Mark Isherwood: Thanks very much for your statement. I’m in a strange situation as this is the first time since I’ve been in the Assembly when I’ve not a member of this committee or its equivalent predecessors, although many of the issues you raise have been subject to work by those predecessor committees. I hope, therefore, that you will—and I’m sure you’ll confirm that you are—looking at the...
Mark Isherwood: Yes. The final question therefore relates to—. I’m sure you’ll confirm you will be keeping an overview of the disparate delivery so far in Wales. I have represented people, with a number of councils, and there has been a different approach, but above all, the key points raised are, for example, in Wrexham—which has already agreed to accept—the need for language support and, in...
Mark Isherwood: This motion refers to the Williams commission describing public services as being characterised by ‘poverty of ambition’. Of course, the Williams commission report also stated that the only viable way to meet the needs and aspirations of people is to shift the emphasis of public service towards co-production and prevention. The need to make this change, they said, is shared across the...
Mark Isherwood: Against the Welsh Government’s target of 95 per cent, the figures published last week for September show that just 72 per cent of accident and emergency patients were seen in four hours at Wrexham Maelor and 69.7 per cent at Ysbyty Glan Clwyd, with 919 people waiting more than 12 hours in the major A&E departments in north Wales. Having ignored warnings that the closure of minor injury...
Mark Isherwood: Could I call for two statements, please? The first is on support for credit unions in Wales. This is, in fact, the first Plenary we've had since International Credit Union Day on 20 October, reflecting on the movement's history, promoting its achievements and raising awareness about the great work that credit unions are doing around the world, and giving members the opportunity to get...
Mark Isherwood: [Continues.]—blew the whistle regarding Flintshire—
Mark Isherwood: [Continues.]—including matters relating to Waterhouse, and I raised that here, your colleagues and the Government you then represented accused me of bringing the Assembly into disrepute. Well, matters have been raised regarding the conduct of council officers and council members at the time in public, in evidence to tribunal, in evidence in courts, and statements in newspapers, which are...
Mark Isherwood: In noting the Equality and Human Rights Commission Wales’s annual review 2015-16, ‘Towards a Fairer Wales’, our amendment 3 notes that the commission’s analysis has identified seven key challenges that need to be addressed in Wales over the next five years, and that it will require a substantial effort of public, private and third sector organisations, and of individuals, to reduce...
Mark Isherwood: 5. What provision has been made for additional learning needs in the Welsh Government’s school organisation code? OAQ(5)0035(EDU)
Mark Isherwood: Thank you. As you said, the code specifies the need to pay particular attention to the impact of the proposals for school closures on vulnerable groups, including children with special educational needs. Despite that, you recently took the decision to support the decision by Flintshire to close John Summers High School, which caters for some of the most vulnerable pupils in the area, taking...
Mark Isherwood: Although digital connectivity is now critical to our day-to-day lives, too many communities across Wales face high levels of digital exclusion, and Wales has the highest rate of non-internet usage in the UK. Against its target for the Superfast Cymru project to reach 96 per cent of properties existing in 2011, the Welsh Government has extended the completion of the build phase to June 2017,...
Mark Isherwood: The North Wales Economic Ambition Board’s growth vision for the economy of north Wales, supported by all six councils, universities, colleges and the business sector, and submitted to the UK and Welsh Governments this summer, has cross-border co-operation at its core. As it says, this is about developing a strategy for the Northern Powerhouse, complementing the Northern Powerhouse,...
Mark Isherwood: Your statement refers to the creation in the Bill of a mandatory licensing system for practitioners carrying out special procedures—acupuncture, body piercing, electrolysis and tattooing—helping to protect people and so on. But when I wrote to you regarding the hair industry, you replied, on 27 October, that the regulation of hairdressing will not be included in the Public Health (Wales)...
Mark Isherwood: Counsel General, you’ve outlined in your statement what the court case is about and clearly an independent judiciary is vital to our constitution and to our freedoms. However, the UK Government does also have a right to disagree with the court’s decision and that is why they’re appealing the High Court’s ruling where the process of law must be followed. As they state, the UK ‘voted...
Mark Isherwood: You state that, given that the Superfast Cymru contract will end next year, you’ve already embarked on the preparatory work necessary to establish a successor broadband investment project. Obviously, Superfast Cymru is at 96 per cent. I referred last week in the Chamber, and I think in committee, to the UK Government’s £10 million innovation fund pilot, which ran throughout 2015, looking...
Mark Isherwood: Thank you, Cabinet Secretary, for your statement in what is an important week and for many, a hugely emotional week and a week that we should all take time to stop, think and contemplate upon, bearing in mind that, often, the further back we look, the further forward we can see. In your statement, you referred to the employability pathway, which, again, I welcome and it can be a critical...
Mark Isherwood: You refer at the very end to CAIS and, of course, they do some brilliant projects, Change Step, particularly. They also run Listen In for family support. The funding for that has ended. They are providing lower tier support within Change Step, but, again, given your reference at the end to providing veterans and their families with the support they need, how, if at all, is the Welsh...
Mark Isherwood: How is the Welsh Government increasing prosperity in North Wales?
Mark Isherwood: Let me begin by thanking Glan Clwyd and Wrexham Maelor for the cancer treatment they’ve given to members of my own family. Nonetheless, this does raise serious concerns. I have—I won’t read them all out—upheld complaints by the ombudsman against Glan Clwyd here in 2012, two in 2013, and one in September this year, when a gentleman with chronic renal failure died and the ombudsman felt...
Mark Isherwood: As Wales species champion for the curlew, I visited Ysbyty Ifan in Snowdonia this summer with the RSPB, the National Trust and the tenant farmer, and heard that, instead of prescription, agri-environment schemes need to pay farmers on outcomes, doing things with them. I also heard that the main reason breeding is failing is nest predation, with the fox and crow the main culprits, which is why...
