, Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister
Equality and human rights
I thank Laura Anne Jones for those two questions, Chair. I probably should have said in answering an earlier question about the human rights advisory group and the way they're taking forward the research report is that it also offers us an opportunity to…
, Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister
Equality and human rights
Well, Chair, making advances in the current climate has been very difficult. The Thomas commission has a whole series of recommendations that are for the Welsh Government and Welsh authorities to take forward, and we are making progress on those, and we…
, Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister
Equality and human rights
Chair, I just lost the very end of Jack Sargeant's question, but I think I'd heard the full gist of it. Of course, we have invested considerably more money in the single advice fund, and there is always more we know that we could do if we had more money…
, Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister
Equality and human rights
Well, Chair, first of all let me say that the Welsh Government does do whatever we can in these areas. I spoke earlier about the millions of pounds we invested in making sure that EU citizens had access to properly qualified advice to help them with the…
, Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister
Equality and human rights
Chair, the first thing I would say is that a more equal response doesn't mean treating everybody the same, because groups of people who arrive in the United Kingdom come here from very different contexts, and you need to be able to calibrate a response to…
, Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister
Equality and human rights
Well, we have made an assessment, Chair, and, unsurprisingly, given the discussions that we've had on the floor of the Senedd on this matter, we believe that the Nationality and Borders Act will have a detrimental impact upon on our ambitions to be, as John…
, Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister
Equality and human rights
I thank Llyr Gruffydd for those questions. On the first one, of course, we do want to do more to draw attention to the fact that people with pre-settled status will have to make another application to remain in Wales. The situation isn't quite the same. When…
, Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister
Equality and human rights
I've had two conversations with the new Prime Minister, and Ukraine was certainly touched upon in the second of those meetings and in the council of Ministers that the new Prime Minister chaired as part of the new inter-governmental relations machinery. We…
, Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister
Equality and human rights
First of all, Chair, just to be as accurate as I can, it isn't really in the capacity of the Welsh Government to ensure that outcome, and it's not actually our responsibility to do it at all; this remains a responsibility of the UK Government and the Home…
, Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister
Equality and human rights
Well, first of all, Chair, to recognise that there is always work that we need to do to improve the impact assessments that go alongside major policy developments and legislation, and the recently published report of the Auditor General for Wales is very…
, Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister
Equality and human rights
Well, no. I just want to be clear: the only way we would have that capacity is by making choices. There's no spare capacity sitting around waiting to do this. There is a capacity there already and, as I said, it has demonstrated its capability, but if the…
, Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister
Equality and human rights
The capacity comes in two main ways, Chair. I probably will ask Claire to set out for you some of the new arrangements regarding the way the civil service that works with the Welsh Government on this has been structured to support it. The two basic strands…
, Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister
Equality and human rights
Amongst the additional strands that the group that is helping us are looking at will be older persons' rights. I met with the Older People's Commissioner for Wales in the last couple of weeks, alongside the publication of her annual report. She has a strong…
, Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister
Equality and human rights
I understand the basic point that is being made, but I probably don't see the argument in quite the same way. If the argument is that by helping some people, where other people aren't getting helped, that somehow that's a denial of rights to people not being…
, Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister
Equality and human rights
I thank Peter Fox for that. There is a bit of history here that I'll very briefly rehearse for colleagues. In the final part of the last Senedd term we established a group to give us some advice on all of this, to review the different conventions and how they…
, Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister
Equality and human rights
Oh, I wish I did. As I think you indicated, Chair, in an earlier question, the UK Government doesn't always speak with a single voice on lots of these things. There are messages that come out of Whitehall that what is planned is a transposition into domestic…
, Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister
Equality and human rights
Well, Chair, here I think it probably does depend upon—. Sorry to sound as though I'm back in an academic seminar, but it depends what we mean by human rights. So, if what Jenny Rathbone means is the broad swathe of consumer rights, environmental rights…
, Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister
Equality and human rights
Well, on one level, Chair, I think you could argue that it shouldn't have much of an impact. The Human Rights Act 1998 is not contingent upon membership of the European Union; it comes from the 1951 convention that the United Kingdom was a founding signatory…
, Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister
Equality and human rights
We continue to work with the Scottish Government, Chair, on potential amendments to any Bill. I don't think I could say that we got an indication from Lord Bellamy on that issue, because, as I say, I don't think he was in a strong position to explain to us…
, Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister
Equality and human rights
Well, Chair, thank you. We've had a succession of contacts with the UK Government on this subject. I myself took the very first phone call on it, which was a call from the Deputy Prime Minister at the time, Dominic Raab, who was responsible for the…
, Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister
Equality and human rights
So, Chair, I'm joined for this session by Stuart Evans and by Claire Bennett, who are the deputy director and the director in the part of the Welsh Government that covers the material we will be talking about this morning.
, Plenary
Questions to the First Minister
Llywydd, just to be clear, for accuracy, the loan of the Welsh Government was £18 million, and it was with the Welsh Rugby Union, not with the regions. The way that the money is used is for the Welsh Rugby Union to determine, and they are responsible for…
, Plenary
Questions to the First Minister
Llywydd, the health, social and economic value of sport is widely recognised, which is why we are investing more than £75 million over the next three years, through Sport Wales, to deliver on our shared aims and objectives.
, Plenary
Questions to the First Minister
Well, Llywydd, can I first of all agree with what Luke Fletcher said about the very disappointing announcement last week? I've long argued myself that we need something akin to the United States Community Reinvestment Act 1977, which would oblige banks, when…
, Plenary
Questions to the First Minister
Llywydd, as I explained on the floor of the Senedd last week, responsibility for financial services, including banking, is not devolved to the Senedd. While the Welsh Government cannot, therefore, ensure banking availability, we are working with those who are…
