, Plenary
Questions to the First Minister
Well, Llywydd, since that interview, the Minister has written to me asking that those allegations should be investigated under the ministerial code. So, I've agreed to that. There'll be an independent investigation of the allegations, and when that…
, Plenary
Questions to the First Minister
Llywydd, I thank Alun Davies for that, because he's right to say there was a great deal of interest to Wales in what the UK Government was trailing in relation to Northern Ireland. If it's a genuinely needs-based formula that they are proposing for one part…
, Plenary
Questions to the First Minister
Llywydd, let me be clear, there is no needs-based assessment in the funding in the fiscal framework; it is a funding floor of the sort that Holtham recommended. But the idea that it is needs based is simply not true—the Barnett formula is not needs based in…
, Plenary
Questions to the First Minister
Well, Llywydd, Members don't need to rely simply on my assessment; they could rely on the assessment of the Centre for Social Justice, set up by Iain Duncan Smith, which reported yesterday that the social divide in the United Kingdom today is of a depth that…
, Plenary
Questions to the First Minister
Well, Llywydd, for more than a decade, the Welsh Government has taken action to mitigate the impact of falling budgets on our public services. The return to full-blown austerity in the autumn statement will make mitigation ever more difficult. We will use the…
, Plenary
Questions to the First Minister
Well, Llywydd, bus services are under pressure everywhere. Fewer passengers means less revenue to support the bus route network. But, in the Dwyfor Meirionnydd area, Gwynedd Council will establish a new T22 service early in 2024, which will improve…
, Plenary
Questions to the First Minister
I thank the Member for the question. We work with Transport for Wales and Gwynedd Council to improve the provision of local bus services in the Dwyfor Meirionnydd area. This includes recent improvements made to TrawsCymru services in the area, and Welsh…
, Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister
Ministerial scrutiny session - the co-operation agreement
No, it's for agreement, because there are sums of money set aside to support the co-operation agreement. As you say, inevitably, it isn't an exact match and you get it right on the very first day. When you have to move away from that, that is done by…
, Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister
Ministerial scrutiny session - the co-operation agreement
Myself, I will continue to make the case with my own colleagues that the only way we will achieve Senedd reform is if we are prepared to be half-a-loafers. If anybody thinks that they're going to get everything exactly as they would prefer it, they're going…
, Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister
Ministerial scrutiny session - the co-operation agreement
Of course, we will attend carefully to any proposals that come out of the committee and any amendments that are laid during the passage of the Bill. We will take those as seriously as you would expect, and then we will discuss together what our response to…
, Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister
Ministerial scrutiny session - the co-operation agreement
Public sector pension funds are there for the long haul. They want to invest in things that will give them a return over 40 years, and I think there is a growing recognition by those pension funds that the people whose funds are invested in them want to do…
, Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister
Ministerial scrutiny session - the co-operation agreement
Yes, they are different organisations, but they're complementary organisations, because they are both, in the end, about community ownership of our natural resources. Trydan Gwyrdd will be in the more commercial space. It will do things as a public developer…
, Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister
Ministerial scrutiny session - the co-operation agreement
Well, the study is linked to the Burns commission work in north Wales as well. That, I think, will be published—. It's for the commission to decide, not me, but I think they are hoping to publish before Christmas, their north Wales final study, so we will…
, Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister
Ministerial scrutiny session - the co-operation agreement
The work is completed [correction: nearly completed]. It hasn't come to Rhun or myself; it's being pursued between the designated Member and the Minister. What I have seen of it, the Welsh Government is broadly supportive of the conclusions of that work. I…
, Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister
Ministerial scrutiny session - the co-operation agreement
Well, Chair, there's no underspend in the co-operation agreement childcare commitments. The underspend is in the childcare offer, which is not part of the co-operation agreement. That is part of the Government's wider childcare provision, which has been there…
, Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister
Ministerial scrutiny session - the co-operation agreement
Well, as I said, I think it will be pursued in a number of different contexts. It will be pursued in the review of the regulations of school meals themselves—that will be the most powerful way—but it will be also pursued through the reform of our procurement…
, Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister
Ministerial scrutiny session - the co-operation agreement
Well, it's not the dominant part in public procurement, but it is an important part, isn't it? When we were talking about our free-school-meals ambitions, there are a range of different things that we're trying to achieve through a single policy. Rhun has…
, Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister
Ministerial scrutiny session - the co-operation agreement
Well, the agreement, in relation to free school meals, wasn't simply an agreement over volume. It was also an agreement over quality, and making sure that the quality of the meals that are provided in our primary schools meet some of those tests of local…
, Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister
Ministerial scrutiny session - the co-operation agreement
Well, it will depend, crucially, upon future budgets available to the Welsh Government. What we mustn't do, I think—and I talk to my colleagues about this a bit—is we mustn't talk ourselves into a belief that the current, very difficult position is typical…
, Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister
Ministerial scrutiny session - the co-operation agreement
Well, it's just important to say, Chair, isn't it, that, yes, it is frozen at that level, but that level is a considerably higher level than it was the year before, so there was a very significant uplift in the housing support grant, and the struggle has been…
, Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister
Ministerial scrutiny session - the co-operation agreement
Not at the level of the agreement itself. I'm not saying to you that there have not been some days when a member of my group has said to me, 'Have you seen the press release that was put out?' in some ward in their area, which they maybe didn't feel was an…
, Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister
Ministerial scrutiny session - the co-operation agreement
I can't think of any surprises that strike me immediately. You're going to give us one, now, Mark—you're going to say, 'Well, what about this?' [Laughter.]
, Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister
Ministerial scrutiny session - the co-operation agreement
Well, Chair, there's a long back history to this, isn't there? The Labour Party has never won a majority in an election to the Senedd, and we've always had to find working arrangements with other parties in order to be able to deliver a programme for…
, Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister
Ministerial scrutiny session - the co-operation agreement
It is protected, Chair, in the way that I described. The funding for the agreement is ring-fenced within the Welsh Government's overall budget. As Rhun said earlier, people shouldn't forget that, in the broader scheme of the £20 billion, this is a relatively…
, Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister
Ministerial scrutiny session - the co-operation agreement
Chair, I'm not sure that I can recite them all, admittedly, from memory, but they're not a secret. I think the finance Minister is happy to share them, but they would include—just to give you some immediate ones—of course, childcare and universal free school…
