Natasha Asghar: Minister, the Afghan citizen resettlement scheme will provide up to 20,000 Afghan women, children and others most at risk with a safe and legal route to resettle in the UK. It will build on the UK's continuing efforts to support those at-risk Afghan citizens, prioritising those who have assisted UK efforts in Afghanistan and stood up for our values, and those extremely vulnerable people, such...
Natasha Asghar: Minister, today my business statement will be in two parts, if that's okay, the first in relation to the delay in publishing the Welsh Government's accounts. As much as I enjoy sitting on the Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee with colleagues from various parties, as well as with our brilliant clerks and researchers, it's evident that this delay is hindering the work of the...
Natasha Asghar: 4. Will the Minister provide an update on plans to improve services for people with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder? OQ57468
Natasha Asghar: Thank you for your reply, Minister, and also for your prompt reply to my written question on this issue. I'm very pleased to hear that you have plans for a new time framework to improve children's early access to the right support, as well as a collaboration across Government to improve support for people with ADHD. However, as I said during last week's business statement, many adults across...
Natasha Asghar: Minister, I recently met with members of the Farmers Union of Wales at Monmouthshire livestock market. During the meeting, concerns were raised about the Welsh Government's plans to extend free school meals to all primary school pupils in view of the Deputy Minister for Climate Change's statement that we should eat less meat. The president of NFU Cymru, John Davies, said that the high...
Natasha Asghar: At the end, please, Deputy Presiding Officer, if that's okay. There is no doubt that people living here in Wales are very car dependent, as bus services are inadequate, infrequent or non-existent. It is a fact that a lack of a decent transport service undermines the economies of rural areas, which therefore makes it more difficult for people to access jobs and services. It also has...
Natasha Asghar: I'd like to thank my colleague James Evans for initiating this debate. It's a fact that 85 per cent of land in Wales is used for agriculture, forestry or as common land, and this is the same figure as England. However, whereas 18 per cent of the population in England lives in rural areas, the figure for Wales is 35 per cent. We know that practical and affordable public transport is difficult...
Natasha Asghar: 9. What consideration was given to improving transport infrastructure when setting the budget for the climate change portfolio? OQ57548
Natasha Asghar: Thanks, Minister. In June last year, the Deputy Minister for Climate Change announced a freeze on all new road building projects in Wales. As a result, the Llanbedr bypass project was cancelled after nearly £1.7 million had already been spent on it. I tabled a written question in November, asking how much money had been spent on road projects that had been halted subject to the review. In...
Natasha Asghar: Minister, in 2018, the Greyhound Board of Great Britain launched its greyhound commitment, containing its expectations on how the sport should be run, with welfare at its heart. The safety of every greyhound racing at, as you mentioned, a GBGB licensed track is absolutely paramount—I 100 per cent believe in it. An independent veterinary surgeon is present at all GBGB tracks to check the...
Natasha Asghar: It gives me great pleasure to add my voice today to the tributes to Her Majesty the Queen to mark the seventieth anniversary of her accession to the throne. A Platinum Jubilee is a unique event in British history, and we should take time to reflect on the Queen's long reign and how things have changed. Most of us in this Chamber weren't even around in 1952; I certainly wasn't, and there's no...
Natasha Asghar: 3. What steps is the Welsh Government taking to help people with their fuel bills? OQ57605
Natasha Asghar: Thank you, Minister. Minister, the Welsh Government's Nest scheme offers a package of home energy efficiency improvements to lower energy bills. However, there are no specific grants for solar panels in Wales. In England, the smart export guarantee, launched on 1 January 2020, is a Government-backed initiative that requires some electricity suppliers to pay small-scale generators for...
Natasha Asghar: First Minister, I welcome your Government's commitment to providing 125,000 all-age apprenticeships in Wales over the next three years. However, I'm sure that you will agree with me that we need to ensure quality as well as quantity. It is vital that these apprenticeships should smooth the school-to-work transition of younger workers and support the transition of existing workers into highly...
Natasha Asghar: Minister, a vital component of any strategy to help tackle the cost of living is to ensure the Welsh Government's economic policy supports businesses, allowing them to keep people in jobs. The latest tracker survey of small and medium enterprises in Wales, conducted by the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, shows that over one third of Welsh SMEs are hopeful about growth...
Natasha Asghar: 4. What action is the Welsh Government taking to support the decarbonisation of transport? OQ57685
Natasha Asghar: Thank you, Presiding Officer. Deputy Minister, last week, the economy Minister unveiled the Welsh Government's national space strategy, outlining its ambition to achieve a 5 per cent share of the UK space sector, which would equate to £2 billion a year for the Welsh economy. The strategy is focused on growing the potential of current and future developments in the space sector here in...
Natasha Asghar: Okay. Thank you, Deputy Minister. I can assure you we are all concerned about climate change. There's no denying that, and I think my colleagues across this bench, and even in Westminster, will agree with me on that. However, having seen the information that was released by the Minister for Economy, it was clear that some of the areas that were in question are protected, so that causes a...
Natasha Asghar: Okay. Deputy Minister, you were recently reported as saying that electric buses—this will be something that I know you'll enjoy [Laughter.]—should be made in Wales instead of being imported from China, expressing the wish to see an electric bus factory opened here to create greener jobs. In response, Andy Palmer, the chief executive of Switch Mobility, one of the handful of UK-based...
Natasha Asghar: Thank you very much. I do apologise, Presiding Officer. Thank you very much. Deputy Minister, if you're serious about combating climate change and tackling the frequent delays on our railways—
