Mark Reckless: I was pleased to see today that there was a letter I think MPs at Westminster organised. Richard Graham, the MP for Gloucester, and 107 MPs signed that, and, I think most usefully, Jesse Norman, who’s the junior Minister responsible, has said there won’t be any foot dragging from the UK Government in responding to Charles Hendry’s report. Last summer, I was asked by Charles Hendry’s...
Mark Reckless: I congratulate the individual Members who have obtained this debate today, one of whom I studied with at university. I would like to emphasise the support of my party for this motion as a whole. I intend to focus my remarks on point 4, to welcome the progress made in the past few decades on LGBT rights and acceptance, because it’s less than three decades ago since the issue that first...
Mark Reckless: Starting with the European Investment Bank, Nick Ramsay said the time we have to make further approaches to the EIB, and I think Adam Price was also perhaps presaging his remarks potentially on our not being part of the EIB. In my party I don’t think we’ve any objection in principle to the EIB. I think there’s a negotiation about how it would work with us outside the European Union, and...
Mark Reckless: 4. Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on how he will measure success in reducing poverty? OAQ(5)0131(EI)
Mark Reckless: When does the Cabinet Secretary expect revenue from Cardiff Airport to pay back the cost of its purchase?
Mark Reckless: In principle, I support the Cabinet Secretary leading in this area, and using economic development and improving infrastructure to reduce poverty. However, the shift in policy and the abolition of Communities First has caused concern on his own benches. Is he sure the new approach will support the poorest in our society?
Mark Reckless: I thank Nick Ramsay for his contribution. The conclusion ‘we cannot support’ I thought was rather Delphic, since it leaves two possible interpretations. The situation we find on this budget is that UKIP were not part of the Assembly at the time that the initial budget was passed for this year. A number of the changes from head-to-head or main expenditure groups are, I think, difficult to...
Mark Reckless: Will the Cabinet Secretary give way?
Mark Reckless: So, is the £21.1 million a technical reclassification, or is it to pay for an overshoot in the budget?
Mark Reckless: I will say I'm grateful to the Cabinet Secretary for briefing me around this LCM yesterday. Given the protections of the positive resolution procedure, given the lack of objection from the local government and human rights committee, and also given that the Cabinet Secretary's comments about the very significant improvements in the legislation as it progressed, and the openness of...
Mark Reckless: The Scottish First Minister has said that her Government is now to seek a second independence referendum. One of the challenges she will face is that, on a stand-alone basis, Scotland is running a deficit of some 9 per cent or 10 per cent of gross domestic product, compared to 4 per cent for the UK as a whole. It’s estimated, therefore, that an independent Scotland would have to fill a...
Mark Reckless: The Wales Governance Centre has helpfully recently published a report where it sets out total Welsh public sector spending by all levels of Government. The most recent year—2014-15—for which they have comparable data was £38 billion. That compares with total public sector revenues drawn from Wales of £23.3 billion. So, the report finds that Wales’s net fiscal balance was a deficit of...
Mark Reckless: So, £7,500, approximately, per head is raised in tax in Wales, compared to £10,000 across the UK as a whole. I’m glad to hear the Cabinet Secretary’s restatement and clarification that his party, at least, and the Government he leads, is a devolutionist one, because, in many of the actions of this Government, agreement is sought with a certain party opposite—and I’m never quite...
Mark Reckless: In his opening speech, the leader of the opposition—although I’m not sure I can call him that again; Neil McEvoy is no longer listed as a Plaid Member, I see. He said that he expected to see a new Government with new energy and new impetus. He even went so far, I think, as to say for 18 months he anticipated a blaze of energy. But of course this, to all intents, isn’t a new Labour-led...
Mark Reckless: Will the First Minister clarify his previous comments on him seeing Scotland as being a constitutional model for Wales to follow?
Mark Reckless: Diolch, Lywydd, and I think I owe you the deepest of apologies of the Members that you have, certainly in my case, very indulgently allowed to contribute to this debate; I apologise to the Cabinet Secretary also for not having caught at least the earlier part of his remarks. The thing I’ve most noted is that the Cabinet Secretary has listened and he has thought and he has considered...
Mark Reckless: 7. Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on the £21.1 million transferred from the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales to the Welsh Government? OAQ(5)0109(EDU)
Mark Reckless: The Minister describes this as a technical change, and that was also what the Cabinet Secretary for finance said to me in a letter on 15 March, that it was a technical adjustment within the portfolio. Could the Minister therefore explain why Kirsty Williams told the Children, Young People and Education Committee on 17 October the tuition fee grant will be in excess of original estimates of...
Mark Reckless: Diolch, Llywydd. My group leader asked me to pass on his apologies, as he is at a family funeral today. May I commend the First Minister on his Government’s 13 March response to the UK Government’s consultation paper on the future of the Severn tolls? It’s well argued, and faithfully reflects the unanimous view of this Assembly on my motion to support the abolition of tolls on the...
Mark Reckless: I agree with the First Minister, and wish him, Ken Skates and his officials well in pushing that position. The UK Government, I believe, has three very serious legal risks if it seeks to continue tolling without our agreement, and any one of those could be fatal to any plan that it has. First, the Severn Bridges Act 1992 says that tolls should cease after a further fixed sum is raised, and...
