Mark Reckless: May I ask for an oral statement or a debate in Government time on nitrate vulnerable zones? I note that the Minister for Environment, Energy and Rural Affairs Lesley Griffiths is answering questions tomorrow and put out a written statement, but the timing of that written statement was such that there is no opportunity for ordinary Members of the Senedd to ask questions at that session...
Mark Reckless: Finance Minister, I agree with much of what you said about the Welsh Revenue Authority and how well it's doing as an organisation. I've also enjoyed at least one of the tax conferences you've had. I don't think the success of the WRA is because it's done on a Welsh basis rather than a UK basis, but I do think it goes to show how much more efficiently public services can be delivered when you...
Mark Reckless: —can we stop wasting people's time in having 200 new ideas and exploring all those very diligently and just accept that we're not going to be having new taxes devolved?
Mark Reckless: Minister, well done on a really impressive performance over the last couple of weeks. You and everyone who's working as part of this have dealt with the gap with vaccination rates with England that I previously criticised you for, and I think I should recognise how good it has been over the past two weeks. So, well done. Because, on average, people have been vaccinated later in Wales, because...
Mark Reckless: What analysis has the Welsh Government undertaken of the success of the mutual investment model?
Mark Reckless: This Bill is wrong in principle and unnecessary in practice. We see successful roll-out of vaccines, we see infections and, increasingly, deaths falling sharply from the virus. We're within three months of this projected election, and the suggestion that we need emergency powers to postpone this election is not borne out by that factual background. We have already had the UK Government say...
Mark Reckless: The Minister referenced more consensus in Wales on higher education. I think there probably is something to be said for that. I'm not sure that she's yet entirely got me with the programme on progressive universalism, but I criticised the Diamond report initially for proposing maintenance grants for families with up to £80,000 a year income, which I thought was way too high, but the Minister...
Mark Reckless: We say we want to promote citizen participation in decision making, but, First Minister, six months ago, four in 10 people polled didn't know health was devolved, or thought it was run by Westminster, which your party exploits at UK elections. Wouldn't it be better if we simplified decision making by abolishing our unnecessary layer of Government?
Mark Reckless: We also intend to support these regulations that move in a liberalising direction. We would like more consistency across the United Kingdom on one of them, but the regulations on sportspeople strike us as eminently sensible, and relying on regulations made elsewhere and accepting them in Wales rather than insisting on doing things slightly differently is a move in the right direction, we...
Mark Reckless: May I thank all the very many correspondents, many farmers, that I have heard from on this subject? I find perhaps the most shocking aspect of this is the number of times that the Minister promised, on the record and in this place, that she would not be bringing forward these sorts of NVZ proposals until the COVID pandemic had finished. Yet, here she is doing it. Surely that is just a breach...
Mark Reckless: We do not support, in the Abolish the Welsh Assembly Party, these Welsh rates of income tax, and we'd like to vote against them, but I shan't, because if they don't go through, we will see a massive hole in our public spending because of the amount by which the block grant has been reduced. So, we'll abstain on this motion. We certainly don't support these Welsh rates of income tax because...
Mark Reckless: What discussions has the Minister had with the Minister for Finance and Trefnydd on the impact that the tax paid when buying residential properties is having on the Welsh housing stock?
Mark Reckless: I move our amendment formally. Diolch, Llywydd, for selecting our amendment, which we're grateful for. I reiterate what Angela Burns said around thanking the staff. On our amendment, we believe that it's devolution that's held back healthcare provision and outcomes in Wales. The Conservative motion refers to the Welsh Government having done so, but of course there only is a Welsh Government...
Mark Reckless: I'd also push back on David Rees's preposterous characterisation of the NHS in England currently as being one of accelerating privatisation. Clearly, in the late 1990s, the marketisation that we saw in England didn't develop in Wales with devolution, and, clearly, under Blair and Brown, there was quite a lot of marketisation within the NHS in England. But, in the 2010 Lansley reforms, there...
Mark Reckless: 2. Will the First Minister make a statement on the status of inter-governmental relationships between the Welsh Government and UK Government? OQ56457
Mark Reckless: First Minister, you like to blame the UK Government for problems or aggression in the relationship, but shouldn't you take some responsibility? You chose to have yourself filmed saying the Prime Minister is really, really awful. How does that help bring the UK Government to the table? You've concluded the UK is over; you're running candidates who support independence at the coming election....
Mark Reckless: 3. Will the Minister make a statement on the phasing out of the nil rate band of land transaction tax on residential property transactions up to £250,000? OQ56456
Mark Reckless: I refer to phasing out, but, unlike what the UK Government is doing in England and Northern Ireland, we don't have any taper in Wales. Why has the Minister made that decision, and why does she consider it right that people buying houses between £180,000 and £250,000 in Wales should pay 3.5 per cent on that part of the transaction, when those same purchases would be nil rated in England or...
Mark Reckless: Thank you, and I thank the Chair for the introduction of the debate. I certainly think, with the Chair's backdrop, she's doing quite a lot to promote living in tourist areas of Wales. I'm not sure whether that's for second homes or main homes, but she also gave, I thought, a very good description of the petition, which is more nuanced than I'd appreciated from reading the shorter written...
Mark Reckless: We remember today all those who have died of COVID and their families. We also, I think, should think of those who have long COVID, think of those who are going to have other health treatments delayed, and think of the impact for so many on their mental health, and those who've suffered worst economically from this. First Minister, I'd like to say that anything I say from an Abolish the...
