Hannah Blythyn: This year is especially poignant. Remembrance has its focus on past sacrifices made by those from the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth, but today, we see terrible bloodshed, loss and distress in Ukraine. Our hearts, our support and our solidarity go out to the people of Ukraine, including those who have made their homes here in Wales. This year is also significant as we remember the...
Hannah Blythyn: Diolch, Llywydd. Can I first of all thank Members for their contributions in this debate today, which falls, as we said, in the remembrance period, a time for us all to reflect and recognise those who have served, those who continue to serve and, as we've heard, those who've made the ultimate sacrifice? I think I will struggle very much in the time remaining to refer to each and every point...
Hannah Blythyn: I am, of course, concerned about the ongoing impact on postal services workers and their families, especially in light of the cost-of-living crisis. I am advised that Royal Mail has contingency plans in place that it has put into practice but continue to liaise with the company on this matter.
Hannah Blythyn: Can I thank the Member for his contribution and the work that he has been doing as a member of the Equality and Social Justice Committee in scrutinising this important piece of legislation as it makes its progress through the legislative system in the Senedd? The Member refers to the duty on certain public bodies to work in social partnership when setting their well-being objectives, and he...
Hannah Blythyn: So, I think I should start by saying that the right to withdraw labour and the right to strike is a fundamental human right for workers around the world. But the Member—I don't know whether deliberately or just through misunderstanding—seeks to conflate some of the aspects of the legislation and elements more generally. So, I'll just try and pick that apart in the time that I have this...
Hannah Blythyn: Can I thank the Member for his further questions? I just want to point to one element where people will be surprised that we may agree. It's around the need for diversity of representation as part of the social partnership council, through those bodies that are represented on the body as proposed. You are right that, actually, you can't extend it to everybody, because, as I've said in...
Hannah Blythyn: I thank the Member for his question and his interest in this area. Clearly, there are some challenges involved because of where the boundaries lie between what is devolved and what isn't, but clearly we are committed—myself and my colleague Jane Hutt, and colleagues right across Government—to using all the levers we have at our devolved disposal to make a difference. The Member is right...
Hannah Blythyn: The Member refers to the anti-racist action plan, which was launched back in June by my colleague the Minister for Social Justice. I'm familiar with the event he refers to that Wales TUC held to mark Black History Month. Nobody should face discrimination or hate in any part of society or any walk of life. People should certainly be safe to be themselves and to not face discrimination within...
Hannah Blythyn: I continue to work with the fire and rescue services across Wales to ensure that people, communities and the environment are kept as safe as possible from fires and other hazards. In the longer term, we remain committed to ensuring the sustainability and safety of the services and to broadening the role of firefighters.
Hannah Blythyn: I thank the Member for his supplementary question, and my heart goes out to the people whose premises were destroyed in this terrible, terrible fire. I'm aware of the incident that he refers to, of the operational challenges in terms of access to water for Dŵr Cymru and the Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service. It's an operational matter for those services, but I'd be more than happy...
Hannah Blythyn: I thank Mike Hedges for his question. I think what Mike means is not necessarily—. Some of the fire and rescue service boundaries are aligned with those of local health boards, but the footprints are not the same in terms of the area that they cover. I could say that there aren't any plans to align those boundaries, as I understand it. However, what we are focused on at the moment is...
Hannah Blythyn: Welsh Ministers last met with the then UK Minister responsible for modern slavery in May and officials are in regular contact with the Home Office.
Hannah Blythyn: We continue to press the UK Government for a victim- and survivor-focused approach to modern slavery, in which safeguarding is of primary concern.
Hannah Blythyn: I thank the Member for his supplementary question, as I absolutely agree with everything he said in terms of the disgusting way in which victims are potentially being scapegoated by the UK Government now, and I share his and his constituents' concerns about the fact that we did have a safeguarding Minister and now it sits under immigration. And conflating the two, I think, is a very dangerous...
Hannah Blythyn: Whilst oversight of postal services remains reserved to the UK Government, I met separately with Royal Mail and the Communication Workers Union back in July regarding the situation. I have since written to both parties—just last month—to request an update on the situation and urge a resolution that works for the workforce and postal services.
Hannah Blythyn: May I join Carolyn Thomas in urging Royal Mail and the CWU to continue that work, in partnership with the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service, on a resolution to this dispute? I also agree that any such resolution needs to work for postal services, postal workers and the people of Wales, and I want to join her in paying tribute to the role that our posties play in communities right...
Hannah Blythyn: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. Our fire and rescue services have much to be proud of. In particular, they've contributed greatly to a significant and sustained fall in incidence of fire.
Hannah Blythyn: There are now less than half as many fires as there were in 2005, and residential fires, which account for most fire deaths and injuries, are at or close to an all-time low. Whilst this has inevitably reduced the emergency response workload for firefighters in this respect, firefighters still need to be able to respond to any fire or other incident at any time, and a major emergency can still...
Hannah Blythyn: Llywydd, I'll do my best to unravel that contribution from Joel James there. First and foremost, I'm not implying anything; this was a report from our chief fire and rescue adviser, and I have a duty to then respond to it when it raises things around training and safety. And we're not implying anything about individual office firefighters or actual stations, just that, actually, we need that...
Hannah Blythyn: Can I thank Luke Fletcher for his contribution and the number of points he made there? You picked up at the start the very prescient point, the fact that we have fewer and fewer domestic fires now is testament to the success of the fire and rescue service, but, as you also pointed out, the challenges that we face through climate change and, potentially, the cost-of-living crisis have evolved,...
