, Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee
Session on the Cabinet Manual and Access Talks
I've listened carefully to what you've had to say. Couldn't you just delete the parts that don't apply to Wales and add those parts that you already mentioned that do apply to Wales in other documents, to actually produce a comprehensive Welsh document?
, Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee
Session on the Cabinet Manual and Access Talks
Yes, I do. I'm now unmuted. Has the Welsh Government considered developing a Cabinet manual for Wales?
, Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee
Session on the Cabinet Manual and Access Talks
Finally from me, we are well aware, because an American actress highlighted it, it's very easy to use AI to copy somebody's tone and method of speaking. That itself could be used against somebody when they had nothing to do with the event in question, but AI…
, Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee
Session on the Cabinet Manual and Access Talks
Please could you come back to us? Because it's a matter that still interests many of us, whether it's a leak or an authorised disclosure. The other point I was going to make was around the dangers we now have with using ICT and the ability to manipulate ICT…
, Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee
Session on the Cabinet Manual and Access Talks
So it isn't a leak if the First Minister releases it. I'm again going back to a previous event, which was a very sad event for many of us, but if it's authorised by the First Minister, it is not a leak.
, Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee
Session on the Cabinet Manual and Access Talks
It's nothing to do with the recent circumstances for me. I'm going back several years to the very sad events relating to Carl Sargeant, Jack Sargeant's father. Going back to those events, which are definitely history, unfortunately, the point I was trying to…
, Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee
Session on the Cabinet Manual and Access Talks
Can I go back a few years to a problem we did have when we had a leak inquiry? There's a difference, isn't there, between a briefing and a leak. Senior advisers and senior special advisers are able to brief the media, which doesn't count as a leak, even…
, Finance Committee
Fiscal Inter-governmental Relations: Evidence session 6
On that, surely the solution is to have transparency in how these decisions are being made and why HS2 is an England-and-Wales project. Rather than it just being a statement, an explanation of why and how they decided that it's 100 per cent England and…
, Finance Committee
Fiscal Inter-governmental Relations: Evidence session 6
It might not be a single version of the truth, but it can be an explanation of how you got there. We have no idea how HS2 became an England-and-Wales project. We've no idea when they made the decision not to continue it close to the Welsh border, how it…
, Finance Committee
Fiscal Inter-governmental Relations: Evidence session 6
And city deal money, which is also outside the Barnett formula. But they don't go through the Government, do they? The city deal and the money for levelling up go through local authorities, but the Northern Ireland Executive have had additional money that has…
, Finance Committee
Fiscal Inter-governmental Relations: Evidence session 6
Okay, thank you. The last question from me is that the Treasury can allocate funds across the UK from its central reserve without triggering Barnett consequentials. There's been concern in Wales the 2017 additional money for Northern Ireland, the 2023-24…
, Finance Committee
Fiscal Inter-governmental Relations: Evidence session 6
I'm not going ask you this, but I would argue that once the money is given to a devolved Government, then they've got the money, what they do with it should be very much up to them, rather than having to follow Treasury rules, when the Treasury seems to treat…
, Finance Committee
Fiscal Inter-governmental Relations: Evidence session 6
I think that what we find is they net it off, don't they, the plus, the minuses, and normally they end up on a plus. But if they ended up on a minus, it would only be in the tens of millions, rather than in the billions, and actually being able to plan to…
, Finance Committee
Fiscal Inter-governmental Relations: Evidence session 6
As you're aware and as we're aware, devolved funding can be unpredictable in terms of timing and it can be unpredictable in its lack of transparency, and how much you think you're going to get and how much you actually get are quite often not the same. I'm…
, Finance Committee
Fiscal Inter-governmental Relations: Evidence session 6
We’ve got the three devolved nations of Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland, but we’ve also got a substantial number of English mayors, which will grow again next year, and appears to be something that is moving forward with great rapidity. Now, different…
, Finance Committee
First Supplementary Budget 2024-25: Evidence session with the Senedd Commission
Diolch.
, Finance Committee
First Supplementary Budget 2024-25: Evidence session with the Senedd Commission
We're coming very close to time. I have two very brief questions; I'll put them together. I hope the answer to both is 'yes'. If you're looking at insourcing, are you then netting off the saving from managing contracts? And the second one is: will you ensure…
, Finance Committee
First Supplementary Budget 2024-25: Evidence session with the Senedd Commission
That was just one example of how people are using electronic devices and electronic means in order to save. I could say it's the environmental benefit of not having all that paper, but, really, there are benefits, and I'm just asking you to look at them; I…
, Finance Committee
First Supplementary Budget 2024-25: Evidence session with the Senedd Commission
As you know, most libraries at the moment have gone over to digital newspapers, digital magazines, and the library service in Swansea tells me that's saved them substantial sums of money. I'm not asking you to do it in-year, but, actually, to start thinking…
, Finance Committee
Introductions, apologies, substitutions and declarations of interest
Can I declare two? One is that I chair the PCS cross-party group in the Senedd, for which I get no remuneration whatsoever. The second one is I'm a pension fund trustee, which I also get no remuneration for whatsoever.
, Plenary
Short Debate: A construction skills system fit for the future
Thank you to Joyce Watson, firstly for having this debate on such a very important issue, and also for giving me a minute in this debate. We need skilled construction workers. In the 1970s, we had major employers, such as BSE and BP, training hundreds of…
, Plenary
Debate on petition P-06-1407, 'We want the Welsh Government to rescind and remove the disastrous 20mph law'
Thank you, Hefin, and I think I did say 90 per cent of people support the speed limit being reduced on 90 per cent of roads. But just finally, on road accidents, they have serious consequences. I know that Delyth and I discussed somebody who'd lost a cousin…
, Plenary
Debate on petition P-06-1407, 'We want the Welsh Government to rescind and remove the disastrous 20mph law'
Certainly.
, Plenary
Debate on petition P-06-1407, 'We want the Welsh Government to rescind and remove the disastrous 20mph law'
This issue has generated the largest ever Senedd petition and also substantial discussion in communities. One of the weaknesses of the petition system is that, after you sign, you cannot change your mind—or cannot change your mind easily. And some of my…
, Plenary
Debate on petition P-06-1407, 'We want the Welsh Government to rescind and remove the disastrous 20mph law'
When you were speaking then I was taken back to Adam Price speaking in here when he talked about his cousin being killed. That brought a tear to my eye, and, I'm sure, to other people in here as well. I think that's something—. It's about real people getting…
