Jenny Rathbone: Thank you very much. So, we started by hearing from Mark Isherwood, as Chair of the Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee. Obviously, lots of warm words about the importance of this work. What I didn't hear from your contribution was a timescale for the work that you need to do. Because we really do need to know how you're going to carry it out and when you might reach some...
Jenny Rathbone: Thank you, Mark, and I'm sorry if I missed that—that's really important to have on the public record, because it is vital that—. This is a very good time to be doing this work, because we know that we've had an absolutely excellent appointment in Sophie Howe for this particular role, because of the prominence that she has given to the Act and the way in which public bodies need to comply...
Jenny Rathbone: So, now really is the time to review the role of the well-being of future generations commissioner's office, but also to look at all the other independent people whose job it is to independently scrutinise public bodies. So, thank you very much indeed for that, but I agree with you also on the points you made about the importance of cultural change, making people aware and also understanding...
Jenny Rathbone: —of the challenges that we all face. Thank you.
Jenny Rathbone: I just wanted to focus on the planning infrastructure around housing developments. I was very disappointed to learn that Cardiff Council has given planning approval for 700 homes on the old Brains site, just south of Cardiff Central station—a 29-storey development—and the only contribution to social housing is £600,000 for homes to be built elsewhere. Well, that equates to about five...
Jenny Rathbone: Trefnydd, I've had an e-mail recently from a volunteer in the Cardiff office of the legal charity Support Through Court, which, for the last eight years, has been funded by the Ministry of Justice. This isn't just a Cardiff problem; these are volunteers who support people throughout Wales who are having to grapple with the civil justice system. And it would appear that the Ministry of Justice...
Jenny Rathbone: 5. What work is the Minister doing on land use planning to ensure the best use is made of land in the context of Net Zero Wales? OQ58229
Jenny Rathbone: I want to follow up on the questions that both Jayne Bryant and Natasha Asghar have asked, but in relation to growing food for sale. We obviously have to reduce our carbon emissions from food, including the miles that food has to travel. The Sustain report on fringe farming, published earlier this year, highlights the importance of protecting peri-urban land with grade 1 and grade 2 soils for...
Jenny Rathbone: I think this is a very important debate to make people feel that they have some control over their communities, when so much seems to be not in people's control. Therefore, it's really important that we equip communities with better tools to protect themselves from external interests with no stake in an area, who just want to monetise everything they can get their hands on. Dom Phillips and...
Jenny Rathbone: Thank you very much, Jane. I absolutely agree with you that NRW need more resources to track down the sources of this pollution. I just wondered, as you represent the region of Mid and West Wales, whether you'd had the opportunity to speak to Powys council about the proliferation of chicken farms that have been allowed to go ahead, and what contribution Powys council thinks the faeces from...
Jenny Rathbone: Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. I've agreed to give a minute of my time to Heledd Fychan. I represent a very diverse constituency, with both some of the poorest and some of the richest households in Wales. I've long been intrigued by the way different schools in Cardiff and elsewhere deal with pupils' behavioural difficulties and the efforts, or not, they've put into avoiding...
Jenny Rathbone: On permanent exclusions, the picture is reversed in 2019-20: 7 pupils per 10,000 permanently excluded in Cardiff versus 5 per 10,000 across Wales, though the numbers were the same in the previous year across the country, 5 per 10,000. But, behind these small numbers there are other strategies that some schools use to get rid of pupils they no longer want to be responsible for. Managed moves...
Jenny Rathbone: Well, I certainly defer to the expertise of Vikki Howells and agree with her that the value added by schools is the most important measure, because you could have a brilliant child starting school aged four or five, brilliant at maths—you want to ensure that that progression continues, otherwise they'll be sitting at the back causing trouble, because they'll be bored. And, equally, you want...
Jenny Rathbone: It's always very sobering when you go into schools in September and you hear the children who are asked what did they do over the summer holidays and they recount what they did on the school trip in the summer term, because it tells you that they didn't do anything very much in the school holidays, and the numbers who won't be going anywhere outside the area where they live will, obviously,...
Jenny Rathbone: Thank you very much for calling me. We heard lots of excellent good practice amongst public bodies—a range of them—in really taking seriously the ways in which they needed to refer people who were survivors of violence as migrants with no recourse to public funds. We'll discuss that another day. But it was also useful to hear witnesses from specialist third sector organisations demanding...
Jenny Rathbone: 4. What progress has the Welsh Government made to increase the number of pupils travelling to school by bike, scooter or on foot? OQ58328
Jenny Rathbone: Last week we heard that some pupils are not attending school because families can't afford the bus fare. Obviously, that's an example of the acuteness of the Tory cost-of-living crisis. In light of the climate emergency and some of the tragic events we've read about in the last few days, I hope that we can agree that laying on more and cheaper bus transport isn't the solution for urban areas...
Jenny Rathbone: Bringing forward the 20 mph regulations has been very warmly welcomed by my constituents when it was announced last week. I obviously also welcome your announcement of the clean air Bill and the bus Bill in the autumn of next year, and I wondered if you can say little bit more about the measures you hope to take to make sure all parts of society will play their part in reducing air pollution....
Jenny Rathbone: Okay. I just wanted to declare the interest I have as my partner works for Bute Energy and I've also got investments in Awel Aman Tawe.
Jenny Rathbone: Thank you very much. Ignaz Semmelweis identified why women giving birth cared by midwives—nearly all women—had a much lower mortality rate than a randomly identical cohort cared by doctors—all men—in 1847, but it took over 100 years in a male-dominated profession for hand washing between patients and before surgery to be mandatory practice. And so that really illustrates just the size...
