Carl Sargeant: The LHA differences affect some communities more than others. It will be something on which I will have a discussion with my colleague the Cabinet Secretary for finance—to have further discussions with the Treasury, as and when he has those, on a regular basis.
Carl Sargeant: Our priorities for tackling child poverty include improving outcomes in the early years, building a strong economy, increasing employability and supporting parents into work. Empowered and engaged communities will play a vital part in ensuring children in south-east Wales, and throughout the rest of Wales, have the best start in life.
Carl Sargeant: I’m slightly surprised by the Member’s question. I’m not sure if the Member was in the Chamber only a week ago when I announced the issue of the transition of Communities First and the programmes. He’ll not see in any of the statements that I made that I was intending to scrap any programme. We have made a very positive proposal for a transition. My team have been out last week...
Carl Sargeant: Well, we should say, ‘Congratulations and thank you’ to the Flying Start staff right across Wales. In South Wales East, we’ve reached around just under 10,000 children in that area, supporting them with services for their families. With the transition from Communities First into the new community resilience programmes, Flying Start and Families First are part of the integrated approach...
Carl Sargeant: We continue to support the Welsh fire and rescue authorities to improve fire safety. We have provided £1.4 million for them this year.
Carl Sargeant: Well, the results speak for themselves. Fires have more than halved since devolution and the responsibility for fire services has come to Wales. The Member is right to raise the issue of it peaking in grass fires. Look, any fire that is set like that is unlawful, and I encourage the authorities, or individuals who have any information about that, to tackle that by ringing the police in this...
Carl Sargeant: I thank the Member for her question. I agree with the Member—I’m incredibly proud of our firefighters across Wales. We have a great service, and, indeed, South Wales Fire and Rescue Authority provides several fire safety programmes to young people in Cardiff and beyond. These are funded by the Welsh Government and provided in collaboration with public and third sector partners, and...
Carl Sargeant: I thank the Member for her question. The Welsh Government will continue to provide core funding for county voluntary councils across Wales, including CVCs in Conwy, Denbighshire, Flintshire, Gwynedd, Isle of Anglesey and Wrexham. In addition, community support projects will be benefiting from the Communities First transition, legacy funding and the employment grant.
Carl Sargeant: There are two elements to that. There is a transition period where we will provide 70 per cent of the funding to prepare Communities First clusters to start thinking about what the future looks like and how they are able to attract other finance sources. Also, we’ve made an £11.7 million investment through the employability programme, Communities for Work, Lift, and PaCE. We’re...
Carl Sargeant: Well, that’s always the case, isn’t it? I think you get that with political parties and political will across the spectrum. My intention is to make sure that public services boards and local authorities are very close to their communities. We legislated on this, about engagement being a critical part of involvement in decision making. I would expect any authority that moves into a...
Carl Sargeant: I recently announced an additional £4 million for the community facilities programme in each of the next four financial years. This brings the total available for projects in 2017-18 to £6 million. Priority will be given to applications seeking to improve the sustainability of facilities serving Communities First communities.
Carl Sargeant: If the Member wishes to keep pushing me on a response, rather than me giving her a measured response to this process—. Will they be getting any funding today? No, they won’t. If that’s the response the Member wants, I can give her that today. Actually, the Member would be much better off waiting for me to make a collective decision on how we’re going to allocate this funding, and we...
Carl Sargeant: That’s a really interesting question that the Member raises. I don’t have the detail on me today, but I will write to the Member with notice of that. I’m really keen for as much involvement and third-party activity around these programmes as possible. Rather than single access points, I think, actually, we gain much more from the private sector and public sector working together with...
Carl Sargeant: The regeneration priorities for Pembrokeshire continue to support the communities through a range of regeneration programmes that underpin sustainable development.
Carl Sargeant: Of course, and I think there are some opportunities there about working in partnership. Under the Vibrant and Viable Places framework, we are supporting Pembrokeshire County Council with a £2.25 million town-centre loans scheme, which is a 15-year recyclable loan grant. This will, I hope, be able to reduce the number of vacant and redundant sites and premises in town centres like Pembroke,...
Carl Sargeant: I don’t know when the Member is visiting the site, but what I can do is try to ask one of my officials to join him in order to have a conversation with the young people and Gypsies and Travellers on that site to see what actions they’re seeking to happen. I think we have a very positive Gypsy and Traveller strategy, and I’ve got a team of officials who work with Gypsy and Traveller...
Carl Sargeant: The Welsh Government is committed to working with all of its partners to tackle harassment against women in Wales. Violence against women is unacceptable in all of its forms. It is right that, on International Women’s Day, we raise awareness of the issues many women are still facing.
Carl Sargeant: I thank the Member for her question. I take a zero-tolerance approach on bullying, harassment and abuse. I wouldn’t care if somebody was a friend or a political ally—if they cross the line, there can be no compromise on this: this is wrong. I am confident that we are working across Welsh Government to address the long-term entrenched inequalities. Objective 4 of our strategic equality...
Carl Sargeant: You don’t need to convince me on this argument. I am working with the Cabinet Secretary for Education to see how this is achievable and we will, hopefully, have something positive to say shortly.
Carl Sargeant: I thank the Member for her question. Welsh Government met with the special rapporteur on human rights and hazardous substances and waste on 24 January. His preliminary findings and recommendations were presented in an end-of-mission statement on 31 January, and the full report will be presented to the UN human rights council in September of this year.
