, Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister
Warm and fed this winter
Yes, Chair. I remember that the health Minister published a social prescribing framework earlier in the year. It does encourage local health boards to make sure that they are making their contribution to sustaining those facilities, where offering somebody a…
, Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister
Warm and fed this winter
Well, Chair, there will not be a specific additional stream of revenue to support those uses this winter. But there are, in this field, a string of things that will be available, and some of those are the result of Welsh Government investment. Of course…
, Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister
Warm and fed this winter
There is no plan to replicate what we did last year. Chair, as you know, we provided £1 million last year to support warm hubs. In a way that I think is encouraging, what we are seeing this winter is that that seedcorn money is producing warm hub activity by…
, Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister
Warm and fed this winter
Well, I think that it's ongoing. The European Union has carried out this exercise as well. This is all very complex stuff and well beyond what I claim to understand thoroughly. But you know that the cost of electricity on a spot price day-by-day basis is the…
, Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister
Warm and fed this winter
Chair, I think it must be absolutely frustrating for residents of north Wales, because, as well as paying the highest standing charges and not seeing the trade-off with the unit cost, north Wales is a huge exporter of energy, isn’t it? The renewable energy…
, Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister
Warm and fed this winter
Well, it's a genuine dilemma, Chair, because when your budget is under the pressure that the Welsh Government’s budget is under, one of the things you find yourself driven to—although you’re conscious of it and so try to avoid it—is reducing those…
, Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister
Warm and fed this winter
Well, Chair, I suspect that a number of times during this conversation I'm going to end up making this point, so I'll make it now and maybe won't need to keep making it, but the Welsh Government's budget this year and next year is the most difficult we've…
, Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister
Warm and fed this winter
Well, Chair, first of all, I think it's a straightforwardly good idea, isn't it, and I sometimes think that data sharing is made more of a barrier than it needs to be because this is data sharing directly for the advantage of the customer, isn't it? It's to…
, Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister
Warm and fed this winter
Well, first of all, Chair, we are absolutely aligned with those campaigns to introduce a social tariff, so we're definitely in favour of that. One of the things that we are doing at the moment is to pursue the announcement made by the Chancellor of the…
, Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister
Warm and fed this winter
Well, Chair, we will be making a formal response to the Ofgem review. As a result of the campaigns that have been waged—and Jack Sargeant has been a leading voice in that here in Wales—some changes have already happened, and prepayment meter customers now…
, Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister
Warm and fed this winter
I certainly think all of that is very important. Nobody wants to have organisations that are competing with one another by doing the same thing, where by working together they could maximise their impact. I think we are incredibly lucky in Wales with the…
, Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister
Warm and fed this winter
The picture is a mixed one, Chair. Dealing with the current Prime Minister is easier in some ways than dealing with his immediate predecessors, because he at least observes the basic courtesies of inter-governmental relations. But my experience of dealing…
, Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister
Warm and fed this winter
There are a number of things that we did as a result of the motion before the Senedd back in June, Dirprwy Lywydd. One of the things that the Senedd called for was for us to raise certain issues with the UK Government and to ask them to do more, and we are…
, Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister
Warm and fed this winter
To be honest, I'm not sure. If it hasn't, then I'm happy to share that.
, Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister
Warm and fed this winter
I remember saying on the floor of the Senedd that the money that was provided for individuals in the autumn statement went primarily to people in the top half of the income distribution—£46 out of every £100 going to people in the top part of the income…
, Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister
Warm and fed this winter
Well, it's challenging, as Llyr Gruffydd has said, Chair, but we are fortunate to have the advice of the group that has come together, and I'm very grateful to them for the report that they have published. There are five things in the report that they tell us…
, Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister
Warm and fed this winter
Well, not a great deal, Chair, if I'm honest. There were a few things, as I've already said in the Chamber, that we welcomed. We do welcome the fact that benefits have gone up, matching the retail prices index, and also that the triple lock on pensions has…
, Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister
Warm and fed this winter
Thank you very much, Chair. Joining me this morning are John Howells, director of climate change, energy and planning, and Claire Germain, deputy director of tackling poverty and supporting families.
, Plenary
Questions to the First Minister
I don't agree with him that new entrants will fall off a cliff edge. The Welsh Government will invest over £100 million—over £100 million—in apprenticeship programmes in the next financial year. Last week, the leader of Plaid Cymru was urging me to make sure…
, Plenary
Questions to the First Minister
I thank Luke Fletcher for that supplementary question.
, Plenary
Questions to the First Minister
Despite the loss of European social fund money and our ever-declining budget, this Government will go on investing in quality apprenticeships that match the needs of the Welsh economy and provide our young people with successful futures.
, Plenary
Questions to the First Minister
I thank Buffy Williams very much for that further question and congratulate her, of course, on the work that she's been doing on this issue in her community. I know that my colleague Jane Hutt spoke at the conference that Buffy Williams organised last…
, Plenary
Questions to the First Minister
Can I thank Buffy Williams for that, Llywydd? Next year marks the twentieth anniversary of the fully funded Live Fear Free helpline in Wales. In the year to March 2023, it received 34,348 contacts as part of the national strategy to tackle violence against…
, Plenary
Questions to the First Minister
I thank John Griffiths for that, Llywydd. Of course, he's right; it's a privilege that we have in the jobs that we do, and sometimes in our own lives, to see directly the work that those fantastic organisations in all our communities carry out. They do…
, Plenary
Questions to the First Minister
We are supporting grass-roots sports clubs across Wales with the £31 million invested through Sport Wales in this financial year.
