Mr Simon Thomas: I’ll come to incineration later on in my remarks. Hopefully, I’ll address some of that in a moment. Rwyf hefyd yn meddwl bod yna gyfle i ddefnyddio’r pwerau trethu newydd fel mae’r Ysgrifennydd Cabinet newydd ei grybwyll. Rwy’n siomedig, a dweud y gwir, gyda geiriad y gwelliant gan y blaid Dorïaidd yn y cyd-destun yma. Os edrychwch chi ar yr ychydig o wledydd sydd yn ailgylchu...
Mr Simon Thomas: Indeed.
Mr Simon Thomas: Thank you, Llywydd, and I move those amendments. May I welcome the fact that we are discussing a success in this area and the fact that the Government has ambition and wants to raise recycling levels even more and move towards a no-waste economy? Plaid Cymru’s amendments turn around the fact that although there is ambition, there’s always room for greater ambition in my view. Given that...
Mr Simon Thomas: Will the Minister give way?
Mr Simon Thomas: I’m particularly interested in what she’s just said about a disposable plastics tax; as she may be aware, that was actually in Plaid Cymru’s manifesto and that’s the one of the four taxes that we particularly want to promote at this stage. But does she also bear in mind that there might be greater support amongst the Welsh public for a new tax if it was clearly designed to change...
Mr Simon Thomas: I’m sure you’re aware, leader of the house, that many of us who represent Pembrokeshire have been enthusiastic supporters of Elly’s ward 10 flag appeal. This is a wonderful fundraising effort led by a seven-year-old girl, possibly eight-year-old now, who’s raised over £120,000 for ward 10 and cancer patients in Withybush hospital. It’s a magnificent community effort as well...
Mr Simon Thomas: Thank you for that response, First Minister.
Mr Simon Thomas: You’ll be aware that, under that law, the Minister today had to issue a statutory warning following a social services inspection of the children’s services in Powys. That report, published at midday today, makes very disturbing reading. If I can just quote a key paragraph for me: ‘There was a lack of assessment in child protection cases, a lack of a sexual exploitation risk assessment...
Mr Simon Thomas: 5. What steps is the Welsh Government taking in relation to safeguarding children in Mid and West Wales? (OAQ51221)[W]
Mr Simon Thomas: Thank you, Chair. Can I not repeat some of the issues that have been already raised, but just speak particularly for the port of Milford Haven in my region? We’ve heard, now, that Holyhead is the biggest passenger port, but Milford Haven is the biggest energy port, and some 5,000 jobs are reliant on the energy that comes through the port of Milford Haven. But there are other developments...
Mr Simon Thomas: I thank the Member for giving way. I share his concerns. He’s talked about ferry ports, and we think about people, but, just for example, the port at Milford Haven has some 2,000 tonnes of Irish seafood coming through it on to the continental markets, and we’d want that to continue to come through Wales, but also to add value to it, perhaps, in development in Milford Haven. That’s an...
Mr Simon Thomas: I thank the Counsel General for his reply. Can I ask him whether he’s seen the paper published by Plaid Cymru this week on the EU withdrawal Bill, ‘The EU Withdrawal Bill—A Legal Perspective: the constitutional implications for Wales’, authored by Fflur Jones? I’d be very happy to e-mail him a copy. There are several arguments set out by Fflur Jones in this paper, two of them I’d...
Mr Simon Thomas: Thank you for that usual response. I hope, as the Member for Pontypridd, you could join with me in welcoming and congratulating a Pontypridd boy, David Lloyd Jones, on his appointment to the Supreme Court. He took his oath in Welsh in the Supreme Court, which was also to be welcomed, and I think you were there to witness that. There are two things emerging from the fact that David Lloyd Jones...
Mr Simon Thomas: 1. What discussions has the Counsel General held with law officers regarding appointments to the Supreme Court? (OAQ51164)[W]
Mr Simon Thomas: 5. What discussions has the Counsel General held regarding the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill? (OAQ51163)[W]
Mr Simon Thomas: Could I ask for two Government statements—or a Government statement and, I think, a Government debate, actually? First of all to the statement. The leader of the house will be aware that today is an important day in our fellow Parliament in Catalunya, when they have a very important decision to respond to a referendum that was disrupted by the Spanish police with aggression and violence,...
Mr Simon Thomas: Will you give way?
Mr Simon Thomas: I understand what the Minister’s saying, certainly regarding some of the competence issues and so forth around a formal personal carbon account scheme, but the concept that each of us in Wales knows what our personal carbon is—how we use it, how we spend it, linking into Jenny Rathbone’s points around food production as well—is something I imagine the Welsh Government could do...
Mr Simon Thomas: It was 10 years ago, mind.
Mr Simon Thomas: Thank you. A quick change, Deputy Presiding Officer, and I would just suggest to Members, if you’ve had enough of me already then consider having more Members in the Assembly so that we can share around the work a little bit. [Laughter.] But I’m delighted to introduce a backbench Members debate on the concept of our own personal carbon accounts. The context of this, of course, is that the...
