful to you. Thank you.
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Pre-appointment scrutiny hearing with the preferred candidate for the post of Chair of Amgueddfa Cymru
—for the protection of national collections, the access issues, the protection of the integrity of the museum and what its potential is. The issues around the sponsorship of exhibitions and the rest of it are very, very real. We visited the National Slate…
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Pre-appointment scrutiny hearing with the preferred candidate for the post of Chair of Amgueddfa Cymru
Okay. I won't press you on that. But the challenge remains—
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Pre-appointment scrutiny hearing with the preferred candidate for the post of Chair of Amgueddfa Cymru
Do you think that potential is being realised?
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Pre-appointment scrutiny hearing with the preferred candidate for the post of Chair of Amgueddfa Cymru
I accept all of that, and I've got no issue with any of the response you've made there. I also accept you're in a very difficult situation as a candidate, of course—you don't have the financial information available to you to take these decisions. I accept…
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Pre-appointment scrutiny hearing with the preferred candidate for the post of Chair of Amgueddfa Cymru
I was interested in Tom's question there about relationships and the rest of it. You're probably seeking this role at the worst possible time, as you can imagine. We've got a debate on financial pressures this afternoon, and Ministers are talking in very dark…
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Pre-appointment scrutiny hearing with the preferred candidate for the post of Chair of Amgueddfa Cymru
Okay. Thank you.
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Pre-appointment scrutiny hearing with the preferred candidate for the post of Chair of Amgueddfa Cymru
And it's that that is at the heart of my question, really. I don't think there's any question about your professional background and your professional skills. I don't think there's any question about that—the curriculum vitae speaks for itself. But, our…
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Pre-appointment scrutiny hearing with the preferred candidate for the post of Chair of Amgueddfa Cymru
There's nothing wrong with that, by the way—it's not a criticism there.
, Culture, Communications, Welsh Language, Sport, and International Relations Committee
Pre-appointment scrutiny hearing with the preferred candidate for the post of Chair of Amgueddfa Cymru
I'm grateful to you, Kate. Thank you for that introduction. I think many of us have thought similar thoughts to you about non-executive career alternatives, and I can see that from your perspective, and you've clearly been very successful in doing so. But our…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Scrutiny session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution
As a former Chair, we'd expect that.
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Scrutiny session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution
I'm very grateful, Counsel General, for your time this afternoon. Could we just finish with an appeal to you? We have, over the years, noticed that a significant proportion of subordinate legislation contains a significant number of errors. You were in the…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Scrutiny session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution
The Office for the Internal Market provides a great deal of advice to all Governments of the United Kingdom. I'm wondering how you're engaging with them, but also, perhaps more importantly, how you believe the work that they do, as well as the Competition and…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Scrutiny session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution
Yes. Can I just ask a short question?
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Scrutiny session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution
But they're also there to advise, aren't they?
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Scrutiny session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution
Yes. The previous evidence session was pretty extraordinary in many ways. The Minister for Climate Change was very clear in her evidence to this committee that the reason for a failure to deliver an LCM for 51 weeks was due to a lack of engagement from the…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Scrutiny session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution
I’m grateful to Mr Gerard for that background, because that’s very, very useful to the committee, but it may be useful for the Counsel General to actually speak about this in public, because I always think that we need a public debate on the sort of data that…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Scrutiny session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution
Yes, last known address. But we can’t vouch for their accuracy, and we can’t vouch for the integrity of these numbers.
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Scrutiny session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution
So, the numbers that I’ve seen—
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Scrutiny session with the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution
Sorry, I don’t want to keep interrupting you, but I just need to understand what you’re saying. Because I’ve seen numbers given to me as a constituency Member on how many people from Blaenau Gwent are actually in the prison estate at any one time. It was…
