Rhianon Passmore: Thank you. New figures announced yesterday by the Office for National Statistics, which includes fatalities in all settings, show that up to 8 May there have been 1,852 deaths related to the virus in Wales, and that is 1,852 families that have been devastated. So, I firstly wish to place on the record my appreciation, as the Member of the Senedd for Islwyn, and my sincere thanks for the...
Rhianon Passmore: Thank you. So, I would just like to reiterate that I am extremely proud of the people of Islwyn for everything that they have done in this time of struggle, and I know that our Welsh Government are working in partnership, cross-party, and that with strong social partnership, we will build together a brighter future. Thank you.
Rhianon Passmore: Right, sorry. Thank you. Will the Minister provide an update on the impact of COVID-19 on the completion of statutory assessments for children and young people with additional learning needs? Many local education authority staff continue to be vired across the different departments to provide the professional capacity to work with our most vulnerable children, so will the Minister therefore...
Rhianon Passmore: Will the Minister outline progress around aviation support from the UK Government? As he's aware, British Airways is proposing pan-Wales job losses, and amalgamating Blackwood jobs, potentially, in my constituency to the city of Cardiff, which would result in the closure of their site in Blackwood and the loss of high-skilled and high-value, well-paid jobs to the Valleys. What is his...
Rhianon Passmore: First Minister, Wales's chief dental officer Dr Colette Bridgman has stated that there will be a phased and careful approach to the reopening of full routine dental services in Wales and stated that she is absolutely alive to the concerns of a prolonged period of inactivity of services for people's oral hygiene. Indeed, Wales's chief dental officer is on record as saying that the Welsh...
Rhianon Passmore: Thank you, Deputy Llywydd. Minister, analysis published by the End Child Poverty coalition earlier in this pandemic showed that, across Wales as a whole—reporting 2015 to 2019—that child poverty fell marginally. During this pandemic, the Welsh Government have responded to the crisis with additional and very substantial investment to the Wales-only discretionary assistance fund, which...
Rhianon Passmore: Members of the Senedd will know that I'm also determined to advocate for the arts sector in and across Wales, and have long championed in this place and outside of it that the Welsh Government deploy activist measures to stabilise the health of the arts sector, following a decade of UK Government austerity measures. That was the landscape we were in. Since the COVID-19 outbreak has ravaged...
Rhianon Passmore: Will the Minister provide an update on changes to the Welsh Government's taxation policy to support businesses in light of the Covid-19 pandemic?
Rhianon Passmore: First Minister, it is being reported today that the US Government has secured virtually all the stocks of one of the two drugs that are shown to currently help COVID-19 patients. The White House said that it had bought up more than 500,000 courses of remdesivir, an antiviral that trials suggest helps some patients spend less time in hospital. This includes all of the supplies that will be...
Rhianon Passmore: Thank you, Deputy Llywydd. I read with both alarm and agreement that the committee has considerable concerns about what it sees as one of the defining longer term challenges of this deadly pandemic: a likely dramatic spike in youth unemployment, a spike that, without action by Welsh Government, threatens to scar and stunt the employment prospects of a generation of young people and frustrate...
Rhianon Passmore: I support amendment 2, as tabled by Rebecca Evans, and particularly as the Member of the Senedd for Islwyn, I support her wish to insert, 'agrees that the new curriculum should support all learners to learn Welsh and English.' Wales is a proud and historical multilingual nation of many languages from across the Commonwealth and beyond. In law, we are a bilingual nation, with Welsh and English...
Rhianon Passmore: It's correct to say that the current curriculum devised in 1988 by a Westminster Government is not fit, as has been said, for contemporary Wales and the pedagogical need, as consensually agreed across this Chamber, to continue to develop higher standards of literacy, numeracy and critical digital thinking, and for our students to become confident, capable and compassionate citizens of Wales...
Rhianon Passmore: What assessment has the Welsh Government made of the extra amount of money Wales will receive as a consequence of the UK Chancellor’s summer statement?
Rhianon Passmore: Thank you, acting Presiding Officer. The prospects for the economies of Wales and the United Kingdom are troubling. As the Welsh Government looks at its spending priorities for the draft budget for 2021-2, let nobody in this Senedd pretend that the economic prospects facing the Welsh Government are anything other than grim and of utter criticality to Wales. Yesterday, the Office for Budget...
Rhianon Passmore: The COVID-19 pandemic is not yet over and a second spike is deemed probable, and, as we look to the horizon, we now see an economic hurricane fast approaching, and it is my duty as the representative of proud Gwent Valleys communities such as Aberbargoed, Newbridge, Crosskeys and others to demand that the Senedd supports this Welsh Government in its determination to safeguard the people of...
Rhianon Passmore: That question has been withdrawn, Llywydd.
Rhianon Passmore: I keep losing my screen. Sorry, Deputy Llywydd. Can you come back to me?
Rhianon Passmore: Thank you. Can you hear me, Deputy Llywydd?
Rhianon Passmore: Thank you very much. Thank you for re-calling me. Let's be frank—the UK Tory Government's internal market Bill is the latest in a long line of totally incomprehensible actions by Boris Johnson and his Government. And I very much welcome today's statement by the Welsh Counsel General and Minister for European Transition. The people of Wales now, more than ever, will need the full functional...
Rhianon Passmore: The bonus of the UK Government being able to top-slice our income in Wales is not on. Counsel General, what representations and actions can the Welsh Government take, working with colleagues in Westminster, to combat this serious attack on Wales and Britain's good name? And what priority is being given to the proposed erosion of Welsh powers contained within this Bill?
