Mark Drakeford: Llywydd, improving energy efficiency of homes in the social rented sector is progressing through the Welsh Government's £220 million optimised retrofit programme and the Welsh quality housing standards. Plans to assist those in privately owned and privately rented sectors, through the Warm Homes programme, will be announced in the autumn.
Mark Drakeford: The Welsh ambulance service remains under ongoing pressure due to a range of local and national factors. This year, the Welsh Ambulance Services NHS Trust will receive almost £5 million additional funding to increase emergency ambulance capacity and improve response times for the most seriously ill people in our communities.
Mark Drakeford: We published the Learner Travel (Wales) Measure 2008 Review on 31 March 2022. Officials are putting in place a comprehensive engagement programme that will ensure that all our stakeholders have the opportunity to contribute to the subsequent wider Learner Travel (Wales) review.
Mark Drakeford: Our policy, 'Guidance for the Acquisition of Property Assets by Welsh Government', was published in July 2020. It remains in place.
Mark Drakeford: The Welsh Government operates a social partnership approach, bringing people together to promote fair work and better jobs.
Mark Drakeford: Well, Llywydd, let me be clear: the Welsh Government does not support the privatisation of this important asset. We want to see the centre developing in the way that I've described, moving beyond the seasonal use that focuses mainly on water activity. And, in doing that, I and the Minister expect the development to be discussed carefully with the local workforce and the ownership of the...
Mark Drakeford: Thank you very much, Siân Gwenllian. Llywydd, it is the responsibility of Sport Wales to manage Plas Menai, the National Outdoor Centre. Its future should be built on the strong reputation of the centre, providing thriving outdoor adventure all year round. It should also secure more local jobs and a greater impact on the local economy through that process.
Mark Drakeford: Well, we already have a system, Llywydd. When we look into what's going on in any health board, three bodies come together to provide advice to the Minister, and they can provide advice on all of the boards or they can say that we need to provide support for any board working in any area or any part of the health service. I haven't seen anything from the people coming together to advise us to...
Mark Drakeford: I thank Heledd Fychan. Llywydd, we continue to provide significant and sustained funding to support mental health services across Wales. Over and above its core mental health funding, Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board will receive an additional £3.3 million of recurrent service funding this year to invest in improved mental health provision.
Mark Drakeford: Well, I thank Huw Irranca-Davies for that, Llywydd. He's right that the long-term answer—and by 'long term' I mean during this Senedd term—is the radical reform of bus services that we will bring forward through the bus Bill, to reverse those 30 and more years of marketisation in the bus industry, which has left communities of the sort that Huw Irranca-Davies has referred to without a...
Mark Drakeford: Can I thank Huw Irranca-Davies, Llywydd? Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have worked closely with the bus industry to keep services running, providing £130 million of additional funding to prevent communities from becoming isolated.
Mark Drakeford: Well, can I thank Sam Kurtz for that, because he makes very important points about the significance of Welsh language journalism? And the Welsh Government does, again, invest directly in this area in a way that is justified by the language component of it. So, the Welsh books council has a ring-fenced budget that funds Golwg360, Corgi Cymru and other news outlets. The changing nature of...
Mark Drakeford: I thank John Griffiths for that, Llywydd. I was very pleased to be able to send a message of congratulations to the South Wales Argus a week or so ago on its hundred-and-thirtieth birthday. John Griffiths is right, Llywydd, that the appetite for news about Wales and decisions being made in Wales was undoubtedly lifted by the experience of the pandemic. The Welsh Government has carried out...
Mark Drakeford: I thank John Griffiths for that question, Llywydd. Amongst the actions taken to promote Welsh-based journalism is a commitment to provide financial support to public interest journalism. That support will continue over three financial years, as confirmed in the co-operation agreement.
Mark Drakeford: Had the Member been listening to my previous answer, he would have heard the answer to his question. If we are to have an inquiry, then it would be helpful, wouldn't it, to establish some basic accuracy in the facts that people put forward. It is simply not the case, Llywydd, as the Member suggested, that the number of children on child protection registers was growing in Wales in the period...
Mark Drakeford: I thank the Member for that important question. She makes a series of points that absolutely deserve to be thought through carefully. I've said many, many times on the floor of the Senedd that the rate at which children are taken away from their families in Wales is unsustainable and that the gap between the rate at which children in Wales are taken into public care continues to accelerate...
Mark Drakeford: We're providing additional funding to local authorities to safely divert cases from the child protection register using procedures that were developed in partnership with safeguarding boards. The Welsh Government works closely with those regional partnership boards, and with local authorities themselves, to strengthen and improve safeguarding practices across Wales.
Mark Drakeford: My starting point is the same as Penny Mordaunt's—the UK Minister responsible at the time—who said that the UK Government's starting point was that transgender women are women. That's my starting point in this debate. It is a difficult area where people feel very strongly on different sides of an argument, and an argument that divides people who agree on most other things. What I say to...
Mark Drakeford: Llywydd, Sport Wales was established by royal charter on 4 February 1972. Since 1999, it, rather than UK bodies, has been responsible for inclusion policy in sport in Wales. The council nevertheless works with other sports organisations and, together, published joint advice on transgender inclusion in domestic sport in September of last year.
Mark Drakeford: Well, Llywydd, Adam Price touched on an issue there that we should not duck, should we? You know, we are absolutely delighted that Wales will be represented at Qatar, but we should not look the other way from the reservations that we would have as a nation from some of those human rights issues that we see there. And when my colleague Vaughan Gething was in Qatar in May, he took the...
