Mark Reckless: Will the First Minister make a statement on future Welsh rates of income tax?
Mark Reckless: 1. Will the Cabinet Secretary confirm how much money can be drawn under different capital funding streams for the M4 relief road? OAQ52916
Mark Reckless: Cabinet Secretary, in April, you asked the Treasury for more borrowing powers to fund the M4 relief road. Yet, when they agreed in the budget, you attacked them for disrespecting devolution. Now we hear the vote may be delayed, yet in your manifesto you said, and I quote, 'We will deliver a relief road for the M4'. Cabinet Secretary, have you any intention of keeping that promise?
Mark Reckless: Many people in Islwyn would like to access digital employment opportunities in and around Newport, and both the UK and Welsh Governments have supported the creation of these. We have the Office for National Statistics Data Science Campus ,and I'm pleased to hear that Ken Skates will be visiting the next-generation data centre—the largest in Europe—on Monday. But, for many, the biggest...
Mark Reckless: Could we have a statement on the M4 relief road? When you stood in for the First Minister on 23 October, leader of the house, you promised a binding vote in Government time and then said this was timetabled for the week commencing 4 December. We now have the business timetable through to Christmas and there's no sign of any motion on the M4. Did you misspeak? Could you also perhaps give us...
Mark Reckless: Should every school have the ability to serve children with sensory impairment to the same degree, or does the Cabinet Secretary believe it is better for schools to specialise and have particular schools with well-developed expertise in this area?
Mark Reckless: I note that the Minister got through a minute and a half before you actually mentioned the M4 relief road, and I do hope we have this debate next week, as I think you suggested in a prior session. I just wonder, given the First Minister has worked so hard to ensure that he doesn't prejudice his position so that he can consider the inquiry dispassionately and then take the planning decision,...
Mark Reckless: Will the Member give way?
Mark Reckless: He refers to population change, but it's nearly 30 years, surely, now since the census was taken. Between a third and half of the people who were measured have now, probably, died. Is that an appropriate basis on which to measure population, or is it just because the Labour councils disproportionately have the falling populations?
Mark Reckless: If we make it harder for people in Wales to sell their businesses to people from outside Wales—or 'cash out', as I think it was referred to—isn't there a danger that that, in turn, would discourage people from building their businesses in Wales in the first place?
Mark Reckless: Will the Member give way?
Mark Reckless: Here, the motion refers to the decision as to whether to go ahead, but aren't there two distinct decisions here: (1) whether to make these Orders and give planning permission, where the current First Minister has been careful not to prejudice himself and is well-placed to do that, and then, second, a decision whether to prioritise and spend the money and actually commence construction, which...
Mark Reckless: Will the Member give way?
Mark Reckless: Does she recognise the new station at Llanwern, with the proposed new private station near St Mellons, but also with campaigns for stations, such as at Magor and Undy—if we have several new stations on that line, then that would make a very strong case for an additional type of stopping service beyond the high-speed services we currently have?
Mark Reckless: Can I come in there?
Mark Reckless: I just wonder, given the number of Labour Members for whom their vision of Wales does not include building an M4 relief road, why did you put that in your manifesto.
Mark Reckless: Will the leader of the house give way?
Mark Reckless: Given the length of this report and the complexity of the issue, while of course he needs legal advice and he needs other people who will advise and read the report, wouldn't it make sense for the First Minister to have the report now and to have more time and opportunity to read it, to properly give consideration over a necessary period to what decision he then makes?
Mark Reckless: 3. Will the First Minister make a statement on the timetable for making a decision on the M4 relief road? OAQ53033
Mark Reckless: But consideration isn't ongoing by the First Minister. You refer to his following a strict statutory process, but where in that statutory process does it say that the inspector's report should be intercepted by lawyers and officials in Welsh Government, and withheld from the First Minister for a period, now, of two to three months? Doesn't that suggest there is something wrong with this...
