Delyth Jewell: Care homes have borne the brunt of the COVID-19 crisis, with care home residents accounting for around a third of all deaths. Now, the Welsh Government was allowing untested residents to enter care homes from hospital up until 23 April, which was an absolute scandal that Ministers will have to be held accountable for in an upcoming inquiry, even if they're not always keen to answer questions...
Delyth Jewell: The COVID crisis has clarified so many things: what's important to our society, what we want to change, why decisions should be made close to the people they affect, and the crisis has also given us glimpses into different futures, because this debate about independence isn't a remote constitutional question for tomorrow; it is grounded in the urgency of now. This week, the First Minister...
Delyth Jewell: First Minister, Shelter has found that 15,000 tenants in Wales face losing their homes due to rent arrears accrued during the lockdown. These debts have come about through no fault of their own, and uncertainty about the future is plaguing them. It's astonishing that in Wales it's still possible to be evicted into homelessness. I was glad, of course, that tenants have been given four more...
Delyth Jewell: 5. Will the First Minister make a statement on the local lockdown introduced in Caerphilly? OQ55522
Delyth Jewell: I thank the First Minister for his answer. When the lockdown was announced last week, it threw many residents in Caerphilly into confusion, and I was inundated with messages from people who are anxious to find out what effect it would have on their circumstances. It took nearly 24 hours before guidance was published clarifying where the parents who shared custody of their children and live on...
Delyth Jewell: Thank you, Minister, for the statement, and I do recognise the great work that you have been doing on this over the past few months. I do think the pandemic has made a number of people realise that we do need to upgrade the right to a home to be a human right and that it's something that can have an impact on everyone in society. I do welcome your commitment to seek to ensure that nobody...
Delyth Jewell: Counsel General, the behaviour of some Conservative MPs in last night's internal market Bill debate was deplorable. They continually misrepresented the facts through cynical contradiction, claiming the Bill conferred new devolved powers while gloating over the fact that it takes them away. It was particularly galling, and I'm sure that you'll agree with me, to hear the former Secretary of...
Delyth Jewell: Diolch, Llywydd. Minister, we are likely to see long-lasting changes to the housing market following COVID-19, not necessarily always for the better. People who can afford it may now want to buy large houses with open space and gardens and one that doesn't have to be as close to the office, and that could cause many people to be priced out of their communities. In our rural communities that's...
Delyth Jewell: I really welcome that; thank you, Minister. And I'm sure that we will certainly be very keen to work with you and to see what solutions can be found. So, thank you for your answer on that. Now, to turn to some remarks that you made a while back—I think it was shortly after you came to the portfolio. You'd referred to new estates that had come through the planning system as potentially...
Delyth Jewell: Thank you. And I know that some of this was ground that we covered yesterday, but I do welcome a lot of what you're saying. Now, as we've just seen from that exchange already, there's a lot that I think that our two parties do agree on: we agree that more affordable homes are needed throughout Wales; we agree that more social housing is needed; and that new estates should be supported by...
Delyth Jewell: I'm glad we're having this debate today and I would like to offer my own congratulations to the Chair, to the committee and clerking team for the work they did in undertaking this inquiry; it was before I was a member of the committee. A civilised society should be judged by the way it treats its most vulnerable citizens. There shouldn't be a stigma around receiving benefits and no-one should...
Delyth Jewell: 2. What is the Counsel General's legal analysis of the measures contained in the UK Internal Market Bill as they relate to Wales? OQ55533
Delyth Jewell: What assessment has the Welsh Government made of the impact of the UK Internal Market Bill on the Intergovernmental Agreement on the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill and the Establishment of Common Frameworks?
Delyth Jewell: I thank the Counsel General for that answer and I do agree with him. Counsel General, last week, you told me that the Welsh Government was prepared to work with others in the UK Parliament in order to protect Welsh democracy from this power grab that is inherent in the internal market Bill, as you've just alluded to, and I welcome that. Working in a cross-legislature way will be vital in the...
Delyth Jewell: Minister, residents in my region in Blaenau Gwent, in Caerphilly, in Merthyr and in Newport are now facing restrictions. I note the answer that you gave a few moments ago about how you're going to be keeping the restrictions under daily review, and I welcome that. Now that so many neighbouring authorities are facing restrictions, I'd ask would it make more sense to be thinking of...
Delyth Jewell: Will the Minister make a statement on the Welsh Government's policy on the land transaction tax?
Delyth Jewell: Thank you, Llywydd. Everyone should be able to live in the community in which they were brought up. The past few months have highlighted just how important it is to have a comfortable home to live in, not just four walls and a roof, but somewhere safe, somewhere comfortable, a home. Not a place, but a refuge. And a home is also part of the broader fabric of society, giving people an...
Delyth Jewell: 7. What discussions has the Welsh Government held with local authorities and other relevant partners about the suspension of care home visits? OQ55669
Delyth Jewell: I thank the First Minister for that answer. First Minister, the Older People's Commissioner for Wales, whom you just mentioned, has raised concerns about the impact that a blanket ban on visiting, in her words, could have on the health and well-being of care home residents. The need to prevent infections in care homes is of course of paramount importance, and I do appreciate that it's...
Delyth Jewell: Thank you. I'd like to thank the Minister for his statement and for providing a copy to us beforehand. I'm also grateful that he's been willing to release everything publicly. This is a lengthy report that contains a number of spending commitments that our party will have to carefully analyse, but in terms of the priorities set by Government, they do conform with what Plaid Cymru has been...
