Mike Hedges: I very much welcome the Minister's statement on housing with care. Members probably remember my continual and regular call that decent, affordable housing is fundamental to the health and well-being of everyone in Wales. It's been really nice to have that echoed by the Minister today. The Attlee Government in 1945 realised the relationship between health and housing. That seems to have got...
Mike Hedges: I want to ask for a Welsh Government statement on eating disorders. The 2018 eating disorders service review put forward an ambitious vision, based on earliest access to effective treatment and support in every part of Wales. Beat's new report finds that progress in expanding and improving eating disorders services has been very uneven. While access to treatment has improved in some areas, in...
Mike Hedges: How is the Welsh Government supporting organic farming in Wales?
Mike Hedges: May is brittle bone month. Brittle bone disease is a rare disorder that results in fragile bones that break easily. It's present at birth and usually develops in children who have a family history of the disease. The disease is often referred to as osteogenesis imperfecta, which means imperfectly formed bone. Brittle bone disease can range from mild to severe. It should not be confused with...
Mike Hedges: Will the First Minister provide an update on the adoption of roads by councils in Wales?
Mike Hedges: I very much welcome the statement from the Minister. Procurement is one of the most powerful tools the Welsh Government has got in order to decide the type of Wales we're going to have. There is a very large procurement programme, not just by the Welsh Government, but by the whole of the Welsh Government-funded public sector, including health and local government. I, like many Members here,...
Mike Hedges: 4. What assessment has the Minister made of the effect of the current rate of inflation on older people in Wales? OQ58138
Mike Hedges: Can I thank you, Minister? Most older people are on fixed incomes from the state pension, private pensions and the supplementary pension. As inflation is rising, especially energy and food are items that disproportionately affect people who are older, does the Minister agree with me that there is a need for additional support and a supplementary pension increase, and will the Minister press...
Mike Hedges: In the Members' pension scheme, decisions are made by the pension trustees following professional advice. The current representatives on the pension trustee board are Nick Ramsay and myself, representing Members, and, obviously, I'd be happy to answer questions on the Members' scheme from any Members who wish to raise them. The Commission have two representatives on the Members' pension...
Mike Hedges: Yes.
Mike Hedges: I would like to thank Rhys ab Owen for tabling this topical question because I think it really is an important issue. I'm very disappointed, but I will say not surprised, that the Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016 implementation has been deferred. Will the Minister produce a voluntary code including implementing a rent cap until the Act is eventually implemented? Private landlords have got a...
Mike Hedges: First of all, I'm requesting a Welsh Government statement on this year's A-level, AS-level and GCSE examinations, and in particular, GCSE Welsh second language; French GCSE, which included a question on a topic that schools had been told had been removed; AS-level pure mathematics; A-level physics, which the teachers were told would be non-synoptic, but was synoptic; and AS-level chemistry,...
Mike Hedges: I thank the Minister for bringing this statement today. It is very expensive to be poor. You pay more for energy via tokens, you are more likely to live in a very poorly insulated house, you go to bed early to avoid heating costs, and in winter you wake up to windows with ice from your breath on the inside. Rent has gone up, gas has gone up, electricity has gone up, the general cost of living...
Mike Hedges: 2. Will the Minister provide an update on the shortage of care support workers in Wales? OQ58157
Mike Hedges: Can I thank the Minister for that response? Too often, the only discussion of social care is about its effect on hospital discharge. It's far more important than that; social care is important not just for hospital discharge, but the quality of life for the people receiving it, and, dare I say, about stopping people having to go into hospital because they've been dealt with in their own homes...
Mike Hedges: I would like to request a Welsh Government statement on pollution. In Swansea East, the River Tawe suffers from sewage being regularly released from the Trebanos pumping station. Further into the constituency, we have plastic being burned off wire and the pollution attached to that. We have pesticides polluting soil and rivers. Finally, we have nitrogen oxides from cars along the main roads....
Mike Hedges: I very much welcome the statement. I and my constituents are also disappointed the UK Government chose to pursue its building safety pledges on an England-only basis. Didn't we used to have a lot of LCMs from them? I have two areas of my constituency that have buildings affected. I agree with the principle that developers should contribute towards the cost of fixing these problems—they were...
Mike Hedges: 6. What assessment has the Minister made of the effectiveness of Welsh legislation in protecting dogs? OQ58244
Mike Hedges: Thank you, Minister, for that response. Like many Members of the Senedd, I strongly supported the introduction of the Welsh version of Lucy's law, which you brought in in the last Senedd. I, like many Members here, support the Justice For Reggie campaign, calling for the regulation of online sales of dogs, with the regulation of all websites where animals are sold, for websites to be required...
Mike Hedges: I speak as someone who strongly supports devolution, and I'm really pleased that we've got devolution of powers to the large English cities. But does the Minister agree with me that asymmetric devolution does not work, that the primacy of Westminster means that it can override any Welsh law and also interfere with any Welsh laws, that we need an agreed devolution settlement, with a proper...
