, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Disability and employment: evidence session 8
Mick, can I just cut across? Some job adverts say, 'If you'd like to know more information about this post, contact X.' Do you find that individuals do take up that offer if they've got additional questions, or do they think that might count against them?
, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Disability and employment: evidence session 8
Fine. Lots of issues there, which we will explore a bit further. So, Mick Antoniw, would you like to come in at this point?
, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Disability and employment: evidence session 8
Other witnesses have said that it's also to do with how vibrant the economy is in a particular area. So, Cardiff versus, say, Blaenau Gwent—
, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Disability and employment: evidence session 8
Thank you very much for that introductory set of remarks. I wondered if you can shed some light on the fact that the disability employment gap is consistently higher in Wales than across the UK as a whole, and in some areas of Wales, like Neath Port Talbot…
, Equality and Social Justice Committee
Disability and employment: evidence session 8
I'm very pleased, in our first evidence session this afternoon, to welcome Daniel Biddle, who is an advocate of disabled people's rights. I'd very much like to warmly welcome you here, Daniel. What, in your experience, are the main barriers to work for…
, 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, so I've had no apologies, and I don't see any indications of declarations of interest. We're a bilingual institution, so if people are speaking Welsh, you can get…
, Plenary
Welsh Conservatives Debate: Council-owned farms
Will you take an intervention? I'm just really interested to know, at the time when you were a councillor, whether you had any discussion about the importance of ensuring that you were going to be able to secure the supply lines that you needed to feed your…
, Plenary
Welsh Conservatives Debate: Council-owned farms
I'm very pleased to take part in this debate, and I think, with food security so high on the agenda in this uncertain world, beset by conflict and turbulent and unpredictable weather, we need to follow the just-in-case mantra of Professor Tim Lang, who's…
, Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, Trefnydd and Chief Whip
Well, that's useful to know, that there is a range of options. Age Cymru are saying that, this year, nearly nine in 10 pensioners in Wales living in poverty will not get a winter fuel payment, and some of them are not aware they're eligible for pension…
, Plenary
Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, Trefnydd and Chief Whip
2. What discussions has the Cabinet Secretary had with the UK Government regarding the uptake of pension credit? OQ61684
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Foundational Economy: Panel 4 - Housing and decarbonisation
Iwan.
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Foundational Economy: Panel 4 - Housing and decarbonisation
Okay. Earlier on, one of you—I can't remember who—said it's education that leads on the people that we're actually training up. Why is the industry so passive, and sort of saying, 'Oh, well, we'll take what you give us'? Why aren't we driving the education…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Foundational Economy: Panel 4 - Housing and decarbonisation
So, given the restraints on time, I wondered if, in this final contribution from any of you, if you could give us some good examples of good practice in public sector procurement, and/or good examples of fair work initiatives that aren't in your papers…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Foundational Economy: Panel 4 - Housing and decarbonisation
Surely only Welsh Government could come up with an overall land-use strategy taking climate change into account. There are numerous examples of why we need beavers in the uplands so that we don't have flooding in Bridgend, but if we don't have those…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Foundational Economy: Panel 4 - Housing and decarbonisation
I saw Gary wanting to come in, and I wanted to talk to Gary anyway. In your paper, you talk about how public bodies apply the rules and being, for example, risk averse in their interpretation of regulations on tree planting, and a lack of overall strategy on…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Foundational Economy: Panel 4 - Housing and decarbonisation
Presumably, they have pre-procurement discussions, don't they, saying, 'We are going to be letting this contract, and you may want to think about x'?
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Foundational Economy: Panel 4 - Housing and decarbonisation
And how do we get local authorities to give people time to plan and collaborate, because, often, they're saying, 'We want you to start by the day after tomorrow'?
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Foundational Economy: Panel 4 - Housing and decarbonisation
Okay. Well, that's positive, but, on the other hand, have you got any different perspective on it?
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Foundational Economy: Panel 4 - Housing and decarbonisation
How realistic is that given that we're all reading about the financial and budgetary challenges that local authorities are facing? You mention in your paper about the cost-of-living crisis driving people away from best value in terms of local procurement and…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Foundational Economy: Panel 4 - Housing and decarbonisation
Oh, is it? I beg your pardon.
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Foundational Economy: Panel 4 - Housing and decarbonisation
Okay, great example, but how much is it dependent on your geographical location in north-west Wales, as opposed to, say, south-east Wales, where we’ve got a construction industry that works across the border all the time?
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Foundational Economy: Panel 4 - Housing and decarbonisation
Thank you very much. I want to look at procurement and fair work, starting with the Social Partnership and Public Procurement (Wales) Act 2023 and our aspiration to drive social value and support the foundational economy. My sense is that there’s lots of…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Foundational Economy: Panel 4 - Housing and decarbonisation
Could I just come in? Because I think, in the previous session, we heard that sometimes, with these communities of practice, people are acutely aware that they may be competing against each other for future contracts, and obviously people are inclined to…
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Foundational Economy: Panel 3 - Food sector
Okay. So, Robbie Davison, how do we manage risk, then?
, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee
Foundational Economy: Panel 3 - Food sector
Oh, okay. Katie.
