, Plenary
Statement by the Minister for Climate Change: Net-zero Commitments
Thank you, Carolyn. The recycling one is particularly depressing, isn't it? The Prime Minister said something about needing to have seven bins in your home in order to recycle. We know that that's not true if we live in Wales. Some people can have seven bins…
, Plenary
Statement by the Minister for Climate Change: Net-zero Commitments
Absolutely, Heledd; I couldn't agree more. As it happens, we were already embarking on a programme of what we call behaviour support across Wales, and that will be part of Wales Climate Week in this coming autumn now. We have Youth Climate Week as well coming…
, Plenary
Statement by the Minister for Climate Change: Net-zero Commitments
Thank you very much, Jenny. There are a couple of things there. On the transition to electric vehicles, we very much hope that Welsh companies will hold to their investment plans. It does require two things. It requires the grid to be upgraded. It's great…
, Plenary
Statement by the Minister for Climate Change: Net-zero Commitments
Diolch, Delyth. Who would have thought that you and I would be on the side of Boris Johnson and George Osborne and Janet would be against them? In what world has that come to pass? But that is where we find ourselves, because it turns out that Janet just…
, Plenary
Statement by the Minister for Climate Change: Net-zero Commitments
Well, where to start, Llywydd? You know, Janet, there was a time that I thought you were a conviction politician that believed in climate change, but what you’ve just spouted puts the lie to that. The UK is world class; it is absolutely world class. It is…
, Plenary
Statement by the Minister for Climate Change: Net-zero Commitments
Diolch, Llywydd. I'd like to open my statement today by agreeing with some points made by the Prime Minister in his net-zero announcement of 20 September. The Prime Minister said that there must be an honest debate about how we secure the country’s long-term…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Infrastructure (Wales) Bill: Evidence session
Chair, might I ask that if the committee does feel very strongly that a procedure should be affirmative and not negative, or vice versa, although it's less likely the other way around, please be very clear about that, because we are very happy to look at that?
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Infrastructure (Wales) Bill: Evidence session
—the legislative and the executive functions of the Bill. So, I think the legislative, scrutiny function there is to take it up with the Minister, that they think the Minister's abused their power in some way, or whatever. I think, if the Minister had to be…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Infrastructure (Wales) Bill: Evidence session
I think that's mixing up, I'm afraid—
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Infrastructure (Wales) Bill: Evidence session
Okay.
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Infrastructure (Wales) Bill: Evidence session
—numerous applicants.
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Infrastructure (Wales) Bill: Evidence session
—with access to it. I mean, if the committee wants us to put that on the Bill, I'm quite happy to look at that. But I would argue that we should say that we should publish it somewhere, rather than post it out to—
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Infrastructure (Wales) Bill: Evidence session
So, you could put that it should be published somewhere—
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Infrastructure (Wales) Bill: Evidence session
It would be published on there.
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Infrastructure (Wales) Bill: Evidence session
We wouldn't necessarily provide it to every single objector, for example—
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Infrastructure (Wales) Bill: Evidence session
I guess—. Sorry, Alun, just to get underneath what you're asking. So, we would be specifying that the applicant had a correct, and indeed comprehensive, 'decision report'. I'm sure you've seen them—an inspector goes through every single thing that's been put…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Infrastructure (Wales) Bill: Evidence session
Neil, do you want to pick that up?
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Infrastructure (Wales) Bill: Evidence session
—a proper statement of—.
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Infrastructure (Wales) Bill: Evidence session
Okay, I think we've slightly come off there. If an application is refused, there absolutely will be—
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Infrastructure (Wales) Bill: Evidence session
If you really want to do that, we can, but the regulations would absolutely say that—
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Infrastructure (Wales) Bill: Evidence session
This is the process by which, for whatever reason, there's a legitimate reason why the application hasn't been able to proceed at the normal pace. It's a feature of the current process as well. There are a number that we have that have gone over the time…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Infrastructure (Wales) Bill: Evidence session
So, Alun, I would say that the regulations should be very specific about what the inspector needs to do in order to go through that process to protect from exactly that. I might be legitimately very exercised about something that the inspector doesn't think…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Infrastructure (Wales) Bill: Evidence session
The regulations will set this out, but I would very much argue that somebody who's simply made a frivolous interjection, and the inspector doesn't think it's a material consideration, is not likely to fall foul of this. It's going to be somebody who's…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Infrastructure (Wales) Bill: Evidence session
This is giving the inspector who's looking at the planning application the right to do this.
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Infrastructure (Wales) Bill: Evidence session
The person would always have a legal right to challenge that, of course. We can all probably think of examples. I'm not going to say one here, but one immediately springs into my mind where you have somebody who is very, very, personally concerned about…
