Julie James: Yes, I couldn't concur more with the campaign. I thought the housing Minister endorsed it in a very clear statement. Somebody asking for sex instead of rent is not a landlord—they are a criminal. It could not be any more straightforward than that. And, of course, we share yours and many other people's concern that vulnerable people are put into this position, driven there by some of the...
Julie James: I'm very happy to say that the Welsh Government supports family reunification where at all possible in all of the circumstances where families are divided. It's amongst the worst and most pernicious effects of some of our more draconian immigration rules. If Neil McEvoy wants to write to me with the details and the contact details of the family, I'm very happy to make representations to the...
Julie James: Yes. The Cabinet Secretary is very, very firm that bullying is not to be tolerated, of any sort, in our schools, but we are particularly concerned about racist bullying, especially with the rise of hate crimes across the UK. Actually, we've got a group called EAST working very hard on a set of guidelines for schools, and we're currently looking at putting a new project into schools exactly on...
Julie James: Formally.
Julie James: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. Well, I would very much like to begin by thanking the Conservatives for bringing forward this debate today because it's given us a timely opportunity to reflect and celebrate the significant progress successive Welsh Labour Governments—so, that's successively elected by the Welsh people, Welsh Labour Governments—have made during Carwyn Jones's time as...
Julie James: Yes, certainly, Janet.
Julie James: Well, that is the reality. I was about to come on and say. But, actually, if you really want to know what I say to my constituents in Swansea, Janet, I say that the Tory Government has cancelled electrification; it's cancelled the Swansea bay tidal lagoon; they cannot deal with any of the infrastructure problems. It is an absolute shambles. So, you asked the question: that's the answer you're...
Julie James: It bears repeating today: if we were not a penny better off in real terms than we were in 2010, we would have £850 million more to invest in front-line services today. Now, if spending—
Julie James: I'll come on to that, Rhun. If spending on public services had kept pace with the growth in the economy since 2010, we would have an extra £4 billion to spend on public services in Wales. And if the UK Conservative Government had matched the level of investment in public services achieved by every Government for the last 50 years, Wales would have £8 billion more to spend.
Julie James: Well, as you know, David, Gordon Brown had already turned the economy around and we had growth. The Conservative Party choked that in its infancy immediately. So, I don't have any worries at all of what would have happened there. The Tory Party that followed was one of the most fiscally irresponsible in the history of Great Britain. Llywydd, in the face of this global recession, austerity and...
Julie James: We continue to implement our national strategy. I launched the VAWDASV perpetrator service standards last week, the statutory regional commissioning guidance will be published in the new year and we are working with the Wales Centre for Public Policy to scope reviews of refuge provision and sexual violence services.
Julie James: The Welsh Government has adopted the social model of disability, recognising that we need to remove all sorts of barriers that prevent disabled people from living the lives they want. This is increasingly being reflected across our policies, including transport, education, environment and health, as reflected in our new framework.
Julie James: The strategic framework for an ageing society will place older people at the heart of policy making. Preparatory work has sharpened our focus on the issues that matter to older people, including mental health. The framework will drive a rights-based approach that has a practical, quantifiable impact on people’s lives.
Julie James: We recognise that children from Gypsy and Traveller communities face many additional barriers, including in relation to education, health and public perceptions. Our 'Enabling Gypsies, Roma and Traveller' plan contains a comprehensive suite of actions to improve their life chances and well-being.
Julie James: Faith leaders meet with the First Minister and me twice a year through the faith communities forum to discuss issues affecting the economic, social and cultural life of Wales. The Welsh Government is committed to working with faith groups throughout the year to promote understanding and foster community cohesion.
Julie James: Following their successful bid for lots 1 and 3 of the successor programme, I will be meeting with BT to discuss future roll-out. However, the roll-out is just one part of our suite of interventions, with the Access Broadband Cymru and ultrafast connectivity voucher schemes available to secure connectivity.
Julie James: Yes. In our continued roll-out of fast fibre broadband, we have identified around 3,773 premises across the region that could potentially see connectivity coverage under the new initiative. Assistance with connectivity also continues with our Access Broadband Cymru and ultrafast connectivity voucher schemes.
Julie James: Right, well, thank you for that, I think. The meeting was indeed packed. I did explain at great length—as I have at all of the meetings around Wales that I've attended, and I think I've been almost to every constituency now—that the big problem is that this is not regarded as infrastructure; this is still regarded as the procurement of a luxury product. And so, we have to go through a...
Julie James: Yes. Although we don't hold information specifically for Preseli, under the Superfast Cymru project we provided access to fast fibre broadband to 54,500 premises across Pembrokeshire, delivering average speeds of 77.6 Mbps and investing over £15.8 million.
Julie James: It was a hope. I thought it was a hope that I could be relatively secure about, but actually it's turned out to be way more complex, with the negotiations between ourselves and the various other members of the state aid provision issue. So the procurement has just turned out to be much more complex than we had hoped in the first place. We are hoping, as I just said in response to Janet...
