Carwyn Jones: That, again, needs further investigation. If the leader of Plaid Cymru will allow me, I will investigate those further matters as well, and when a response is received, I will of course share that with her.
Carwyn Jones: First of all, if we look at unemployment, unemployment is low in Wales, and is often lower than the UK average. In 1999 it would have been fanciful to claim that. We were perpetually above the UK average and that is something that shows the success of what we've done to encourage business and investment. Secondly, there is a challenge in terms of increasing GVA per head. How is that done? To...
Carwyn Jones: Well, it's already the case that we know there are challenges with automation. Indeed, my colleague Lee Waters, I think, has got a short debate on this tomorrow, on automation. He is somebody who has been very keen to make sure that we look at the fourth industrial revolution, as it's described, and I know it's something that the Cabinet Secretary is very much aware of. Hope—the hope is...
Carwyn Jones: Well, I think he means 'Ladybird' book, rather than 'ladybook'. I trust that is the case. But he asks the question: 'Am I confident in the land transaction tax and the tax environment it creates?' The answer to that is 'yes'. Am I confident that what we're doing as a Government adapts—. You mentioned the fact that there were four different plans—well, of course there are. If we'd still...
Carwyn Jones: Standards can best be raised when partners work together. This year, £60 million has been provided via the integrated care fund to support health and social services to deliver a wide range of integrated services in response to their population assessments.
Carwyn Jones: Can I thank my colleague for that question? First of all, if he wishes to write to me with further details, I will look at the individual case more closely. Secondly, he asked particularly about the guidance. I can say that that process has begun. We are setting up a group to consider the provision of continuing care for children and young people, and to look to produce new guidance to...
Carwyn Jones: Can I say that I'm aware, of course, that the review itself is a cross-party review? And I think the review deserves full consideration by all parties, with a full response. What I can say to her, though: she makes the point, obviously sensibly, that we want to see borders removed. I know that the review laid out a vision of seamless health and care without artificial boundaries between...
Carwyn Jones: Well, I will ask the Cabinet Secretary to write to the Member in order to ensure that a full response is given to his question.FootnoteLink
Carwyn Jones: That shouldn't happen, of course. It's a matter for all local authorities to ensure that doesn't happen. The integrated care fund is designed to ensure that the barriers that stop people leaving hospital in order to return home are reduced, and indeed removed. I can say that the latest published figures on delayed transfers of care do record a reduction of 0.7 per cent in the number of delays...
Carwyn Jones: Information on the introduction of Superfast Cymru is available on the Welsh Government website, and providing effective information will be on a key requirement of any future project.
Carwyn Jones: It has not been adequate. There was a campaign over the past three years, going on until next year, in order to promote the use of superfast broadband, and we are reconsidering how we can improve the communication on this, so that the people who have this service can receive it and understand that it's there. It's one thing that the infrastructure is available, but it's another to ensure that...
Carwyn Jones: First of all, we're in the hands of BT in terms of the physical works that are taken forward. What I can say is, I do understand that there are people who now feel, because the contract has come to an end, therefore nothing else will happen. Can I say to the Member that we are considering what further steps we can now take? I understand. I've heard stories around Wales that, literally,...
Carwyn Jones: Well, I can well imagine the concern, if not anger, that people in Bynea feel. I think, from the Member's tone, this was part of the Superfast Cymru contract rather than a commercial contract, over which, of course, we have no control, but it is something that we'll continue to address with BT with a view to looking again at communities that were promised, or appear to have been promised, to...
Carwyn Jones: Our financial inclusion delivery plan sets out our work with partner organisations. This is improving access to affordable credit, financial services and financial information, and improving financial capability in Wales.
Carwyn Jones: I sympathise greatly with what the Member is saying. May I pay tribute to her for the work that she has done in order to ensure that people get the help that they need—
Carwyn Jones: —and aren't, of course, in a situation where they have to borrow money from people who would charge them a great deal for borrowing that money? It is true to say that there is more potential in credit unions. It's true to say that in Ireland, where they've been for much longer than in Wales, the credit unions there can lend a great deal of money when compared with the credit unions in...
Carwyn Jones: Firstly, I agree entirely with him about the need for young people to be financially educated. I think part of the problem is that money, despite what happened in 2008, still appears to be freely available in a way that it wasn't when I was younger, when loans were not as freely available as they are now. In the days when—well, my first car loan carried an interest rate of 29 per cent; I...
Carwyn Jones: Well, we've made representations very strongly. We get 1.5 per cent of railway infrastructure investment—1.5 per cent. On a balanced share, it would be over 6 per cent, but that's not what we get. And still the UK Government refused to devolve railway infrastructure plus a Barnett share of that spending to us. We still have no decision on the tidal lagoon. We made the point last week. We...
Carwyn Jones: Well, public spaces protection orders are a matter for local authorities.
Carwyn Jones: One of the things I noticed in the late 1980s, when I first went to London, was that there were people begging on the streets—numbers of them. And I remember thinking, 'Oh, I wouldn't like to see this in Wales.' But it happened, in the 1990s, and it's still there now, as we know. At the end of the second world war, begging largely disappeared from the streets of the UK. It re-emerged under...
