, Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister
Equality and human rights
Bore da. First Minister, I wondered what discussions you may have had with the UK Government about the constantly moving feast of the UK Bill of Rights Bill.
, Plenary
Questions to the Senedd Commission
Thank you, Janet Finch-Saunders, for your response. I think it's really important that we are seen to be doing what we ask other people to do. So, I think there's much more progress being made on making the electric lights only turn on when we actually need…
, Plenary
Questions to the Senedd Commission
3. Will the Commission provide an update on its strategy for reducing energy bills on the Senedd estate? OQ58837
, Plenary
Questions to the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution
I'm very interested to hear what you have to say on this, and I just want to raise with you the concerns that we've heard about the disjunctive nature of the criminal justice system at the moment. For example, when we had the legislative and constitutional…
, Plenary
Questions to the Minister for Social Justice
I just wanted to follow up Mark Isherwood's question, because I think it's about empowering local authorities and ensuring that they've got the resources to apply for this ECO4 Flex system, because it's similar to 'Claim what's yours'. We need to ensure that…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
General scrutiny of the Minister and Deputy Minister for Climate Change - part 2
Okay. So, what about the other important data that the UK Government and Ofgem are sitting on, which is the smart meter data that is collected for every house? What progress, if any, can we foresee in enabling us to identify where the most fuel-poor homes…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
General scrutiny of the Minister and Deputy Minister for Climate Change - part 2
Okay.
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
General scrutiny of the Minister and Deputy Minister for Climate Change - part 2
There were two other things I wanted to mention. One was the whole-house assessment and building renovation passports, which a lot of our witnesses were very keen on ensuring that that was a way of enabling the citizen to understand what it is they've got to…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
General scrutiny of the Minister and Deputy Minister for Climate Change - part 2
Well, I don't think there is.
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
General scrutiny of the Minister and Deputy Minister for Climate Change - part 2
Okay, but 40 per cent of all dwellings are owned outright, so there's plenty of capital locked into these properties. How are we going to get the owners of those properties to realise that, in the midst of a cost-of-energy crisis, this is the time to be…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
General scrutiny of the Minister and Deputy Minister for Climate Change - part 2
Okay. So, you clarified earlier that you want to focus on social housing and vulnerable housing, but we clearly have a need to decarbonise the private sector as well because some of the poorest people live in private rented homes. So, how are you proposing…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
General scrutiny of the Minister and Deputy Minister for Climate Change - part 2
Well, we're now being told it will be—. At least we know it's early in the new year, because in the statement yesterday it just said 'next year'. It could be December next year.
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
General scrutiny of the Minister and Deputy Minister for Climate Change - part 2
Well, yesterday we were disappointed to see that it had been pushed back from this month, so when you say 'early part of next year', when are we likely to see that net-zero skills plan?
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
General scrutiny of the Minister and Deputy Minister for Climate Change - part 2
Okay. So, the big six will not be able to build housing that's going to need to be retrofitted in the future, given that it's much cheaper and more cost-effective to build an energy efficient home if you're starting from scratch than it is to retrofit.
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
General scrutiny of the Minister and Deputy Minister for Climate Change - part 2
She's just muted herself.
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
General scrutiny of the Minister and Deputy Minister for Climate Change - part 2
Okay, so, specifically on that point, it's a bit technical, that document, so can you just tell us how it prevents developers from putting up houses that we're then going to need to retrofit, dumping that cost onto the end purchaser?
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
General scrutiny of the Minister and Deputy Minister for Climate Change - part 2
Just on the fabric-first approach of your Government, Nesta gave evidence to us suggesting that we should prioritise installing heat pumps now and not wait for the fabric-first idea, and I just wondered whether the Welsh Government is actively promoting the…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Annual scrutiny of the National Infrastructure Commission for Wales
Okay. Thank you.
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Annual scrutiny of the National Infrastructure Commission for Wales
Okay, but it's certainly important to feed into whether we should build new rail tracks to a particular destination if you think it's going to be under water.
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Annual scrutiny of the National Infrastructure Commission for Wales
Okay. And lastly from me, you say you're beginning to think about your work on flooding and climate change resilience. It feels to me like a rather urgent problem. The climate is definitely changing, so could you just tell us briefly what you think you're…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Annual scrutiny of the National Infrastructure Commission for Wales
Okay. It seems to me that it links very much back to those longer term objectives—to have 45 per cent of all journeys done walking or cycling, which obviously is a huge shift in how the public thinks about how they get around. So, what's the commission's role…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Annual scrutiny of the National Infrastructure Commission for Wales
Okay. We'll look forward to that. On the roads review, obviously, a lot of our colleagues are very anxious to see the results of the deep-dive. What's going to be your role when it's actually published?
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Annual scrutiny of the National Infrastructure Commission for Wales
Indeed. So, what do you think is the role of the commission on delivering, on keeping the money in Wales that we're going to be generating from all this new renewable energy?
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Annual scrutiny of the National Infrastructure Commission for Wales
Yes, we do.
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Annual scrutiny of the National Infrastructure Commission for Wales
Fine. Okay. So, if I can move on to things that you say you are doing, which is engaging with local communities to canvas opinion and feedback, isn't that something you expect the developers to do?
