Vaughan Gething: On your final point, part of our challenge is that the three areas you mention have had new ideas, they've had a conference of lots of people, and capital has then gone into lots of those new ideas and it's been kept there. Part of our challenge in the way innovation funding works in the UK is that Oxbridge is one of the areas in the golden triangle, with some London institutions, where it...
Vaughan Gething: I wouldn't say it'll fatally undermine confidence in the sector. I don't think it'll kill off everything that exists, but it will cause real damage—damage that is avoidable as well. But the problem is that choices that have been made at a UK level take that money out of the sector, and the deliberate design of the shared prosperity fund in particular was to exclude higher education from...
Vaughan Gething: Great. Thank you. Thank you for the two questions. I think, on your last point first, there's a recognition that clusters aren't just geographic; the clusters of industry sectors and how we draw people together and the connectivity between them as well—. You're right, you wouldn't expect aquaculture in the Cynon Valley necessarily to be a big deal, but it's a big opportunity for Wales when...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you for the questions. Your point about innovation assets and the example of GCRE, the Global Centre for Rail Excellence, is exactly what I had in my mind, about something where the Welsh Government took a lead, made a choice and saw a gap where something did not exist and we had the potential to create something in Wales, and that's actually levered in money directly from the UK...
Vaughan Gething: Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. I'm pleased to publish the net-zero skills action plan today. The plan is an important first step in understanding the role of skills in making a just transition to net zero. Our net-zero ambitions include a better, fairer and greener future for us all. Skills are a key enabler to deliver on these ambitions, to ensure the transition is fair and that the most vulnerable...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you for the questions. I think on your final point, there's a point that goes beyond trading-standards work and is more about public-facing accreditation to give people assurance. If you think about the way that—. On your point about solar panels, when I was genuinely young, growing up, on our house we had two solar panels. It was very, very unusual, yet now there's been a real...
Vaughan Gething: The point about the just transition is something that, as I say, is very much in Ministers' minds in the choices we make about the opportunity, but also the disruption, that moving to a different way of working in a whole range of sectors offers. I think, on the point about what are green skills, I covered that in my statement. The Office for National Statistics will be, I think, helpful in...
Vaughan Gething: On the starting point, the strategy has been published, it's available on the Welsh Government website. And it's not just the actions; I think the Member would find some interest in the eight emission sectors, because one of them is residential buildings. We're looking at what happens already as an emissions sector, as well as opportunities to make sure that fewer emissions actually take...
Vaughan Gething: It's part of the point about the eight emissions sectors and the action plans for each one of them, making sure they join up with not just the Net Zero Wales plan, but that we actually have some consistency and understanding within those regional skills partnerships, within the growth deal areas as well, where people are collaborating more effectively, so across north Wales as well as the...
Vaughan Gething: That's a key objective to what we're looking to do and the opportunities the Member highlights. I've said regularly in this Chamber I don't just want to see a decarbonisation of the way that power is produced; I want to see the economic opportunities as locally as possible. I don't want to see those opportunities taken up in France and in Spain in the manufacture of the equipment and in the...
Vaughan Gething: We will be using all possible levers of support for RD&I in South Wales West. The loss of EU funds is challenging, but our new Innovation Strategy makes a commitment to drive up investment from UK government and to be collaborative and competitive in order to access sources of funding.
Vaughan Gething: We are working with public bodies to embed Foundational Economy approaches in their activity to help retain wealth within our communities and improve their wellbeing; shorten supply chains to reduce carbon emissions; build a strong Welsh supply base; and improve employment conditions and pay for workers.
Vaughan Gething: Thank you. The Business Wales youth entrepreneurship service encourages the next generation of entrepreneurs in Wales. It supports entrepreneurial ambition, and provides practical advice to take their ideas forward. Since 2016, 5,000 young people have been supported with start-up advice, and almost 700 have started a business. This, of course, is now being enhanced by the young person’s...
Vaughan Gething: I'd be very happy if the Member were to write to me with the detail of the scheme that he has identified. As I said in my initial answer, we have a range of support services that are available. Business Wales is still the front door, so if anyone is concerned or doesn't understand the individual scheme, they can go to Business Wales and they can help to guide people through, and, also, those...
Vaughan Gething: Tackling digital exclusion is one of the key aims of our strategy, and there's a number of different strands. There's our work with the UK Government on the reserved responsibility for infrastructure. I've had a number of meetings with my officials and, indeed, with the current UK Minister—I think it's Minister Lopez, in the newly rebadged DCMS—and we're looking at how they are going to...
Vaughan Gething: Look, I don't think it's particularly helpful or sensible to attempt to compare an entirely different issue with how we use Welsh Government budgets. If you want to have a conversation about the size and capability of this place, we could do that. When it comes to the reality of our budget, it's just undeniable—the reality is our budget is worth less in real terms, in cash terms. It's also...
Vaughan Gething: Well, I come back to this: this is a reserved responsibility. It is the responsibility of the UK Government. We are acting because we don't think it's acceptable to simply abandon those people. The UK Government's stated ambition is to provide access to 85 per cent of the population. There are a range of people who would be excluded if we did nothing in this reserved area of responsibility....
Vaughan Gething: Well, actually, the pandemic has forced a number of people to think about the way in which they work, and actually, we all know that a number of businesses had to go into the online world when they weren't necessarily there. They then had to think about the customers that will want to use that, because more customers had to use things online. And so, there's a point here about a business need...
Vaughan Gething: Yes, I'm more than happy to update—and actually, when we had a consultation event, which I attended together with the Deputy Minister for Social Partnership, with the British Retail Consortium and the Welsh Retail Consortium, and, indeed, with the trade union side, led by USDAW, it was a deliberate further engagement in our social partnership way of working. So, we looked at what this would...
Vaughan Gething: Thank you for the question. Due diligence on the proposal received from representatives of Green Man is in the final stages of assessment. I expect to receive advice from officials with regard to the next steps before the end of March.
