, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Disability and employment: evidence session 1
So, we'll move straight on. This is our first session of our inquiry into disability and employment. I'm very pleased to welcome Professor Debbie Foster of Cardiff University, who's done an immense amount of work on this subject. We're very much looking…
, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Introductions, apologies, substitutions and declarations of interest
Prynhawn da. Welcome to the Equality and Social Justice Committee. All Members are present. I'd just like to welcome Mick Antoniw as a new member of this committee—your expertise is very much welcome. I'd like to thank Carolyn Thomas for the work she's done…
, Plenary
Plaid Cymru Debate: Welsh Government priorities
By putting iechyd da first on the list of priorities, Eluned Morgan's Government has clearly recognised the importance of improving our performance in health, fully realising that this is the biggest challenge to reduce the waiting lists for procedures that…
, Plenary
Welsh Conservatives Debate: 20mph speed limits
Okay. Thank you very much, Carolyn, because I'm intrigued by your thinking that north-east Wales has got one single set of problems, because, looking at the statistics, Conwy has 149 roads where they've queried it, and then Flintshire has 956, and I just…
, Plenary
Plaid Cymru Debate: NHS waiting lists
Nobody’s saying we have arrived, but what we're saying is we have made progress. This is a really, really difficult issue, for several reasons. As is demonstrated in Saving Lives in Cardiff, you cannot be admitted to hospital for an operation unless there is…
, Plenary
Plaid Cymru Debate: NHS waiting lists
I'd like to welcome the new health Secretary to his post; I'm sure he'll do a great job. This is difficult work. I'm glad that we are having this debate. But the idea that we can simply get away with saying, 'Bold action is required', without saying what that…
, Plenary
Debate on Petition P-06-1455, 'Protect the junior departments of the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama from closure'
It is a tragedy that we are having this debate after the royal Welsh college has already made the decision to close the junior department. And, in a sense, it's an affront to all the people who bothered to sign the petition that the royal Welsh college wasn't…
, Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, Trefnydd and Chief Whip
Thank you, Altaf Hussain, for raising this issue. One of the reasons we want to have devolved criminal justice is in order to prevent more people going into prisons, when there must be alternatives if they break the law. I want to ask you two questions about…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
The Foundational Economy - Panel 2
Thank you. And Ceri, lastly: locally, do the people who deliver your health and social care, on the whole, live locally?
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
The Foundational Economy - Panel 2
Would you say that the other public bodies that you are working with have been successful in growing their own workforce locally rather than bringing them in from outside?
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
The Foundational Economy - Panel 2
Professor Williams has talked about encouraging the Welsh Government to focus on strategic sectors like, for example, domiciliary care and growing your own workforce. How much has that been a feature of the activity in both Preston and Blaenau Ffestiniog?…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
The Foundational Economy - Panel 2
You said that the procurement regulations are a lot stricter in this country than in Ohio. How do you ensure that local companies get a fair crack of the whip? We heard earlier that postcode localisation doesn't work. How much is it the values that's driving…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
The Foundational Economy - Panel 2
No, I wasn't suggesting that at all—absolutely not. I want to look at procurement, and we've not got very much time left. So, how do you procure public goods? How successful are you in procuring public goods locally—Matthew, perhaps I can come to you…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
The Foundational Economy - Panel 2
Just picking up from what Ceri was saying, how much of your success is to do with your relative geographical isolation? I've visited you in the past, to look at the way the European funding was benefiting your community. But clearly, you're a community of…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
The Foundational Economy - Panel 1
Thank you very much.
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
The Foundational Economy - Panel 1
Okay. I'm conscious that, Anne, you've been obviously, slightly, because you're not in the room—. Is there anything, any last comments, you want to make on what's the top priority for what we need to get, what we need to change?
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
The Foundational Economy - Panel 1
Okay, fine. So, the real living wage is something easy to measure. What about all the other things that you, Professor Williams, say are so important around liveability?
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
The Foundational Economy - Panel 1
But you've got to improve your productivity in order to do it, because there is only so much money in the pot in any organisation.
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
The Foundational Economy - Panel 1
Can I ask one final question? I think, just to wrap it up, for all of you, how do we use the levers of Government—so things like the real living wage, the shorter working week, the emphasis on good jobs in the foundational economy that you’ve all talked about…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
The Foundational Economy - Panel 1
But how do we do that without coming across the rules? I know we’re no longer in the EU, but nevertheless there are procurement rules that don’t allow you to say, ‘You’ve got to be local.’
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
The Foundational Economy - Panel 1
Thank you. That’s really useful. You talk about smarter procurement, rather than postcode localisation. Could you just explain a little bit more? How do we do smarter procurement? Because we have a system in place at the moment and breaking into that seems…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
The Foundational Economy - Panel 1
If we’re talking about values, we’re up against the multinational companies who want to continue to sell us ultra-processed food that’s sending us all to an early death. So, how are we going to overcome that, given that they spend billions on telling you to…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
The Foundational Economy - Panel 1
I'm going to be there too.
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
The Foundational Economy - Panel 1
Professor Williams, Caerphilly never stops mentioning Woosnam's farm as a way in which they helped a small business become a supplier, but the procurement process is so complicated, how would any small local organisation ever break their way into it, given…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
The Foundational Economy - Panel 1
Don't worry. I threw it in because—. But is there anything else you want to say before I come to Professor Williams in the first instance, on how we really drive the innovation, if you like, from the grass roots? How do we encourage people to think about how…
