Mark Isherwood: I raise two items of business. First, I call for a statement acknowledging that yesterday marked the beginning of the tenth UK National Apprenticeship Week, not to recycle the arguments we’ve already had here around the levy, but the broader issues that are being brought to the fore. For example, many charities, like the National Deaf Children’s Society, are disappointed, putting it...
Mark Isherwood: The head of the PSA Group, which is buying General Motors’ European units said, I believe yesterday, that Brexit means it may be more not less important to have manufacturing in the UK. He insisted that the new combined company would have an opportunity to set new internal benchmarks for performance, but he also said that this will allow plants to be compared and improve; and, of course,...
Mark Isherwood: After Action for ME delivered an employment support programme for people with ME with the North Bristol NHS Trust, 72 per cent of clients achieved their employment goals. How will you ensure, therefore, that the Welsh Government, looking at the good practice very nearby across the border, will address the barriers faced by people with long-term, fluctuating conditions such as myalgic...
Mark Isherwood: 3. How is the Welsh Government helping to reduce the barriers to employment for people with long-term, fluctuating health conditions? OAQ(5)0481(FM)
Mark Isherwood: Will you give way? Why, given what you’re saying, does Wales have the highest percentage of employees not on permanent contracts amongst the UK nations and regions, according to the latest report from the Carnegie UK Trust?
Mark Isherwood: How is the Welsh Government improving rail connectivity in North Wales?
Mark Isherwood: Will you take an intervention?
Mark Isherwood: Sorry, you may be about to answer my question, but do you welcome the fact that the four non-profit community banks in Responsible Finance are already working with the Welsh Local Government Association, Cartrefi Cymru, the Wales Co-operative Centre and others to develop the very sort of model that you’re proposing?
Mark Isherwood: Diolch, Lywydd. Having an accessible local branch is important for older people, those without transport or internet access, shopkeepers, small businesses and others. Unlike the idiots who were allowed to wreck our banking system, I am a qualified banker, previously working in the building society sector, mutual, who has campaigned against branch closures in both sectors. Speaking here in...
Mark Isherwood: Stonewall Cymru have stated that 55 per cent of LGB pupils have experienced bullying on the basis of their sexual orientation; 83 per cent of trans young people have experienced verbal abuse and 35 per cent have experienced physical assault. When I pursued the case of a Flintshire schoolboy victim of homophobic bullying, I was told by a chief education officer that the secondary schools in...
Mark Isherwood: With the Home Office continuing to overlay its needs-based formula with a floor mechanism, we heard that all police forces in Wales and England will receive the same 1.4 per cent reduction in 2017-18. We note that the three-way police funding settlement in Wales, involving the Home Office, Welsh Government and council tax, follows consultation with the four Welsh police forces, with £349.9...
Mark Isherwood: If I may, how do you respond to their statement that the 2012 programme, the clusters programme, actually, in terms of their evidence, led to a loss of local ownership, which, in some cases, has been critical in reducing local support and the effectiveness of Communities First and its work? And, finally, if I may, you refer to building on the success of Communities First—sorry, Communities...
Mark Isherwood: [Continues.]—five to 10 times higher. Thank you.
Mark Isherwood: And they also—
Mark Isherwood: In drafting this statement, and your proposed or announced way forward, what consideration have you given to the Welsh Government grant-funded ‘Valuing place’ report by the Young Foundation, which was only launched in the Assembly a week ago today, based upon research with people from Aberystwyth, Connah’s Quay and Port Talbot? It was commissioned and funded by the Welsh Government. It...
Mark Isherwood: As the Prime Minister said in her Lancaster speech last month: ‘I want Britain to be what we have the potential, talent and ambition to be. A great, global trading nation that is respected around the world and strong, confident and united at home.’ She said this is why this UK Government has a plan for Britain that: ‘sets out how we will use this moment of change to build a stronger...
Mark Isherwood: I’ve just hotfooted it over with some of your colleagues from the cross-party autism group meeting in the Pierhead. At our previous meeting, we took a presentation from the Autistic Women’s Empowerment Project, discussing the different presentations of autism in women and girls and suggesting that the ratio—the accepted ratio of five boys to one girl—should actually be a lot closer....
Mark Isherwood: ‘That agreement may take in elements of current single market arrangements in certain areas—on the export of cars and lorries for example, or the freedom to provide financial services across national borders—as it makes no sense to start again from scratch when Britain and the remaining Member States have adhered to the same rules for so many years.’ But she respects, she said, the...
Mark Isherwood: No, the first is the means to the second. Although the Labour and Plaid Cymru White Paper calls for full and unfettered access to the EU single market, and although EU rules make this impossible after border control is restored to the UK, this is not inconsistent with the UK Government’s desire for a free trade deal without membership. The Prime Minister has been very clear that she wants a...
Mark Isherwood: I haven’t got time. I welcome the fact that Spain, for example, is saying that this is going to be a priority with negotiations, because they accept this needs to be dealt with also. As the Labour and Plaid Cymru White Paper states, cross-border collaboration in research and development, such as Horizon 2020, and international exchange programmes, such as ERASMUS+, should continue after...
