Gareth Bennett: Thanks to the Minister for the panel’s report—sorry, for your statement today, and the report, as you said, is a long one, so I’m not sure I look forward that much to reading all of it, but I’m sure we can look at the salient points and discuss them later on. It’s encouraging that—[Interruption.] It’s encouraging that the stakeholders did deliver such a strong response. Now,...
Gareth Bennett: It is. I like to come up with new ideas—
Gareth Bennett: We don’t agree with your proposal that the Assembly should have veto power over any Brexit deal. I appreciate Dai Rees has just made some arguments to the contrary of what I’m going to say, but the Welsh Assembly doesn’t have any devolved powers to deal with immigration or international trade. What would actually happen if Theresa May did negotiate a Brexit deal and then the Welsh...
Gareth Bennett: I can’t take interventions this week, Rhun, because it’s election week. Back to normal next week. [Laughter.]
Gareth Bennett: Thanks to Plaid for bringing today's motion. Some of the ideas that they have we do actually partially agree with. On the funding issue, UKIP has always stated that funding to Wales lost from EU funding should be replaced by funding from Westminster. We have consistently supported that demand. We were speaking earlier about the procurement rules. Adam Price was talking about it. Now, the...
Gareth Bennett: Thank you, Chair, and thanks to the Conservatives for bringing today’s debate on a very important issue of affordable housing, and in particular affordable housing for young people. There are a variety of different ways in which we can take measures to help young people onto the housing ladder, some of which have been tried by the Government here in Cardiff Bay, but problems persist. The...
Gareth Bennett: Thanks for that. There seems to be a problem developing with school lollipop staff, or road-crossing assistants as they’re sometimes known, because the number has decreased by 23 per cent over the past three years. There isn’t currently any legal duty for councils to keep the crossing assistants, but, of course, they are needed to keep a perception of safe routes and will assist with...
Gareth Bennett: 8. Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on the budget allocated to the economy and infrastructure portfolio in relation to road safety? OAQ(5)0140(FLG)
Gareth Bennett: Thanks to the Minister for bringing the debate today. I’m not on any of the committees that scrutinised this Bill, and the issues that are being raised have been raised by my colleague Michelle Brown, who’s on the education committee and who can’t be here today. In principle, we do support the Bill. Introducing IDPs, providing it’s done properly, is a good idea. However, to ensure...
Gareth Bennett: Okay, thanks for that. Now, I know you’re also responsible for the Post Office. At First Minister’s question’s last week, the First Minister was highlighting the need for co-location, which is something we’ve talked about in a lot of different policy areas. I wondered if there was any possibility of encouraging pubs perhaps to co-locate with post offices, if that might be a way...
Gareth Bennett: Okay, thanks for that. I’ll await the announcement obviously, but some ideas have been aired by CAMRA in the past. I don’t know if it’s perhaps premature to ask what your thoughts are on these. One of them pertains to—it’s slightly crossing over portfolios, I appreciate—planning and it’s the ease with which pubs in Wales can be changed by the owners, by pub chains, from pubs...
Gareth Bennett: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I think there was welcome news recently from your colleague Lesley Griffiths about potentially including the ‘agent of change’ rule in planning regulations with regard to the protection of live music. I think that that’s a welcome development. It’s something that could help pubs that put on live music shows. There may be other ways in which the...
Gareth Bennett: May I add my welcome to the other welcomes back that you’ve had, Minister? We’ve had some interesting ideas lately that may help to reduce littering. I’m thinking in terms of ideas about tackling the issue of excess packaging on food. It may be premature to ask you this, but what are your initial thoughts about whether that may be a good thing?
Gareth Bennett: Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on the maintenance of footpaths and bridleways in Wales?
Gareth Bennett: Thanks to the Minister for his statement today. You referred in your statement to the rapid technological changes in the ways in which passengers can order taxis these days. You didn’t specifically mention Uber in your statement, but of course you did then talk about Uber in response to one of the contributors. It’s a somewhat difficult issue. Yes, many drivers are worried about the...
Gareth Bennett: One of the harder things to achieve with public transport is the travel card that enables passengers to travel on different types of transport. I know that your Government is going to be involved with negotiating the new rail franchises. How much of a priority will providing that kind of travel card form in your talks with the rail companies?
Gareth Bennett: Do you also agree with the spending on consultants, though, which has doubled to more than £1 billion a year since 2012—[Interruption]—benefits experts, right. Benefitting many expert companies in accountancy, like PricewaterhouseCoopers, who are not particularly known for their ethical practices, but if you want to carry on giving these—[Interruption].
Gareth Bennett: In 1964, a Labour Government under Harold Wilson was elected. It was a Government that immediately made departmental changes with five new Government ministries being set up. One of them, interestingly, was the Welsh Office. Another more pertinent to today’s debate was the Ministry of Overseas Development, headed by Barbara Castle. That was perhaps the start of the overseas aid industry....
Gareth Bennett: Thanks to the Conservatives for bringing today’s motion. As the motion states, there are a multitude of risks that children face using the internet these days, many of which have been outlined in the various contributions today, including cyber-bullying, addictions to gambling, sexual grooming, the encouragement of self-harming and also, as Llyr mentioned, the overall health problems that...
Gareth Bennett: Like David Melding, I wasn’t really aware of this issue until I saw what appeared on the agenda for today’s Plenary session. So, I’ve looked at the adverts on Craigslist and they were a bit of an eye-opener. I was somewhat surprised to see discounted rent being offered fairly openly for sexual favours, and, clearly, this is a regrettable development that we have, caused by issues that...
