Suzy Davies: Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. I move the Commission's budget motion for 2019-20 and ask that it be incorporated into the annual budget motion. As you'll have seen from the draft budget, the Commission is seeking a total budget of £57.023 million, comprising £37.076 million for Commission services, £16.197 million for the remuneration board's determination and £3.75 million for non-cash items...
Suzy Davies: Thank you very, Deputy Presiding Officer. I'm pleased to hear, Llyr, that you appreciate the work that we have been doing to respond to the committee's concerns.
Suzy Davies: I'll just turn straight away to the Youth Parliament. Of course, this is the first time we've done it, and it's the first time anybody in an Assembly of this size has done quite what we're doing as well. If you remember, the way that we are constructing this is quite different from existing examples with the UK Parliament, and even what Scotland is attempting to do. So, I hope you will bear...
Suzy Davies: By all means.
Suzy Davies: Well, I'm absolutely delighted to hear that, Nick, because, of course, this is one of the major steps forward for this democracy that this place has actually voted for. To think that we're actually bringing it in in its inaugural year for £100,000 with running costs after that of about £50,000, I think, from where I'm standing, that actually sounds more than value for money. Obviously,...
Suzy Davies: Of course, I share the same region as Dai Lloyd, South Wales West. It's home to three local authorities. They're all Labour-run, by some margin. What? No 'yay's? I was kind of expecting somebody to say 'woohoo' at that point. And, of course, this has been for many years as well, apart from a couple of short-lived experiments by the electorate in Bridgend and Swansea. Welsh Government may wish...
Suzy Davies: In Swansea, where the council is a major player in the Swansea bay city region, the leader has also pointed to teachers’ pay, saying he's only had £606,000 of the £7 million he needs via Welsh Government. And, as he too announced that no services can be protected, he snapped that, and I quote: 'Sometimes it feels that we don’t have a Cabinet Secretary for Local Government. He should...
Suzy Davies: Will you take an intervention, Mike, on that?
Suzy Davies: You've heard repeatedly said that, for every £1 spent, in the end we get £1.20 here in Wales. How is that short-changing us?
Suzy Davies: A number of councils in Wales at the moment place no requirement on the private companies with whom they contract to pay the so-called living wage, but then 15 of the 22 of those councils don't commit to pay their own employees the living wage either. Earlier this—. Well, actually, I suppose I can understand why—because of the local government settlement, they probably couldn't afford to,...
Suzy Davies: Thank you very much, Llywydd, and everyone else.
Suzy Davies: It's always pleasing to start a debate with agreement, Cabinet Secretary, and on this occasion, it's a common interest in the success of the Swansea bay city deal. It may say 'Swansea' in the title, but the opportunities for Neath Port Talbot, Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire's local authority areas are just as exciting. We're talking about almost 10,000 new jobs and £2 billion economic...
Suzy Davies: A Swansea parkway, appropriately located to the north of the city, means that people can travel more swiftly east-west within the region and to the east of the region, as well as helping to maintain that all-important land-bridge between Ireland and the rest of the UK and then on to the European Union. All that alone saves time for travellers who don’t need to go into Swansea itself. It...
Suzy Davies: Will the First Minister make a statement on ambulance waiting times in South Wales West?
Suzy Davies: Thank you, Counsel General, for this statement, and also the comments towards the end there that this Bill will stand alone, regardless of political differences of view about jurisdiction and so forth, so that we don't get sidetracked by that during the course of the passage of this Bill. Also, I hope you won't mind, but I'm not in a position to answer the very question you've asked us as...
Suzy Davies: 1. With a recent Estyn report stating that secondary schools in Wales could do better, with only half currently judged as good or excellent, what work will the Welsh Government undertake to ensure that standards are raised across all secondary schools in Wales? 242
Suzy Davies: As you know, Cabinet Secretary, the local authorities in my area are all Labour run, and even they are starting to say that schools and social care budgets can't be protected, with one of them saying even that Welsh Government cannot continue to use austerity as an excuse for not allowing local government to deliver vital services to all constituents. With that comment in mind, I wonder if...
Suzy Davies: Of course, it's not easy necessarily for councils that are trying to make the most of the money that they have as well in order to regenerate their city centre—in the case of Swansea—and improve the local economy there. A cabinet report from the council there last month stated that there is a risk that the local authority does not have sufficient resources to complete phase 1 of its...
Suzy Davies: Thank you very much for that answer, Cabinet Secretary. I think perhaps I should just begin by acknowledging that Estyn does say that they're happy that there's been progress in the primary sector. But I think it would be a betrayal of those young people if they then move on to schools in which the majority of pupils—and I mean the majority—across the age and ability range continue to...
Suzy Davies: It is the legacy of the First Minister that's in the spotlight today. It's only this week we've produced our own policy on how to improve housing and provision for that in Wales, so you can't say that we're without ideas. It's just today is not the day for them. You'll be getting plenty from us in the next couple of years—don't you worry about that. Predictably, of course, had the First...
