Mr Simon Thomas: Would there be anything to be lost, in his view, in publishing that Bill in a draft form?
Mr Simon Thomas: Although you mention the importance of the availability of mobile phones, 4G has only just got to Mynydd Rhiw and the Llŷn peninsula. There are some areas that are gravely behind in rural Wales. One thing that's often forgotten is how important the mobile phone will be for automation on farms and robotics. It's coming to a point now that you can control farm machinery and other aspects...
Mr Simon Thomas: As has just been mentioned, many of the residents of Powys are reliant on services that are either provided from England or are located in England. Given the news that I'm hearing that there is a delay in terms of a decision on the location of the general hospital for the west of Shropshire, wherever that is to be located—it’s an argument between Telford and Shrewsbury itself, which is...
Mr Simon Thomas: May I start by asking for an update on road safety, specifically on the A487? The leader of the house may recall that, around a fortnight ago, there was a fatal accident between Gellilydan and Maentwrog when a baby and her aunt died in a car. I extend my sympathies to the family and the local community, who are grieving because of that accident. But specifically, in looking at the figures,...
Mr Simon Thomas: The second point I'd like to raise is just to put on record my thanks to many who worked over the weekend. We had floods, again, in many parts of west Wales. Ceredigion was particularly affected. I certainly couldn't complete a journey on Sunday myself because I was turned back by the police, and I know that in Tenby, as well, there were some serious flood problems on the eastern road out of...
Mr Simon Thomas: May I also thank the Cabinet Secretary for her statement and note, with thanks to everyone, that the industry has been successful during the past year and that progress is still being made towards the target in the food and drink plan? I would like to start by asking the Cabinet Secretary where is she now, in considering exiting the European Union, on branding Welsh foods, specifically from...
Mr Simon Thomas: Thank you, Presiding Officer. I have no further comments as the Cabinet Secretary has answered everything that was raised by the Finance Committee and by others.
Mr Simon Thomas: I thank the Minister for setting out the need for these regulations. We do support what the Minister is doing, and this is a joint set of regulations between England and Wales, of course, in response to an EU directive. I've got a couple of questions, if I may. Could the Minister just confirm that, in fact, though we welcome these, these regulations are actually being transposed late, and...
Mr Simon Thomas: 1. Will the Leader of the House make a statement on the start date for the superfast broadband successor scheme? OAQ51624
Mr Simon Thomas: 1. Will the Commissioner make a statement on reducing the amount of disposable plastic that is used on the Assembly estate? OAQ51614
Mr Simon Thomas: Of course, the cost increases are mainly due to the fact that £136 million extra has been allocated to meet the concerns of the port in Newport, and that presumably, as Cabinet Secretary, is something that you have approved of, or at least signed off. Now, you've mentioned the money that you have in the budget next year. As I understand it, you have £150 million in capital reserves and the...
Mr Simon Thomas: I think it is still true to say that the well-being of future generations Act is like a shadow in terms of the influence it’s had on the budget to date. Now, I know that the Cabinet Secretary is very willing in answering questions such as this—and I don’t want to tempt him, because I do know that he has a list of projects that meet each of the goals of the Act. I don’t want to tempt...
Mr Simon Thomas: Thank you very much for that response. I do welcome the fact that there is to be a scheme, because we know that the predecessor scheme, which is coming to an end, hasn’t reached all parts of Wales. I know that you don’t have the full facts and the full report as yet, but there are numerous villages that have reported back that there are cables still hanging from poles and that the work...
Mr Simon Thomas: Can I thank the Commissioner for that positive response? Clearly, the Assembly has taken some steps in the recent past, for example getting rid of disposable coffee cups here and going over to ceramic cups, which is something that the public is now very interested in. So, we were ahead of the game there. I'm concerned that we stay ahead of the game. We still use one-use plastic knives and...
Mr Simon Thomas: You've set great store, Cabinet Secretary, as did the First Minister yesterday, by the parliamentary review but, of course, the parliamentary review was published too late to influence these proposals from Hywel Dda. So, will you join me today in urging Hywel Dda to withdraw these proposals until we have had time to consider the parliamentary review—how it might be applied throughout Wales,...
Mr Simon Thomas: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I don’t think this will be the most exciting debate that we’ll hold at the Assembly today, or certainly over the term, but it is an important debate. It is important, and if I may say what the purpose of the inquiry by the Finance Committee is, perhaps some Members will see that it is important.
Mr Simon Thomas: What we did was look at four pieces of legislation that were passed by the previous Assembly to ensure that the method of assessing the financial cost of introducing legislation and turning it into an Act was sufficient and effective. What we’ve tried to do is look at whether the assessment of costs in introducing a Bill are correct, whether the methods used by the Government to assess the...
Mr Simon Thomas: Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer, and thank you to everyone who contributed to the debate. I think even though it's a very technical debate, the fact that we have brought it to the floor of the Chamber is important because it deals with the Bills that all of us are involved in. I'm particularly pleased that it's given Llyr Gruffydd an opportunity to express his experience from...
Mr Simon Thomas: I won't repeat too much of the debate. I simply want to pick up a couple of themes that I think were quite important and to thank Nick Ramsay and Mike Hedges also for participating in the debate. I think what we really want to see, at least conceive of, is that it would be possible for a Bill to be supported at Stage 1 here—for all parties to support it, potentially—but by the time it got...
Mr Simon Thomas: If I may begin with the easy one, which is to note that Caerphilly cheese today got protected geographical indication status as the only indigenous Welsh cheese—which I'm very pleased to see, but it does give a wider context, of course, to what happens when we leave the European Union, both to PGI status, and, indeed, branding food from Wales. Because, at the moment, what you see currently...
