David Rees: Thank you for that answer, First Minister. I'm sure that there are many issues that you are taking on board. The monitoring of air quality has been focused upon PM10s and PM2.5s—understandable, because they're the ones that are recognised to have the biggest impact on people's health—but we have seen a large increase in what is known as nuisance dust fallout from the Port Talbot...
David Rees: Leader of the house, can I ask for two statements from the Welsh Government? The first one relates to education and it's linked to the decision by Neath Port Talbot council to close Cymer Afan Comprehensive School. We had a recent statement from the Cabinet Secretary relating to closures of rural schools and the consultation and the outcome of that. Clearly, I would like to have a definition...
David Rees: Cabinet Secretary, thank you for your statement this afternoon. I had hoped to speak a bit longer but I think the 10 minutes taken up has damaged a lot of our opportunities. Can I highlight also a couple of points of thinking? I think Steffan Lewis made a very clear argument and nothing could be more stark than what he said about the implications of a 'no deal' Brexit. I wish that the...
David Rees: Will the Cabinet Secretary outline the Welsh Government's policy on providing robust community-based education to children across Wales?
David Rees: Cabinet Secretary, I've read the code that was laid on Monday. In it, it has a designation of rural schools for the purpose of presumption against closure, and it uses the Office for National Statistics' rural and urban classification, which I accept, and that's why the list on the back is there. But when you then go and look at the extra, detailed requirements, I ask the question: why...
David Rees: Cabinet Secretary, we all understand that the availability of beds is critical, particularly with winter pressures, and Andrew R.T. Davies has highlighted that very much. In May, my local health board undertook a consultation on what it called service changes, but what, in fact, were bed closures. They recommended that 79 temporarily closed beds would be permanently closed and another 46...
David Rees: Cabinet Secretary, I also welcome the ‘Train. Work. Live.’ scheme, but also the bursary, and I welcome very much the fact that the bursary is still being kept here in Wales while the Tories in England have abolished it. That is critical to seeing more Welsh citizens coming into the profession. And it's not just nursing, of course; it's other allied health professions as well. Can you...
David Rees: Leader of the house, can I have two statements—one from the Cabinet Secretary for health, who's left the Chamber at the moment, some time before the October recess, on the boundary changes progress as far as Cwm Taf and Abertawe Bro Morgannwg health boards are concerned, so that we can have an update on what's happening and where we will be going? Because this will take effect as of April...
David Rees: 2. What discussions has the Counsel General had with his Scottish counterpart regarding the case before the Supreme Court on the UK Withdrawal from the European Union (Legal Continuity) (Scotland) Bill? OAQ52640
David Rees: 3. What analysis has the Counsel General made of the impact on Welsh law of a no-deal outcome of the Brexit negotiations? OAQ52641
David Rees: What action will the Welsh Government take to ensure public transport to communities in the upper Afan Valley meets their needs?
David Rees: Cabinet Secretary, the section of motorway we're talking about is 41 to 48, but mine will focus on 41 to 42 at this point in time, where the extension to the 50 mph limit has been put on by the Welsh Government in an attempt to reduce pollution and nitrogen dioxide. Well, the report that I've got in my hand is actually a report produced for Welsh Government on stage 3 of the assessment. And...
David Rees: Can I thank you for that answer, Counsel General, because part of what I wanted to ensure is that once we have the deliberation and a decision from the Supreme Court, we have an opportunity to question you on your views and your interpretation of that decision, particularly as when we, as an Assembly, decided to support the EU withdrawal Bill and, as a consequence, our Bill was taken away...
David Rees: Thank you for those answers. I think it's very important that we are in a position to understand the implications upon Welsh law of an occasion where we have a 'no deal' and we are literally leaving the EU on 30 March 2019 without any protections, in one sense, and we've lost a lot of the protections the EU gave us. Therefore, can you confirm that you are in discussions with the UK Government...
David Rees: 2. What discussions has the Cabinet Secretary had with the Ministry of Justice regarding the future of the probation service in Wales? OAQ52694
David Rees: What are the Welsh Government's priorities when preparing the provisional settlement for local authorities in the forthcoming budget?
David Rees: Thank you for that answer, Cabinet Secretary. As you're aware, in 2014, the then Tory-led UK Government decided to privatise the probation service, splitting it in two: the National Probation Service and the community rehabilitation companies, which are also here in Wales. Now, last December, we had a report from the chief inspector of the Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Probation, Dame...
David Rees: Cabinet Secretary, whilst I appreciate the statement yesterday indicating that the teachers' pay rise will be funded by the Welsh Government, Neath Port Talbot council still is facing a huge deficit in its budget, and will be facing the challenges that they have to come up to with cuts that no-one wants to make to our public services. Will you therefore look at the needs of the communities,...
David Rees: What discussions has the First Minister had with the UK Government on the steel sector deal?
David Rees: First Minister, obviously economic regeneration depends on many issues in the seven constituencies across South Wales West, including Aberavon. Transport is a big issue to ensure that we can attract businesses and bring investment in. Now, there's been a report to the Welsh Government on the M4 pollution matters that gives a proposal to the Welsh Government to consider closing junction 41....
