Welsh Labour

Speeches and questions

Speeches and questions in Plenary and in committees, newest first. The Llywydd's and deputies' chairing of Plenary is left out.

2,916 speeches and questions

23 June 2021Plenary
Questions to the Minister for Finance and Local Government
I think there is perhaps a tendency to overstate the complexities and the likelihood of voter confusion, because as you say, voters are already able to cope with a variety of voting systems, and as you've described, voters have different approaches in Senedd…
23 June 2021Plenary
Questions to the Minister for Finance and Local Government
So, of course the 2021 Act is following the same principle as the Wales 2017 Act did when it gave the Senedd the right to choose its voting system, so it is following that established process which would be applied to us here. But I did have an excellent…
23 June 2021Plenary
Questions to the Minister for Finance and Local Government
The 2021 Act allows principal councils to choose either first-past-the-post or STV. A key principle throughout the 2021 Act is for decisions to be made locally. The Welsh Government should not interfere in that local choice by seeking to ensure councils have…
23 June 2021Plenary
Questions to the Minister for Finance and Local Government
Thank you very much for that question. I share your concern and the concerns that you've described about one-year settlements and what that means for the difficulty in planning and having sustainable approaches to services. So, I'm really pleased to be able…
23 June 2021Plenary
Questions to the Minister for Finance and Local Government
That's certainly not the intention. You'll know that the initial focuses of work for the CJCs, when they are up and running, will be along the lines of regional and local—across those local boundaries—development in terms of economic development, and also…
23 June 2021Plenary
Questions to the Minister for Finance and Local Government
Thank you for the question and your warm words welcoming me to this particular role. Again, I look very much forward to finding those areas of common ground that we can work on together. In terms of public services boards and the other statutory boards that…
23 June 2021Plenary
Questions to the Minister for Finance and Local Government
I thank you for those questions. I always aim to be as absolutely transparent as I can be and I'll give my commitment to be as transparent as I possibly can be in the course of this Senedd as well. That's one of the reasons why we published three…
23 June 2021Plenary
Questions to the Minister for Finance and Local Government
Well, I'm really pleased we were able to provide that 12-month business rate relief for businesses in the retail, leisure and hospitality sectors here in Wales, which, of course, goes further than what's available to businesses across the border, and actually…
23 June 2021Plenary
Questions to the Minister for Finance and Local Government
Thank you for the question, and I very much am looking forward to finding that common ground on which we can work collaboratively in the future, and congratulations on your appointment to what is an absolutely fascinating and wonderful portfolio, which I know…
23 June 2021Plenary
Questions to the Minister for Finance and Local Government
So, the work to which you refer was a piece of work undertaken by the economy Minister in the last Senedd term to explore what a road tax might look like, and this isn't one of the taxes that we're currently actively considering taking forward at the moment…
23 June 2021Plenary
Questions to the Minister for Finance and Local Government
I thank you for that important question. There are two things I'd like to offer in my response, with the first being that I'm really pleased with what we were able to achieve over the course of the last Senedd term in terms of making council tax fairer. We…
23 June 2021Plenary
Questions to the Minister for Finance and Local Government
Our tax principles, published in our tax policy framework, bring consistency and coherence to our wider tax system by ensuring that Welsh taxes raise revenue fairly, support wider policy objectives, are clear, stable and simple, and encourage wide engagement…
23 June 2021Plenary
Questions to the Minister for Finance and Local Government
Well, in our Welsh Government budget, we set out a wide range of activities that we'll be undertaking in order to tackle and prevent child poverty. You'll have seen our additional funding for free school meals, for example, and Wales was, of course, the first…
23 June 2021Plenary
Questions to the Minister for Finance and Local Government
Thank you for raising this really important issue, and I know that it's of key concern to my colleagues the Minister for Health and Social Services and her team in particular. The 2021-22 budget does include a further £0.5 million to support work to prevent…
23 June 2021Plenary
Questions to the Minister for Finance and Local Government
Our budget supports a range of investments preventing adverse childhood experiences, but we allocated £1 million for 2021-22 on targeted support. Half will support the ACE support hub for Wales and the other half will support activity to prevent, tackle and…
12 May 2021Plenary
Nomination of the First Minister under Standing Order 8
I nominate Mark Drakeford.