, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Group 13: Part 4 – Examining applications: Choice of inquiry, hearing or written procedure (Amendments 146, 165, 125, 18, 57, 147, 148)
Diolch, Gadeirydd. Amendment 146 would remove the requirement from section 41 that allows for the examination of an infrastructure application to be made on the basis of the application itself and any representations received in writing. In effect, it would…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Group 12: Part 4 – Examining applications: Examining authority – panel constitution and expertise (Amendments 124, 145)
Diolch, Gadeirydd. As Members have said, section 39 covers the appointment of an examining authority. This covers their appointment, revoking an appointment, setting out a document specifying criteria for appointment, and regulations governing matters of…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Group 11: Part 3 – Applying for Infrastructure Consent: Application procedure (Amendments 197, 198, 54, 7, 162, 163, 164, 8, 123, 55, 9, 10, 143, 56, 144, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
Amendment 123 would insert a minimum representation period of five weeks for consultation into section 33. I don't feel the committee will be surprised in any way that I do not feel that a blanket five-week period for representations to be made is appropriate…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Group 11: Part 3 – Applying for Infrastructure Consent: Application procedure (Amendments 197, 198, 54, 7, 162, 163, 164, 8, 123, 55, 9, 10, 143, 56, 144, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
Diolch, Gadeirydd. Just in general, I remind the committee that section 31 requires an application for infrastructure consent to be made to the Welsh Ministers and provides that infrastructure consent may only be given if an application is made for it. This…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Group 10: Part 3 – Applying for Infrastructure Consent: Pre-application procedure – s30 (Amendments 120, 6, 141, 142, 121, 122)
Diolch, Cadeirydd. All of these amendments relate to section 30, which requires a person who proposes to submit an application for infrastructure consent to carry out consultation on a proposed application prior to its submission. So, I will deal with the…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Group 9: Part 3 – Applying for Infrastructure Consent: Pre-application procedure – s29 (Amendments 159, 4, 160, 161, 5, 117, 118, 119)
Diolch, Chair. It's always nice to be praised by the LJC committee. I spend a lot of my time not being praised by them, so I like to grasp at any small straws. [Laughter.] Absolutely, we have tried very hard to respond to the LJC committee requirements, and…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Group 9: Part 3 – Applying for Infrastructure Consent: Pre-application procedure – s29 (Amendments 159, 4, 160, 161, 5, 117, 118, 119)
Diolch, Gadeirydd. These Government amendments respond to recommendation 3 by the Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee or they're technical in nature. I'll deal with the Government amendments first. These all relate to section 29, which requires a…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Group 8: Part 3 – Applying for Infrastructure Consent: Assistance for applicants (Amendments 115, 2, 116, 3, 52, 53)
Diolch, Gadeirydd. I'd like to thank Janet and Joel for moving, and the other members of the committee for their comments here. Amendments 115 and 116 would remove the ability for local planning authorities to provide applicants with pre-application services…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Group 7: Part 2 – Requirement for Infrastructure Consent (Amendments 156, 157, 47, 48, 49, 158, 50, 51, 1)
Thank you, Chair. I'm very grateful to Members for their remarks on the group. Just to reiterate that I ask the committee to support the Government amendments in this group, but to reject amendments 47 through 51, tabled by Janet Finch-Saunders. They don't…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Group 7: Part 2 – Requirement for Infrastructure Consent (Amendments 156, 157, 47, 48, 49, 158, 50, 51, 1)
Thank you, Chair. I've tabled amendments 156 and 157 to ensure powers contained in other relevant—I can't speak now—relevant legislation and the Bill are consistent and avoid duplication. These are technical amendments, which have no effect on any policy…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Group 6: Part 1 – Significant Infrastructure Projects: Power to amend (Amendments 46, 113)
Diolch, Gadeirydd. Amendment 46 amends section 17. Section 17 allows the Welsh Ministers to amend Part 1 by regulations in order to add a new type of project to the definition of 'significant infrastructure project', or to vary or remove the existing…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Group 5: Part 1 – Significant Infrastructure Projects: Water and Waste Water (Amendments 44, 103, 45, 105, 107, 112)
Diolch, Gadeirydd. I will speak on amendments 44 and 45 together. Amendment 44 would increase the threshold for dams from 10 million cubic metres to 30 million cubic meters. Amendment 45 would make the same change for amendments to these structures. The 10…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Group 4: Part 1 – Significant Infrastructure Projects: Transport (Amendments 99, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43)
Diolch, Cadeirydd. Amendment 99 would add a definition of significant effect to the alteration or improvement of a highway. The amendment would create confusion with other regimes like the environmental impact assessment that use the term 'significant'…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Group 3: Part 1 – Significant Infrastructure Projects: Energy (Amendments 192, 96, 37, 193, 194, 196, 139, 140)
It depends.
