David Melding: Cabinet Secretary, the report urges the Welsh Government to use its levers ambitiously right across the scope of its activity to develop a sustainable energy strategy and, although the UK Government has a role to play as well, to focus on what the Welsh Government can do in terms of business rates, but also the public sector, which is a big purchaser of energy, and that we need to use our...
David Melding: I’ve been nice to you so far, but I note that barb. [Laughter.] In an attempt to move us back on to consensus, or a consensus, the report says that, to encourage more community-owned schemes, we need to look at greater use of co-operatives to attract funding. The Welsh Government talks big in this area and has a lot of support across the Assembly in doing that, but I hope that you will pick...
David Melding: Cabinet Secretary, a Department for Work and Pensions study found that those on universal credit were 8 per cent more likely to have found a job within 270 days than those who had claimed under jobseeker’s allowance. So, there are aspects of this new scheme that really are working. I do hope you have the grace to acknowledge that.
David Melding: Cabinet Secretary, I think it’s very important in this area that our expectations and ambitions are constantly increasing, and that’s a good thing. Of course, we’ve contributed a children’s commissioner and the first play strategy, and in fairness to the Government here, taken on the foundation phase. But we do need to look at other jurisdictions as well to make sure that we really...
David Melding: Could I just say that the Welsh Conservative group has no objection in principle to what Simon is intending to do, or would do if he got the opportunity to introduce a Bill here? However, we do think the practicalities play very heavily and need to be fully considered, and, in fairness, he did refer to them in his speech. But we do start from the concept of the circular economy. I think...
David Melding: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer, for your indulgence in calling me. Can I congratulate Lee Waters in proposing this motion? I think it’s very insightful, and just the sort of thing that we need to discuss more, really, anticipating and allowing ideas to flourish. I think the period between 1945 and 1980 was probably what will be viewed by historians as the great age of the blue-collar...
David Melding: 7. What discussions has the Cabinet Secretary had with local authorities to ensure the innovative use of funding to secure local youth services? OAQ(5)0124(FLG)
David Melding: Do you agree with me that the key point here is to be innovative? Obviously, under circumstances when budgets are under stress, we have to look at other sources of funding or partnerships, and given the level of salaries for chief executives and senior executives in local governments—very much larger than the Welsh Government Ministers and the First Minister are paid—they are in a...
David Melding: Can I commend the children’s committee—the Chair in particular, but also the other Members—for producing such a lucid and apposite report? I think this is very high-quality scrutiny, and just the sort of thing that Assembly committees should be doing. The key issue, obviously, is what happens when you approach questions to increase the mainstreaming as above ring fencing. This is...
David Melding: I think, like many Members in the Assembly today, I’ve found UKIP’s position here a rather strange one. It is a sort of mix of damning with faint praise or distorting the picture rather dramatically. They can’t quite agree as to whether the Welsh contribution to emissions is 0.04 per cent or 0.005 per cent. But, of course, the real issue is that, in terms of what our emissions are, they...
David Melding: I do agree with the point that the Member makes in terms of the likely impact on the environment of a return to coal being really massive. It is important that we have a general consensus in this Assembly—which I’m pleased to say the Welsh Government has put into effect in terms of public policy—of developing a low carbon economy. This is the right thing to do, and we don’t want a...
David Melding: Diolch yn fawr, Llywydd. I move amendment 30 in my name and I speak also to my amendment 31. Amendment 30 requires the Welsh Ministers to issue guidance to enforcement authorities, constables and authorised officers about entering premises used wholly or mainly as dwellings, that is, people’s homes under the Bill. It stems from a recommendation in the Constitutional and Legislative Affairs...
David Melding: Well, Presiding Officer, you’ll not be surprised that I’m entirely unconvinced by the Minister’s defence, really, of the Government’s obduracy, despite the very real concerns evidenced. One of the sources I quote is the Supreme Court. Can I, however, thank her for entering into correspondence and at least telling us of the Government’s position? That was helpful. The movement on...
David Melding: Minister, vocational education is very important to looked-after children, and can I welcome the very good news we had today about the number of looked-after children achieving the level 2 inclusive threshold, which now stands at 23 per cent? That’s still 37 per cent behind the peer group, and obviously we’ve got to get up to as close to the peer group as possible, but it is a 10...
David Melding: Well, I commend that study, because, if you look at Germany, clean air zones have been hugely successful in their cities, reducing soot emissions from exhausts by more than 50 per cent in Berlin, for instance. But these policies require behaviour change, encouraging cycling and the like, access to city areas and free parking for cleaner vehicles, and better use of existing infrastructure,...
David Melding: Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on NHS waiting times in South Wales Central?
David Melding: Cabinet Secretary, a recent survey by INRIX Roadway Analytics found that business in Cardiff was particularly badly impacted by congestion. I think we think we need to take these UK-wide surveys very seriously. Now, one way of relieving traffic at peak times is to invest in a Cardiff parkway railway station at St Mellons, and associated park-and-ride facilities. I think your decision to...
David Melding: Cabinet Secretary, you know that the vast range of new diagnostic equipment is very expensive and very, very effective, leading to more investigations sometimes, and using the new equipment as efficiently as possible is a key to reducing waiting lists—I mean in the evenings, for instance, and over weekends, which often provides more convenient appointment times for people who are in work...
David Melding: I can say I’m in great sympathy with the Member’s proposal, and until I saw this on the order paper I didn’t know that it was as prevalent as we now learn. And I do congratulate her for bringing forward an idea that clearly speaks to a great need at the moment, and a way that we could change the law and make it much more fit for purpose and protective of the most vulnerable.
David Melding: If this practice is evident—and I think we did hear evidence of that even in Wales, and it’s certainly evident in other parts of the United Kingdom—and, sorry to say, growing, it is obviously a morally repugnant practice. I don’t think anyone could look at the facts of this matter and feel otherwise. As Dawn said, the law may be ambiguous in this area and therefore should be...
