, Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister
Rural communities
We have got a different picture depending on the regional partners we’ve got. The new Cabinet Secretary for the economy has set out again how to take that forward. There's the work that we need to do with those partners. What I would say is, even since 2023…
, Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister
Rural communities
There is work that’s being done about what those could look like. Some of it depends on rail infrastructure, some of it depends on what we’re doing on buses as well, to make sure there’s a properly integrated approach. Again, it’s the regularity and the…
, Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister
Rural communities
[Inaudible.]—that it disadvantages rural Wales. What we're doing is we're trying to deliver a significant investment programme in the areas that we are responsible for, and you're starting to see that in real terms with not just the money we've spent, but…
, Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister
Rural communities
If I talk generally, and then I'll come to you, Tracey. On what we're looking to do, the franchise you'd run for Newport would probably look different to the franchise you'd run for Powys. And so there's an understanding of what works for the market in those…
, Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister
Rural communities
Our challenge is how we maintain a bus network. The grant we have has been hugely important in maintaining the current bus network. It is then the ambition that I set out on Tuesday in the legislative programme statement about making sure that we deliver on…
, Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister
Rural communities
The policy is the policy, and I think part of our challenge has been the report from the road review panel is not Government policy. We've been clear about what that is. We have these twin challenges, these twin challenges of the reality that our former roads…
, Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister
Rural communities
I haven’t seen the figures or the nature of Professor Cole's statement, and we've been upfront about wanting to improve transport priorities, when it comes to private use that's active travel and others. It’s also about what we want to do when it comes to…
, Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister
Rural communities
No, no, but that—. So, if you accept that, you then need to have a conversation with the regulators and the enforcement authorities about what it's practical to have done, and that's a conversation that we've set out needs to take place. That's what I've…
, Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister
Rural communities
There'll need to be a conversation with the regulators and the enforcement authorities. What you can't do, I think, is you can't say that nothing applies to anyone.
, Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister
Rural communities
I'll come to Gian Marco, but I think we need to understand what really has happened and where the challenge lies about ability and willingness to meet the regulations, because we've made these through our legitimate law-making processes. We know there's a…
, Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister
Rural communities
We'll make the best possible case for funding for Wales within the envelopes that we all know the whole of the UK has to work within, and more than that, though, I think we can have—. The 25-year celebration of devolution has been brilliant from a number of…
, Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister
Rural communities
What you can do is you can have a sense of purpose and stability, which has been a real issue for us in a whole range of areas, and that directly affects people's confidence, both people who are here, people who look to invest in a business here, whether…
, Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister
Rural communities
There's a case to be made about funding for Wales, about what it is possible to do. What I don't think there is is a case to say that all of this money that, we know, in the last 14 years, has been taken out of Wales—the promises that have not been kept can…
, Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister
Rural communities
We're not going to be able to put right the last 14 years in the next 14 weeks, and I think that's a wholly unrealistic demand. In fact, over the last few months, I've actually had people look me in the eye on their doorstep and say, 'Don't tell me you can…
, Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister
Rural communities
But the carbon sequestration group, to have met a couple of times over 90 minutes—. It's all the work that goes into it before the meeting and between them as well. And on the round-tables, as I said, they're going to have met three times before the end of…
, Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister
Rural communities
Well, to have a 90-minute ministerial round-table is actually quite a significant commitment in time—
, Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister
Rural communities
I think that's a fairly unfair way to characterise what's being done.
, Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister
Rural communities
I'll bring Gian Marco in to go through some of the detail, but I think the starting point still is we've done a lot of work, with a lot of agreement on a large number of parts of the scheme. What we need to get right is all of the mechanics for that to take…
, Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister
Rural communities
I think our relationship has improved significantly in the last few months, actually, and that comes from a number of different things. So, we all know that the sustainable farming scheme comes at the end of a long period of consultation and work together…
, Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister
Rural communities
Good morning, Llyr.
, Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister
Rural communities
And to my right is Duncan Hamer.
, Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister
Rural communities
And Gian Marco, your neighbour.
, Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister
Rural communities
Indeed. To my left is Tracey Burke. Do you want to introduce yourself?
, Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister
Introductions, apologies and substitutions
I hope that he is driving safely or that someone is driving him, and I hope that, given the accident, nobody was seriously hurt as well.
, Plenary
Topical Questions
I think there are probably three brief points to make. The first is that, when complaints are made under the ministerial code, the First Minister does not always seek advice; some of them are straightforward to deal with. The usual practice is one that does…
