Janet Finch-Saunders: Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on the utilisation of local authority reserves?
Janet Finch-Saunders: Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on responses to the green paper, 'Strengthening Local Government: Delivering for People'?
Janet Finch-Saunders: If I can just inform the Cabinet Secretary, I'm not sure that many in local government see this as a positive process. In fact, they actually see it as an arrogant process. Anyway, in their response to your Green Paper, Conwy County Borough Council have stated that the real and realistic alternative to the proposals in the Green Paper is for the Welsh Government to provide a period of support...
Janet Finch-Saunders: Diolch, Llywydd. Cabinet Secretary, your Green Paper on local government reform is unsurprisingly not going down too well with many local authorities and those working within the sector across Wales. Indeed, having received a substantial number of the same responses to your consultation myself, there is clear evidence already that your proposals are considered to be unworkable, without...
Janet Finch-Saunders: Cabinet Secretary, I have actually responded to your consultation myself; I suggest you haven't read it yet. You continue to repeat the same old line that the Green Paper only sets out the debate on local government reform and the merging of councils, but that isn't really the case, is it? In April, I was made aware that the Labour Party itself was having internal discussions about how to...
Janet Finch-Saunders: Cabinet Secretary, on a point of order, you should not be stood there, telling me that I'm diminishing myself. I have every right to be here to scrutinise and challenge you—and scrutinise and challenge you I will. I have been speaking to the local government community across Wales—I suggest you do. Your Green Paper consultation closed yesterday. This is, in real terms, the sixteenth Welsh...
Janet Finch-Saunders: —continuing direct governmental control of Betsi Cadwaladr University Local Health Board. I have asked you before, and I'll ask you again, and it'll go on record again: what discussions have you taken with your other Welsh Government Secretaries responsible for the delivery of those public services about working together in a strategic manner, or is it simply the case that those discussions...
Janet Finch-Saunders: I am pleased to be contributing to this debate, after an eye-opening inquiry into rough-sleeping by our committee. The estimate of 300 rough-sleepers across Wales is a worrying one, and I know that a number of towns and cities in particular have seen noticeable rises in their rough-sleeper population over the past few years, with studies showing increases of between 10 and 33 per cent over...
Janet Finch-Saunders: Whilst our debate has mentioned our young carers and the fantastic and heart-warming work they do, as the Welsh Conservatives' older people's champion, I would like to highlight the work of our older carers within Wales. Of our 370,000 unpaid carers, around 24 per cent—that's 90,000—are over the age of 65, which is the highest proportion in the UK. Sixty-five per cent report having...
Janet Finch-Saunders: 4. Will the Leader of the House outline how the Superfast Cymru successor project will engage with properties that were not covered by the initial scheme? OAQ52363
Janet Finch-Saunders: Will the Leader of the House make a statement on progress made in delivering digital service transformation for the public sector?
Janet Finch-Saunders: Cabinet Secretary, your colleague the Cabinet Secretary for Local Government and Public Services, in his Green Paper on local government, states that, over time, there has been convergence in council tax levels and 'in the majority of places the differences today are small and this should not be an insurmountable issue.' However, the figures tell a different story, with council tax payers...
Janet Finch-Saunders: Thank you, and whilst I understand that details will be available and when, as you're no doubt aware, I have a considerable number of home owners and business proprietors who have not benefited at all from the current superfast roll-out. It did take some time to drill down to establish—I sent all of these to you, or many of them—and it took some time to realise that they were not...
Janet Finch-Saunders: Thank you to Siân Gwenllian for bringing this question here today as a topical question. I was present at the WLGA conference, and I was there very close to the stage—I don't think I could have sat any closer, frankly—when the Cabinet Secretary came on stage to less than warm applause from a roomful of nearly 200 delegates. I have to say, after his speech, the applause was warmer; the...
Janet Finch-Saunders: Now, I've asked time and time again, when you decide to go off on one bringing forward a Cabinet Green Paper, what consultation have you taken with your other Cabinet colleagues? One thing that was fundamentally agreed to in that room was that you cannot bring local government reform forward on its own; you do need to integrate health, education, social care and housing. So, Cabinet...
Janet Finch-Saunders: Thank you, and I would hope that you'd look at the screens now, please. I was thrilled to attend the tenth National Armed Forces Day 2018, held in Llandudno on Saturday along with my colleague Darren Millar AM. Much excitement had already built in witnessing the arrival of the frigate HMS Somerset in Llandudno bay, along with the arrival on the promenade of army tanks to include a Jackal,...
Janet Finch-Saunders: Glorious sunshine saw Her Royal Highness the Princess Royal, our Prime Minister, the Rt Hon Theresa May, Fusilier Shenkin IV, the regimental goat, taken from our Great Orme, and 100,000 people lining the North Shore Promenade, providing rapturous applause in support of all those individuals and families who selflessly serve in our armed forces. This year, also marking the RAF centenary, it...
Janet Finch-Saunders: Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on how the planning system can support the development of high streets in rural Wales?
Janet Finch-Saunders: First Minister, your own intentions towards honing a Government of equals is sadly undermined by figures that make clear that the Welsh Government's gender pay gap, for your own staff, has recently increased. The annual employer equality report earlier this year found that the pay gap between men and women working in the Welsh Government had actually increased in 2017 from the previous year....
Janet Finch-Saunders: Oh, that is—you are a—[Inaudible.]
