Hefin David: 7. Will the First Minister provide an update on the progress of the Wild Animals in Travelling Circuses (Wales) Bill? OAQ53789
Hefin David: That's very welcome news, First Minister. At the moment, the Circus Mondao is one of the few travelling circuses in Wales that exhibit wild animals and they're currently in my constituency. You know they're there because they fly-post all over the borough and put their trailers illegally on public land to advertise what they're doing. I've no confidence that they are willing to obey the law...
Hefin David: 6. Will the First Minister make a statement on the terms and conditions for supply teachers working in Wales? OAQ53827
Hefin David: I welcome that recognition and also the news announced on 6 April that supply teachers in Wales were going to be boosted by a Welsh Government mandated minimum daily pay rate. I think that's very much to be welcomed. I think it is, in part, a tribute to the hard work of Sheila Jones, who is a Caerphilly constituent, a former supply teacher, and is now the supply teacher representative for the...
Hefin David: On Thursday, Universities Wales will be publishing their report, 'Solving Future Skills Challenges in Wales', and it's going to be launched at the breakfast meeting on Thursday of the cross-party group on universities, which I chair, and to which all Members are invited, and attendance is expected. The report points out that our population here in Wales is generally older than in England and...
Hefin David: I don't think we are surprised by Dr Dai Lloyd reminding us that he's a GP, because I think many of us have had informal consultations between debates in the tea room, asking his advice, and very good advice that's been. As a constituency Assembly Member—and of course there is doctor-patient confidentiality here as well—I took a call from the Aneurin Bevan health board about two years ago...
Hefin David: 2. Will the Counsel General make a statement on the distribution of financial support to community-based enterprises through the Wales European Funding Office? OAQ53819
Hefin David: The Senghenydd Youth Drop In Centre in my constituency has applied for a piece of that funding. I’ve made the Minister aware of it through written communication. SYDIC is a community-based enterprise that runs a drop-in for young people in the Senghenydd area and is incredibly valuable in my constituency. They’ve currently got land for a green energy project and have planning permission...
Hefin David: Will the First Minister provide an update on Welsh Government plans for agricultural pollution and regulatory reform?
Hefin David: 11. Will the Minister make a statement on the progress of the Welsh Government's ministerial task-and-finish group on leasehold reform? OAQ53869
Hefin David: I recently met with the Chartered Institute of Housing Cymru, who are feeding into the task and finish group, together with residents of Cwm Calon estate in Penallta, Ystrad Mynach, in Caerphilly constituency. There are still a number of unresolved issues relating to the escalating estate management charges that residents are expected to pay, and I know that that is a specific area of...
Hefin David: 4. How can the Welsh Government assist in the judicial review of matters arising from the UK Government's policy of equalisation of women's pension ages and the impact of those changes on women born in the 1950s? OAQ53905
Hefin David: I appreciate the constraint that the Counsel General identifies, but in Plenary on 20 March it was agreed the Welsh Government would make representations to the UK Government in support of the Women Against State Pension Inequality state pension campaigners, many of whom are my constituents and have been in touch directly with me. The Deputy Minister and the Chief Whip also confirmed the...
Hefin David: The Open University is an example of what a Prime Minister can achieve if they pursue something with single-minded determination. It was Harold Wilson's Government that conceived the 'university of the air', and it was introduced in 1969, now approaching, this year, its fiftieth anniversary as the Open University. The Open University delivers distance learning to around 9,000 people in Wales,...
Hefin David: 5. Will the First Minister make a statement on the provision of affordable housing on new-build residential estates? OAQ53971
Hefin David: The problem is that it isn't in the gift of planning authorities, often, to deliver that level of affordable housing. A recently approved development on the site of the old Virginia Park golf club in Caerphilly put 350 houses through planning committee, of which 7 per cent—7 per cent—were affordable, and the developers continually scale down their affordability provision throughout the...
Hefin David: 9. Will the Minister provide an update on what the Welsh Government is doing to support victims of the contaminated blood scandal? OAQ53972
Hefin David: The Minister will be aware that the BBC reported the case of Kirk Ellis from Caerphilly, who contracted hepatitis C when he was a toddler, and it first came to light he had that when he was 13. He receives £18,500 a year in compensation. In April, the Prime Minister announced that patients in England would receive an extra £10,000. That would not apply to patients affected in Wales. It...
Hefin David: Isn't this, isn't exactly that, the problem with referendums with simple questions?
Hefin David: Delyth Jewell opened her speech with the words that people have a strong feeling they are right on this topic. One of the things I'd say is that, from my point of view, there's a very clear and answerable economic question and a security question about the European Union—that 'remain' is best. But you could also say that the question of power distance, and the question of the democratic...