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Group 3: Part 1 – Significant Infrastructure Projects: Energy (Amendments 192, 96, 37, 193, 194, 196, 139, 140)
Diolch, Gadeirydd. I keep hearing an echo of myself. I just want to start by emphasising the point I made at first: I have a lot of sympathy with a lot of the policy points being made, but we have been at great pains to say that this is not a policy Bill. The…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Group 2: Part 1 – Significant Infrastructure Projects: Local ownership of energy projects (Amendments 191, 195)
Diolch, Gadeirydd. I'll just start by saying—. I'm echoing back on myself, sorry—that's very disconcerting. I'll just start by saying I have a huge amount of sympathy with what Adam is trying to achieve here in policy terms, but there are two problems, I…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Group 1: Part 1 – Significant Infrastructure Projects: Miscellaneous (Amendments 95, 97, 98, 100, 101, 102, 104, 106, 108, 109, 110, 111, 114)
Diolch, Cadeirydd. I welcome the opportunity to debate the amendments to the Infrastructure (Wales) Bill today, and I also would like to express my thanks to all the members of the committee for their scrutiny of the Bill, and particularly to those Members…
, Plenary
Questions to the Minister for Climate Change
Thank you very much. I couldn't agree more—it's really lovely to see local communities getting really involved in greening their urban spaces. And indeed, in market towns across Wales, we also see semi- or peri-urban environments getting the same treatment…
, Plenary
Questions to the Minister for Climate Change
I thank very much, John Griffiths, for that question. The Welsh Government has a range of initiatives to improve urban green spaces, such as Coetiroedd Bach and the allotment support grant. We recognise the importance of evaluating delivery. Local Places for…
, Plenary
Questions to the Minister for Climate Change
Thank you very much for that, Ken. I understand from discussions with developers and members of the Wales nuclear forum in recent years that the key requirement for both existing and potential investors revolves around the need for suitable skilled people and…
, Plenary
Questions to the Minister for Climate Change
Thank you very much, Ken, for the question. Nuclear energy is entirely within the portfolio of the Minister for Economy, Llywydd, but I will do my best to answer the question anyway. Apparently there are three recent publications that help shape nuclear…
, Plenary
Questions to the Minister for Climate Change
Yes, thank you very much, Jack, for that. And I absolutely do know how devastating the impacts of flooding can be on homes and livelihoods, and on lives and on children. I've met many who've been really traumatised by it, so I want to offer once again my…
, Plenary
Questions to the Minister for Climate Change
Thank you for the question, Jack Sargeant. The Welsh Government works closely with our local authorities and Natural Resources Wales as the lead flood risk management authorities. We encourage the risk management authorities to put forward proposed schemes…
, Plenary
Questions to the Minister for Climate Change
So, Mabon, as I've said to you already, I absolutely accept that these workers were fundamental to the pandemic response, and they are absolutely skilled front-line workers who deserve to be remunerated correctly. And as I also said, I've already met with the…
, Plenary
Questions to the Minister for Climate Change
Yes, thank you, Mabon, for raising this really important issue. As I've said many, many times, if I absolutely could have raised the housing support grant, I would. We're actually still in some conversations internally to see whether anything can be done…
