Mark Reckless: May I ask the Cabinet Secretary about the work of the task and finish group? What progress is being made to ensure that when people in school, often counsellors, make referrals of particular children to child and adolescent mental health services that those referrals are properly taken back, and are not, as some of the evidence we found as the Children, Young People and Education Committee,...
Mark Reckless: Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on the relationship between the School Organisation Code and rural school closures?
Mark Reckless: I'm afraid I don't have that number immediately to hand, but I think that 3.8 per cent unemployment rate will understate the eligible numbers, because to be unemployed on that definition you have to be actively seeking work, and the committee was looking to extend the definition somewhat to include those doing that and having education or training aimed at getting back into work, but I think...
Mark Reckless: I'm slightly puzzled by the conclusion to Michelle Brown's speech. I had understood that she supported the general principles of the Bill at the committee, but clearly has given it more and more thought or perhaps consulted with colleagues over the summer and will now be voting against them. However, it's equally if not even more difficult to understand where the Minister is on this. I was...
Mark Reckless: I thank the First Minister for his response. Last week, I chaired a Wales policy forum in Newport on building a western powerhouse, and I was surprised to listen to quite a lot of negative commentary from particularly the Plaid Cymru benches about this. And, yesterday, I think, a Plaid economist said it was 'an attack on the integrity of Wales'. Will the First Minister for the Welsh...
Mark Reckless: 3. What is the Welsh Government doing to improve economic links between Wales and south-west England? OAQ52568
Mark Reckless: Diolch, Llywydd. Does the way in which income tax is being partly devolved to Wales skew the incentives for Welsh Government in a tax-raising direction, in that we have the revenue benefit of any increase in the Welsh rate of tax, but any offsetting reduction across the tax base due to changes in behaviour as people face higher taxes—between half and three quarters of that loss of revenue...
Mark Reckless: Will the First Minister and his party get behind a deal with the EU on education or anything else? At Chequers, the Prime Minister went a long way towards the sort of Brexit that Labour claims to want. [Interruption.] But instead of welcoming that, they say they'll vote down any deal based on it to try and get a general election instead. Since that approach may lead to our leaving the EU...
Mark Reckless: Residents in the upper Valleys have often told me that one of the greatest barriers to travelling to Cardiff to seek work is not the frequency of service or necessarily the speed, but the cost. So, from that perspective, can I really welcome the agreement between Welsh Government and the new franchise holder to reduce the fares from the upper Valleys, and can I ask the Cabinet Secretary will...
Mark Reckless: Could I, in a sense, support Simon's call for a statement regarding the Trago Mills investment, but also including the confidentiality of correspondence for inward investors? My region benefited from £65 million, I understand, of investment in this site. Its head was condemned by both the Welsh language Minister and the Counsel General for expressing his view regarding bilingual signage. I...
Mark Reckless: First Minister, committee members from all parties, many education and health professionals, as well as schoolchildren, worked hard over many months to produce this report 'Mind over matter'. Our Chair then met with you personally to ask you to lead a cross-Government response, since we do need the health Secretary to engage with our work as much as the education Secretary. First Minister,...
Mark Reckless: 2. What steps will the Welsh Government take in response to the recommendations of the Children, Young People and Education Committee’s report, ‘Mind over matter’?
Mark Reckless: Thank you, acting Presiding Officer, and I'm sure some Members from the previous Assemblies will have fond memories come to mind of seeing you in the chair. May I also put my congratulations on the record for your investiture with a CBE yesterday from Prince Charles? The Petitions Committee, I was quite struck that the Petitions Committee was coming here today notwithstanding how long ago...
Mark Reckless: Why has Welsh Government, together with health boards, not done more to reign in the huge amount of spending on agency staff? Couldn't he have better control of these deficits if that was done?
Mark Reckless: As one of those with an interest in this area and who has discussed it previously with the Cabinet Secretary, it's very positive that, in Wales, we have the pupil development grant giving options to free-school-meals children, but also to looked-after children and to those who are adopted. And, of course, in most cases, adoptive parents will want the school to be aware and will want to make...
Mark Reckless: It's been announced that it'll be a £20 billion real-term increase, a 3.4 per cent real-terms increase per year averaged over six years, and that it will come partly from the money we currently pay to the EU, but the rest, and, potentially, even a larger part of it, to come from tax rises. Given how the Barnett formula functions, that spending then comes through to Wales where we would look...
Mark Reckless: —rather than carp and complain about Brexit. Yes.
Mark Reckless: I was, indeed, coming on to deal with that. The Government identified, I think, two sources of funding: firstly, the, I think, £20 billion gross, £10 billion net we give currently to the EU—a significant proportion of that would be redirected in future to the NHS. But in addition to that, and I think this is a really significant thing politically for a Conservative Government at...
Mark Reckless: Diolch. I was listening to Dai Lloyd, who I think speaks with greater practical authority than, perhaps, any of us can, as a doctor. All I really know about the NHS is from my family who work in it. My father was a doctor and my brother is a doctor, and my sister-in-law, my father-in-law, and my mother was a nurse—it goes on and on. I haven't taken that path myself, but I'm proud of what...
Mark Reckless: May I question the assumption that the baseline should automatically be changed to reflect the subsequent decisions of the remuneration board? Because I would question whether that is the way in which other public sector bodies operate. Very often, they'll prepare their budget on one set of assumptions and then things will change and they'll have to absorb those costs and make savings...
