Mark Reckless: Will the Cabinet Secretary confirm that this has been a real consultation, that she’s listened to farmers and to their representative groups and that the policy has firmed up as this has developed? Some months ago, I was sceptical of the Climate Change, Environment and Rural Affairs Committee doing an inquiry on this; I feared that people would have entrenched positions and that there...
Mark Reckless: Cabinet Secretary, you were saying on amendment 18 you’re taking a broader power, by regulation, to modify provisions relating to the taxable weight of material. I wanted to ask you: did you envisage using this in respect of the issue of when the material is weighed—an issue that we discussed at Stage 1—because the initial Bill, at section 20, said that ‘The operator of an authorised...
Mark Reckless: What impact does the Cabinet Secretary expect the specialist and critical care centre to have on waiting times over the medium term and can he confirm when building of this will start and when he expects it to actually open for patients?
Mark Reckless: Does he agree with me that, if Plaid Cymru had done a deal with the Conservative Government, it would have given them 322 seats and, excluding Sinn Féin, that would have been an overall majority? We could have got quite some things for Wales with that, couldn’t we?
Mark Reckless: 8. Will the Cabinet Secretary provide an estimate of the number of farms suffering from bovine TB that are able to remove and humanely kill infected badgers? OAQ(5)0159(ERA)
Mark Reckless: What Welsh Government schemes are available to help community groups looking to improve local parks and facilities in Newport?
Mark Reckless: I know those 50 to 60 farmers will appreciate that opportunity. Could the Cabinet Secretary say perhaps on what timescale they might be able to do that and whether she then expects there to be expansion of those numbers? And can she also confirm that it’s only infected badgers that will be humanely killed? Does she agree with me that that actually could be the humane thing to do for the...
Mark Reckless: Even if I’m not able to congratulate the Chair of the committee on obtaining the debate, I very much want to congratulate him on his speech and for collecting the cup and what he is doing with the committee. I very much want to distinguish what I said last week about the allocation of Chairs and Standing Orders from welcoming him personally to the position, and I only hope he enjoys it as...
Mark Reckless: Will you take an intervention?
Mark Reckless: I notice the Cabinet Secretary, in her response, said that it was absolutely crucial to maintain the single market and the free movement of goods, services, and capital—no reference to labour, workers or people in the Government response. I believe the whole Chamber would support free and unfettered access, as frictionless as possible, to the single market, and in particular no tariffs. I...
Mark Reckless: Will you give way?
Mark Reckless: Can I just say, it wasn’t my report, it’s the committee’s report as a whole? I agree, without subsidy, it will be very, very difficult to see that sort of sheep-farming landscape—upland farmers—survive anything like they do now. One thing we saw in the report is the value of that landscape to tourists and people who come to Wales and I think it should be a priority, with the money...
Mark Reckless: Can the First Minister give an assurance that no school that has a successful model for them of supply cover will have that replaced by a top-down model applied across all schools, whether in Wales or by local authority?
Mark Reckless: Gosh, that was a lot of new taxes from Mike Hedges. I’m not sure whether the diesel tax would operate quite in Swansea as it might in Newport or Monmouth. But I first looked at today’s motion and read ‘it will be necessary to test this new aspect of the devolution machinery.’ My first reaction was: ‘Why?’ Surely a prerequisite is wanting to impose a new tax, and many people in...
Mark Reckless: Will the First Minister make a statement regarding his assessment of the continuation of the common travel area post Brexit?
Mark Reckless: Will the Member give way? If all this is as positive as she describes, why not just publish the information so the public can see how much of this time is given?
Mark Reckless: Is the Counsel General aware that Lord Kerr’s own record of involvement and support for the European Union is almost as lengthy as Eluned Morgan, and perhaps his view on the revocability or otherwise of article 50 might be seen in that light. I was disappointed that the Counsel General was drawn rather further on his second response than he was in the first, because isn’t it the case that...
Mark Reckless: The Public Accounts Committee concluded that RIFW and Welsh Government lost the taxpayer tens of millions of pounds. Yet, the Welsh Government has claimed it’s not possible to demonstrate that land was sold under value. In responding to the PAC, Welsh Government confirmed that a legal process had been initiated, and said further legal steps were under review. Will the First Minister confirm...
Mark Reckless: Will the Member give way?
Mark Reckless: In introducing this debate, the Chair of the committee said that he found this quite extraordinary: what had happened at NRW. Is the Member saying that, conversely, in his view, he thinks this is fairly normal behaviour across the public sector in Wales?
