Hannah Blythyn: This Welsh Government is committed to continuing to provide and build up on support and services for veterans in north Wales. This includes peer mentoring support, mental health first-aid training and funding to alleviate loneliness and social isolation. Further details can be found in our annual report, which I launched on 22 June.
Hannah Blythyn: Our third armed forces covenant annual report details the wide range of support for veterans across Wales. This year we have seen excellent progress including increased investment in veterans mental health services, funding for veterans to access further and higher education and continued funding of our armed forces liaison officers.
Hannah Blythyn: Can I thank Darren Millar for his question? I know this is an area that you're very committed to and very passionate about in the work you do with the cross-party group on armed forces as well, and also attend the expert group on armed forces as a guest on that. The work you pointed out is quite rightly to be applauded, particularly on the back of Armed Forces Week, where many of us in this...
Hannah Blythyn: Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. The Welsh Government is committed to using every lever available to us to improve working lives and workplaces across the country. We are resolute in our ambition to become a nation of fair work, working together to ensure decent and dignified work that brings broader benefits for our communities, our economy and our environment. The social partnership and public...
Hannah Blythyn: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I'm not quite sure where to start with that—it's straight out of the Conservative caricature playbook in reverting back to the 1970s narrative when it comes to trade unions and working people. It's disappointing, but sadly unsurprising. The Member seems to either completely misunderstand the purposes of the Bill—and I'm more than happy to offer a...
Hannah Blythyn: Thank you for your questions.
Hannah Blythyn: I'll try my best to address some of the key points there. You touched on, at the outset of your contribution, the potential, the power and the leverage that's there with procurement within Wales. As I said in the statement, we think the policy direction of procurement should be set here in Wales, but we're working closely across Government with my colleague the Minister for Finance and Local...
Hannah Blythyn: I thank the Member, Jack Sargeant, for his contribution, and for actually using the opportunity to highlight the positive case for trade unions and actually to disabuse the reality from the rhetoric and the myths around it. We saw in north-east Wales thousands of well-paid jobs saved because, in social partnership, the trade unions worked with the employer to actually come up with a solution...
Hannah Blythyn: Thanks, Deputy Llywydd, and the Member makes some really constructive points around, like you said before, the potential that procurement gives us here in Wales to really make a difference, to actually support work, but by default to actually support the local economy, because if people are in decent employment they're more likely to spend in the local economy as well, so there's that...
Hannah Blythyn: Can I thank the Member for her question? And I note that the Member has done a lot of work around the challenges of what digital means for the world of work, the future of work and the pitfalls that that could actually bring as well as potential. We know that, when deployed responsibly, technology can be a force for good; it provides support and flexibility, as we've seen in many cases in the...
Hannah Blythyn: I thank the Member for getting the question in at the eleventh hour. It's a really key question in terms of actually making sure that we don't impact on things when we know that there's value there already. And like I said in the statement, there'll be more work to follow that sits in the broader opportunities of procurement reform, as we align ourselves in terms of the process with UK...
Hannah Blythyn: I thank the Member for making it in with his question there, and again raising some very valid points around the accessibility of procurement and the opportunities that it brings, not just in terms of creating decent work, but actually in supporting those smaller companies, the foundational economy, local communities. So, it's certainly something that is there at the heart of looking at...
Hannah Blythyn: The Welsh Government is committed to continuing and building upon the support and services provided for our veterans in Wales. Our work and continued progress are highlighted in our third armed forces covenant annual report, which was published on 22 June.
Hannah Blythyn: Can I thank the Member, Jayne Bryant, for her question? I know the Member is very much committed to supporting veterans not just in her own constituency, in her own community, but across the country. I agree with her absolutely in saying that Wales is a nation that is proud of our armed forces and veterans, and I completely agree that we owe that debt of gratitude to all those men and women...
Hannah Blythyn: Thank you. Can I thank the Member, too, for her question and her words of support for our armed forces communities and veterans in Wales? And she rightly points out some of the challenges that those who've served may face when they transition to civilian life as a consequence of their experience as well. And that's why we've made sure we've invested in things like Veterans' NHS Wales,...
Hannah Blythyn: Formally.
Hannah Blythyn: Diolch, Llywydd. I welcome this debate today and the opportunity to contribute on behalf of the Welsh Government. The coronavirus pandemic has transformed the way we look at almost everything in our daily lives, including the world of work, and it's given added momentum to the possibility of achieving a better work-life balance that supports both our individual and collective well-being. ...
Hannah Blythyn: I'm afraid, Janet Finch-Saunders, I think that's well above my pay grade, to answer that question. So, as you heard before, the growth of remote working and things like automation are just two of the forces that are acting as both a push and pull towards different working patterns. Changes that present a challenge, but also an opportunity: a challenge, because outdated and outmoded working...
Hannah Blythyn: Yes.
Hannah Blythyn: If the Member wouldn't mind, I'll probably get to our approach as we get through the—. I'm trying to actually get through my contribution in the time allocated. But I thank you for the contribution to give us pause for thought as to actually where those opportunities could be to potentially look at things like this in the future. This shouldn't actually be about shifting towards a...
