Michelle Brown: Enforcing equal pay rights is made extremely difficult, if not impossible, by the lack of transparency regarding pay by employers. A worker can’t make a claim regarding equal pay unless they know what everyone else is being paid and have a comparator. Admittedly, the Welsh Government have no control over what private sector employers do. However, Welsh Government does have control over what...
Michelle Brown: The Welsh Government introduced the Animal Welfare (Breeding of Dogs) (Wales) Regulations in 2014, regulating the puppy industry in Wales. Can the Cabinet Secretary provide her assessment of the effectiveness or otherwise of that legislation, and how much funding, in particular, has been provided to local authorities to facilitate the enforcement of it?
Michelle Brown: Thank you for your statement, Cabinet Secretary, and thank you also to Professor Hazelkorn for all her work. I’ve read the report, obviously. It’s an excellent report, and it’s a very, very interesting report. The problems identified in this report have been raised in a variety of other reports since 2001. Those problems have been left unsolved since that time. The Hazelkorn report...
Michelle Brown: First Minister, how can you justify offering free prescriptions and additional childcare, regardless of income and at a huge cost, while the number of people waiting for orthopaedic treatment in north Wales has rocketed? Where are your priorities?
Michelle Brown: As has often been pointed out in this place and elsewhere, there is still a long list of patients who have been failed by Betsi Cadwaladr during the treatment of cancer and other illnesses. No clinician would wilfully neglect or let down a patient in their care. That these errors have happened and are continuing to happen is down to mismanagement by the local health board. What will the...
Michelle Brown: 7. What progress is being made by Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board in respect of cancer waiting times? OAQ(5)0105(HWS)
Michelle Brown: Thank you for your statement, Cabinet Secretary. You’re quite right that class size is a relevant factor for the educational attainment of children, and the Cabinet Secretary is also correct when she admits that class size isn’t the only factor that needs dealing with. What I wonder is why this initiative only attempts to deal with the issue of class sizes to improve education for...
Michelle Brown: Plaid have a point: buried cables would be better for the landscape than pylons, but it seems that Plaid are content to see energy prices for local people go through the roof, forgetting that not everyone earns as much as the Assembly Members who get to make the decisions. In the real world, many people are having a difficult time making ends meet and we ought to be doing all we can to ensure...
Michelle Brown: When New Labour’s hero, Tony Blair, said he regretted bringing in the Freedom of Information Act 2000, he didn’t mean because it didn’t go far enough; he meant it had given people access to information that he wished he hadn’t granted them. Tony Blair may have left office, but Welsh Labour are carrying on where he left off as far as hoping to keep information away from the public is...
Michelle Brown: Remaining in the EEA would allow the EU to continue making our trading laws, and require the free movement of people, which the majority of your constituents voted against. If a legislative consent motion comes before this place, will you vote with your constituents or with Jeremy Corbyn?
Michelle Brown: I accept that and I also argue that if our HEIs were to widen their net, they could actually be making a lot more money in the long term, and be more sustainable in the long term, than focusing on EU students who have to be offered the same terms as home students. Those currently working in UK universities will be allowed to stay. To say that they might not is, again, perhaps coming from a...
Michelle Brown: Whilst it can be a character-building experience attending higher education, the rush to turn every subject and vocation into a degree course has been a character-destroying experience for many young people. The jobs market has been flooded with graduates to the extent that their wages are lower than ever before, their debts are higher, and the taxpayer is footing a much larger bill for the...
Michelle Brown: At the end of 2015, the Labour Government said: It is important to remember that the employment of supply teachers does not fall within the powers currently devolved to the Welsh Government which means we are unable to set pay rates or compel local authorities to operate pools of supply teachers.’ If she gets these powers as part of further devolution, would the Cabinet Secretary impose a...
Michelle Brown: Okay. Thank you for that answer. In light of the comments from the director of the teachers’ union ATL Cymru that a substantial proportion of the money spent on supply staff goes to line the pockets of agencies, and that all parties should work together to develop a system that provides better value for money, better rewards for supply teachers, and above all, better education provision for...
Michelle Brown: Thank you, Presiding Officer. Does the Cabinet Secretary agree with me that if schools in Wales had more teachers on their full-time staff, they would not have to spend so much money on hiring supply staff?
Michelle Brown: Thank you for that answer, Cabinet Secretary. What measures are the Welsh Government taking to foster liaison and communication between Travellers and local settled communities that they move into?
Michelle Brown: Thank you. I know that the Cabinet Secretary is as concerned as I am about the welfare of our forces veterans. Has the Cabinet Secretary instructed local authorities to prioritise the housing of homeless veterans? If not, does the Cabinet Secretary intend to do so?
Michelle Brown: Thank you, Cabinet Secretary. Last November, the national sleeping rough count estimated that 240 people across Wales were sleeping rough during one week in November 2015. Granted, it’s an estimate, but many people will find themselves on the streets this Christmas, often through no fault of their own. What is the Welsh Government doing to address this problem and help rough sleepers escape...
Michelle Brown: Thank you, Presiding Officer. What assistance is the Welsh Government offering to owner-occupier families at risk of being evicted from their home by their mortgage company for mortgage arrears?
Michelle Brown: Will the Minister make a statement on actions the Welsh Government is taking to support the Traveller community, please?
