, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Draft Budget 2022-23: Scrutiny session with the Minister for Social Justice
Okay. Thanks very much. Just very briefly, back in the day, in 2012, it was 112 pages long. It's now 12 pages long, this strategic integrated impact assessment. What's missing, and how do you think that's improved it?
, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Draft Budget 2022-23: Scrutiny session with the Minister for Social Justice
I'm very pleased to welcome Jane Hutt, the Minister for Social Justice, and Hannah Blythyn, the Deputy Minister for Social Partnership, as well as your officials, Claire Bennett, director of communities and tackling poverty, and Sian Gill, head of financial…
, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Introductions, apologies, substitutions and declarations of interest
Prynhawn da, bawb. I'd like to welcome you to this meeting of the Equality and Social Justice Committee, which is being broadcast live on Senedd.tv. Simultaneous translation from Welsh to English is available if you need it. First of all, could I ask if there…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Papers to note
We're not short of poultry, last time I looked.
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Papers to note
Why would we import poultry from Australia or the Ukraine?
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Papers to note
It's come to our committee, and one of our responsibilities is how we reduce our carbon emissions, and that looks like something that is an unnecessary activity.
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Papers to note
I just wanted to explore the letter from Lesley Griffiths, the Minister for rural affairs, about resuming the importation of poultry and poultry products from the Ukraine and Australia. Obviously, there are lots of carbon emissions involved in either of those…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Annual scrutiny of Natural Resources Wales
Okay. Thank you.
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Annual scrutiny of Natural Resources Wales
Okay. Thank you. So, just moving on from that, how quickly are you going to be able to marry up the twin demands of both growing more trees for biodiversity and growing more trees that we need for other purposes?
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Annual scrutiny of Natural Resources Wales
Okay. Right. So, can I quickly just ask about the timber sales and marketing plan, then? Do you think—? Have the sorry stories of earlier history of NRW been put behind us now? Have you been able to no longer have qualified accounts?
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Annual scrutiny of Natural Resources Wales
Okay, but this is something that's already a crisis. Because there isn't sufficient Welsh timber, we're having to import it from elsewhere.
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Annual scrutiny of Natural Resources Wales
Okay, so NRW never envisaged becoming a windfarm developer itself?
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Annual scrutiny of Natural Resources Wales
Okay. Well, it's a really interesting debate, but, at the end of the day, a lot of people argue that the benefits from all our natural resources, from wind particularly, that the beneficiaries are foreign companies, that we simply haven't captured the benefit…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Annual scrutiny of Natural Resources Wales
Thank you. This cosy relationship we have, you could argue, has got us into the situation we're in at the moment, which is that we are between a rock and a hard place when it comes to the climate emergency. We don't have nearly enough renewable energy, which…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23 - session 2
I wanted to ask a slighter bigger picture, which is—. You mentioned that NRW at the moment's allowed to keep the receipts from letting out land for renewable energy, but they wouldn't be allowed to actually develop the renewable energy that otherwise is to…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23 - session 2
Thank you. Two questions. One is: Cardiff recently launched some electric buses that were part-funded by the Department for Transport. I wondered how competent other local authorities are at drilling into that potential source of funding, because obviously we…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23 - session 2
Thank you. I just wanted to go back to what we can do more, though, on the recycling, because, in places like Cardiff, we're still co-mingling the glass with all the other recyclables, which obviously means that it contaminates the paper and the cardboard and…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23 - session 1
No, no. That, I understand. But I'm just trying to get a sense of the mountain we have to climb. I mean, with a 50 per cent increase in fuel bills, there's going to be a lot of very, very cold people. So, how are you going to encourage and support the private…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23 - session 1
Okay. How many homes will become warm with £50 million?
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23 - session 1
Okay. Well, before Easter or—?
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23 - session 1
Going back to the infrastructure finance plan, how much is the allocation to support the housing retrofit programme for this coming year, 2022-23? And, how many houses do you think you'll be able to improve in that timescale?
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23 - session 1
Regulation would help, of course.
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23 - session 1
Okay, so, just to go back to the big ticket institutions, my own health board seems to be well advanced and the education sector in the area I represent, so how are we going to get—? I know that the education Minister has put several millions out there to…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23 - session 1
Yes, sure.
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2022-23 - session 1
Okay. Well, that—
