Mark Drakeford: Well, Llywydd, just to say, I've received advice from our officials in the Government, and what they've told me about the specific example that the Member is talking about, what they've said to me is that the original planning consent was granted specifically for holiday homes. So, they can't sell them to people who want to live there throughout the year because it is only as holiday homes...
Mark Drakeford: I thank Rhun ap Iorwerth for the question, Llywydd. Ensuring that development is based on a plan-led approach leads to communities having the housing, jobs and infrastructure they need. By following such an approach, it's the communities themselves that decide the right way for them.
Mark Drakeford: Well, Llywydd, I think it's important to set out some of the background to the issue that the Member highlights. We had agreed a joint set of proposals for a deposit-return scheme with the UK Government. We took part in a joint consultation on those joint set of proposals with them, and it is only in the post-consultation design of the DRS scheme that the UK Government for England decided to...
Mark Drakeford: Small, independent brewers are supported through a wide range of advice and finance available to micro, small and medium-sized businesses in Wales. That help comes, for example, through Business Wales and the Development Bank of Wales.
Mark Drakeford: The Chancellor of the Exchequer told us that it would be 'silly' of him—that's the word he used—it would be 'silly' of him to offer further help to people facing the cost-of-living crisis. As Carolyn Thomas said, you sometimes think—well, you don't think, you know—that these people do not live in the same world as the people who face those dreadful choices between whether they can...
Mark Drakeford: Llywydd, the cost-of-living crisis affects people across north Wales. Surging inflation, tax increases and a failure to protect incomes will result in a fall in living standards and put significant pressure on vulnerable households. We are doing all we can, within the powers we have, to provide support to them.
Mark Drakeford: Well, Llywydd, I thank Ken Skates for that question. It does take me back to the terms of the original question, asking us what we do to support the tourism sector, and one of the things that we do is to support the sector in extending the range of things that it has on offer and to extend the season over which it operates. And when Wrexham becomes, as I certainly hope it will, the city of...
Mark Drakeford: Well, Llywydd, I'll respond to the general point, because I can't be expected to give advice to somebody about their specific circumstances. In general, the position is this: where businesses are businesses, then of course they should be regulated under a business system, and they should take advantage, where they can, of any reliefs from business rates. If you're not letting a property for...
Mark Drakeford: I thank Russell George for that, Llywydd. We support the sector through advertising Wales at home and abroad, through revenue support and our £50 million Wales tourism investment fund. Our visitor levy will support the sector by increasing local authorities' investment in the future success of the industry.
Mark Drakeford: That's a really important point that the Member makes. I join with her in congratulating those people who've signed up to the Big Plastic Count. I do remember, Llywydd, myself taking a group of young people across the beach, Tenby North beach, in the year 2000 as part of the millennium great plastic count, and having it repeated so that we can see where patterns are changing, where progress...
Mark Drakeford: Well, Llywydd, Vikki Howells makes an important point there. In the waste hierarchy set out by the Welsh Government, the first thing we aim to do is to reduce waste in the first place, before we go on to reuse, repair and recycle, and reducing food waste has all sorts of other advantages beyond the narrowly environmental. During the pandemic, Llywydd, we were able to do more to work with...
Mark Drakeford: Llywydd, building on Wales's success to date, our priorities are to deliver the 70 per cent target by 2024-25, to bring forward the regulations to increase business and public sector recycling, to increase the recycling of key materials and to work with partners to accelerate the move to a circular economy.
Mark Drakeford: Well, I absolutely concur with what the leader of Plaid Cymru has said there, Llywydd. We've had no confirmed cases of monkeypox yet in Wales, but, when I discussed this yesterday with the health Minister and the deputy chief medical officer, he was very clear with us that this was just a matter of time. Wales is not immune from a disease of this sort. We're in the fortunate position, if...
Mark Drakeford: Llywydd, I absolutely understand when teachers say that they may lack confidence to know how to respond in what are complex territories, and where you may be anxious that you would inadvertently say the wrong thing and make the wrong response, and that you need to be better informed and trained in order to make sure that you can do that. It is absolutely part of our intention as a Government...
Mark Drakeford: Llywydd, I agree with Adam Price that the case, as we've heard about it, has been a shocking one, and our thoughts are of course with that young person and his family. No incidents of bullying, whatever their motivation, are acceptable in schools in Wales, and the incident itself is now being investigated by the Gwent Police, with the assistance of the local authority and others, and we must...
Mark Drakeford: Well, Llywydd, I've got used, over the many weeks of doing this, to the fact that the leader of the opposition very rarely listens to any answer that is provided, and simply ploughs on with whatever pre-prepared question he has in front of him, because I said exactly the opposite of what he has just suggested. I did my best to explain to him—I'll try again—that no money at all has gone to...
Mark Drakeford: Llywydd, of course, Green Man Festival has not got £4.25 million at all. What there is is an asset the Welsh Government holds that is worth more than that sum of money and which is, for the short term, leased back to the original owner in order that they can complete the bookings that they have in their tourism hospitality business and to make sure that the crops that have been planted at...
Mark Drakeford: They're both correct, Llywydd, because they're certainly not polar opposites. There is no plan to move the festival itself from its current successful site, but there is more that those who are responsible for the festival believe that they can do to contribute to the economy of that part of Wales, building on the success of their business. To do that they need more space in which to be able...
Mark Drakeford: Llywydd, I'm pleased to be able to say to the Member that just this afternoon my colleague Julie Morgan will be making an oral statement on the learning disability action plan. That plan has been drawn up with the direct and full engagement of those who work in the sector, those who provide services for people with a learning disability, and particularly with those organisations who speak on...
Mark Drakeford: Well, I thank the Member for the supplementary question, Llywydd. If she would like to write to me on the particular case that she's raised, then I'd be happy to look into the circumstances there. More generally, I've seen figures that demonstrate that almost 600 children with disabilities in her region are in receipt of services now in the area of childcare, and that number has increased...
