Jenny Rathbone: The creation of a tripartite social partnership council is at the heart of this legislation. Section 5(2) states that the First Minister must seek nominations for worker representatives from the Wales TUC. You perhaps won't be surprised to know that the Wales TUC and its affiliates supported this process for nominating worker representatives to the council, however unions not affiliated to...
Jenny Rathbone: The Clink restaurant in Cardiff has operated for over 10 years from a building attached to Cardiff prison. It's one of four restaurants operated by The Clink Charity—the others are in Brixton, High Down and Styal prisons. The Cardiff teaching kitchen and restaurant is situated outside the prison walls, so it can only recruit category C prisoners who are not deemed at risk of absconding....
Jenny Rathbone: I'm very interested in this subject, and it's excellent that you've done this report. Regardless of your enthusiasm for team sports—football, rugby or anything else—it's vital that every child, regardless of ability or disability, gets to be able to (a) ride a bike and (b) learn to swim. Both are essential life skills in the same category as being able to cook a basic meal or tie your...
Jenny Rathbone: Also how we're going to heat our pools, because, unless we do, we're going to simply have to swim in the water that's heated by the sun, which, in this weather, is a rather challenging prospect.
Jenny Rathbone: Thank you very much. I too congratulate you and all your stakeholders for achieving both the interim and the net emissions targets, because I really think that's excellent. I look forward to studying the net-zero strategic action plan you commit to publish by the end of this week, and particularly the annex to the final statement, because I want to ask you what's in there about the food...
Jenny Rathbone: I think it's worth having a brief discussion on this, because I have heard that there's no actual proper definition, that's completely agreed, on which oxo-biodegradable bags are actually biodegradable and which are not. For my money, obviously they have to disintegrate completely on contact with water or light, and they don't actually leave plastic in the environment when they disappear. So,...
Jenny Rathbone: 3. Will the Commission provide an update on its strategy for reducing energy bills on the Senedd estate? OQ58837
Jenny Rathbone: I just wanted to follow up Mark Isherwood's question, because I think it's about empowering local authorities and ensuring that they've got the resources to apply for this ECO4 Flex system, because it's similar to 'Claim what's yours'. We need to ensure that Wales is claiming what it's entitled to, to retrofit some of our many homes that are really far too cold and people are living in fuel...
Jenny Rathbone: I'm very interested to hear what you have to say on this, and I just want to raise with you the concerns that we've heard about the disjunctive nature of the criminal justice system at the moment. For example, when we had the legislative and constitutional committee, chaired by Huw Irranca-Davies, meeting with Lord Bellamy, he was highlighted the importance of the Visiting Mums project, as if...
Jenny Rathbone: Thank you, Janet Finch-Saunders, for your response. I think it's really important that we are seen to be doing what we ask other people to do. So, I think there's much more progress being made on making the electric lights only turn on when we actually need them, and I have noticed that we're not now heating parts of the estate where we're not actually needing to sit or have a meeting. Many...
Jenny Rathbone: Thank you very much, and congratulations to the 59 people from Wales who won the WorldSkills award—that's really fantastic. I'll look them up, and see what it is they won for. It's also good to know that young people are more prudent, serious and climate conscious than their predecessors, but they also are struggling with, as you say, significant mental health and confidence barriers. On...
Jenny Rathbone: Interesting contributions across the Chamber. I agree with Jane Dodds that we also need to look back at some of the achievements we've made, and I'd like to inform Lee Waters that the well-being of future generations commissioner was particularly praiseworthy of the radical roads review in the session we had yesterday in the Equality and Social Justice Committee. We absolutely do need to be...
Jenny Rathbone: I just wanted to pick up on what Rebecca Evans said—that we've got £3 billion less overall, and that's £1 billion less for the upcoming year in 2023-24. Does that mean that we'll have £2 billion less in our budget for 2024-25, under the current circumstances as known, because, obviously, that makes it even more challenging to look forward to the following year? And it's certainly the way...
Jenny Rathbone: I'd just like to take this opportunity to ask the Deputy Minister, when you're reviewing this legislation in line with the request by the legislative and constitutional committee, to have a look at the labelling on baby food, because this has long been something that concerns me, because in the past it has certainly been raised with me that sugar is put into baby food, and salt. Both of these...
Jenny Rathbone: I humbly disagree with Lesley Griffiths that we don't need this Bill, because the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 was created in 2015, and we are now two terms later and we certainly haven't made the progress that we need to make on changing our relationship with food. The community food strategy you're working on with Plaid Cymru is a nice to have, but it is not at the...
Jenny Rathbone: —our relationship with good food.
Jenny Rathbone: Okay. I humbly disagree with the Minister for rural affairs and food. We need a whole-system change that we simply haven't achieved from the well-being of future generations Act, which was introduced in the fourth term, and we are now in the sixth term of this Parliament. The community food strategy the Minister is working on with Plaid Cymru is a nice to have, but it simply isn't at the...
Jenny Rathbone: —and obesity. And yet, the amount that we spend on breastfeeding is absolutely negligible. So, we absolutely need to change children's relationship with food. If we're going to continue to be able to afford to roll out universal free school meals to all primary schools and beyond, we hope, in secondary schools, the £260 million that we are currently dedicating to that will only be...
Jenny Rathbone: —food is the largest emitter of carbon emissions by individual households—bigger than going on a plane, bigger than their transport costs, bigger than heating their homes. Lastly, clearly, the Minister for Social Justice must be involved in ensuring that everybody has access to healthy food, and her deputy, in charge of the Social Partnership and Public Procurement (Wales) Bill, needs...
Jenny Rathbone: Thank you, Dirprwy Lywydd. Research demonstrates that migrant women are disproportionately affected by gender-based violence. This is hardly surprising, as they face multiple forms of abuse and extra challenges when it comes to accessing support. This debate is not just about the position of asylum seekers; there are very large numbers of people living in this country, and including in Wales,...
