Darren Millar: Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. Can I also welcome you to your new role and pay tribute to your predecessor? Can I call for two statements, please? The first is a request for an update on special measures at the Betsi Cadwaladr university health board. The Cabinet Secretary and leader of the house will be aware of the fact that an update report was published last week on the situation following the...
Darren Millar: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. Can I welcome the new Minister to his post? I look forward to engaging with him on children's matters and to working collaboratively with him where we can find some common ground. Also, I'd like to put on record my tribute to his predecessor, Carl Sargeant, in undertaking a role on behalf of children here in Wales. He was always very sincere with that...
Darren Millar: 7. Will the Cabinet Secretary outline the Welsh Government's plans for improving emergency care in Wales? OAQ51258
Darren Millar: Diolch, Llywydd. Cabinet Secretary, this Welsh Government, along with its predecessor administrations, has a legacy of underfunding Welsh schools. We know that there are huge differences in terms of school budgets between here and England, and that is putting pupils here in Wales at a serious disadvantage. According to NASUWT Cymru, the per-pupil funding gap, compared to schools in...
Darren Millar: Many people, Cabinet Secretary, will find your conversion into an apologist for previous Welsh Government failures to be utterly startling. You blame the UK Government for spending pressures and yet you know full well that the situation is that for every £1 spent on the education system in England, Wales receives £1.20. There can be no excuses for the fact that Welsh pupils are...
Darren Millar: I say it again, Cabinet Secretary: for every £1 spent on the education system in England, Wales receives £1.20. There can be no excuse for funding schools by giving them less finance per pupil, per head, than is currently the case. It's scandalous. One way that you could seek to start addressing this particular issue is to target resources at disadvantaged groups, and this is one thing, of...
Darren Millar: I'm afraid your statement, Cabinet Secretary, is woefully inadequate, because the one health board that you are directly responsible for is the worst-performing health board in terms of its emergency care and its performance against the Welsh Government's own four-hour emergency target. In fact, my local hospital, Ysbyty Glan Clwyd, is the worst-performing hospital in Wales against that...
Darren Millar: Llywydd, can I raise a point of order, please?
Darren Millar: My question is directly—
Darren Millar: Leader of the house, can I call for a statement from the Minister for lifelong learning on celebrating success in the Welsh colleges sector? No doubt everybody in the Chamber will want to extend their congratulations to students and staff at Coleg Cambria, who last week won awards in the WorldSkills UK awards. Many of them have also represented the UK overseas in Abu Dhabi at last month's...
Darren Millar: Can I also congratulate the new Minister on his post? We've had an excellent working relationship in all sorts of different capacities over the years, and I'm sure that he'll do an excellent job in his new role. As the new Minister will know, I take a keen interest in Wales's heritage and, in particular, its spiritual heritage and faith heritage, and I was really struck by the increase that...
Darren Millar: Diolch, Llywydd. I move amendment 1 and will seek to speak to that amendment, along with all of the other amendments in this group that have been tabled in my name. But before I do, I just want to put on record my thanks to both the Cabinet Secretary and the previous portfolio holder for the additional learning needs portfolio, for the very positive engagement that they have afforded to me...
Darren Millar: Off to a blazing start, Llywydd—off to a blazing start. [Laughter.] Can I thank Llyr Huws Gruffydd for his support for all of the amendments that I've tabled in this group? And can I start on an area of agreement, Cabinet Secretary, if I can? And that is that, given that amendment 28 achieves precisely the policy aim of amendment 4, I'm more than happy not to move my amendment 4 and to...
Darren Millar: I rise to speak to amendments 2 and 3, which have been tabled in my name, and all of the other amendments in this group. As the Minister has said, my amendments 2 and 3 are a direct response to calls by the Children, Young People and Education Committee for a due-regard duty in relation to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with...
Darren Millar: There was, to suggestions that—[Interruption.] If you'll allow me to finish, and then I'll be happy to take an intervention. There was significant opposition to having these amendments go forward during Stage 1. These amendments were proposed by the children's commissioner and a range of other stakeholders, and there was resistance at that point to allowing any amendments on this to go...
Darren Millar: I just wanted to ask why you feel—if that is the argument you're presenting—why you feel it's appropriate that people in local education authorities should have that burden, as you describe it, and people in the NHS should have that burden to demonstrate compliance with the UN conventions, but you don't feel that it's appropriate for those people who are working directly at the front...
Darren Millar: Yes.
Darren Millar: I do.
Darren Millar: Formally—no.
Darren Millar: Withdrawn, please.
