Carwyn Jones: First of all, we’ve tabled all the amendments with the objective of having them all accepted. We believe that they deal with the issues that affect devolution particularly and they would remove the obstacles with regard to devolution that the Bill currently represents. He asked the question: is support for the LCM dependent on a mechanism? At this moment in time, I would say ‘no’. I...
Carwyn Jones: Well, the sensible way of doing this would have been to talk to us early on in the process, before drafting the Bill itself, to see whether we could have any kind of agreement about the way forward. But that wasn’t the way it happened. We did receive some parts of the Bill a few weeks ahead of time—not everything, but some clauses, ahead of time—but not enough to have any kind of idea...
Carwyn Jones: It is. I mean, from the UK Government perspective, this is seen as a minor issue. From our perspective it’s a very major issue. As I say, there’s no—. An agreement on their part doesn’t cost them anything at all; there’s no penalty. But there’s an enormous penalty as far as Wales is concerned. Part of the difficulty here lies in the fact that there’s a difficulty on the part of...
Carwyn Jones: We’re promoting sustainable transport by investing in our rail and bus services, by developing integrated public transport networks such as the metro in the north and south, ensuring active travel becomes more mainstream, and working with local partners to identify pinch-point areas and deliver infrastructure improvements to smooth traffic flow.
Carwyn Jones: The Active Travel (Wales) Act 2013, of course, is the basis for doing this, recognising that cycling, while important for health, is a mode of transport, and it’s important, as is walking, of course. I’ve always thought that in trying to encourage people to get onto bikes, it’s important that they feel safe, and a lot of people won’t go on the roads and mix with cars. In the countries...
Carwyn Jones: Well, we already do: for example, the on-street residential charge point scheme, which supports local authorities with 75 per cent of capital costs of procuring and installing residential charge points, and with an associated dedicated parking bay. It is a challenge now for all Governments to put in place the network of chargers that will be needed before 2040, and in particular ensuring...
Carwyn Jones: It is central. Every local authority has to submit its initial maps of the new routes that they are going to develop within their area. They are now working on integrated network routes, and they have to submit them by 3 November this year, and then it will be possible to measure how much progress the authorities have made and how much more support they require in order to go at the right...
Carwyn Jones: Yes. We’ve been meeting with the Football Association of Wales about this potential bid. We already have an ambitious major events strategy and we’ll continue to meet with the key stakeholders to consider how we can take this forward.
Carwyn Jones: Yes. Central Square is being developed rapidly now. With regard to Cardiff Central station, that’s a matter for Network Rail. We have pushed Network Rail. I’ve done it in meetings with Network Rail and it’s being done in other ways to redevelop Cardiff Central. It’s at a cost of hundreds of millions of pounds but, nevertheless, it’s a redevelopment that is needed. We know that,...
Carwyn Jones: Very much so. We’ve learnt that over the years. Not long after I became First Minister, the Ryder Cup was held and that was a huge event: some 25,000 people there on the final day, millions watching around the world. And, of course, culminating with the Champions League final, which, ironically, was almost a consolation prize for us for not getting to be chosen as a venue for the 2020...
Carwyn Jones: We can have both. One of the issues that we face with large-scale events is we have to ensure that people have places to stay outside Wales. The reality is the capacity isn’t there entirely in Wales to host people as they come to Wales. That will develop over time. It isn’t the case that it’s either spending money on major events or spending money on the rest of Wales. For example,...
Carwyn Jones: Well, first of all, I don’t accept the premise that the question is based on. If we look, for example, at referral-to-treatment times over 36 weeks, that’s improved by 35 per cent between March 2015 and March 2017. March 2017 was also the highest performance on the percentage of patients waiting over 26 weeks since March 2014. We know that diagnostic waiting times have improved by 58 per...
Carwyn Jones: Well, what I can say is we recently announced £50 million of performance moneys in order to continue—we are now trading statistics again, but I think we have to—in order to continue this improvement trend for waiting times. The health Secretary and I have been very clear on the need for further improvement in waiting times, and all health boards have committed to further improvements by...
Carwyn Jones: No, we expect health boards to be able to manage with the resources that they have. Clearly, we could not be in a position where health boards knew that whatever they spent, they would be bailed out. That is an incentive for them not to be as rigorous in their financial management and their care for patients as they otherwise should be. So, they have been told that, by March of next year, we...
Carwyn Jones: I talk to businesses, and one of the issues particularly that businesses have flagged up with us is the lack of suitable premises where they can go in order to set up manufacturing. One of the issues that we’re looking at is being able to provide them with the premises that they need, of the right size. We don’t do that in terms of building empty buildings for no reason. We’ve done that...
Carwyn Jones: No, we’ve explored this before. I’ve explained to him the issue of what counts as on the books and off the books. What he describes is speculative. Every business venture is speculative to some extent. But in some ways, in the questions he asks, he answered his first question, and that is: one of the reasons why St Athan proved attractive to Aston Martin is because there was a building...
Carwyn Jones: We’ve never rejected the circuit as an idea. It was simply the financial arrangements surrounding it. If the circuit is able to come up with a different proposal, then, of course, that’s something that we would look at. We don’t have an objection in principle, but we have to make sure that any project takes into account the interests of Welsh taxpayers and is able to demonstrate very...
Carwyn Jones: These are matters for the Ministry of Justice to answer. We’re not responsible for prison policy. But she asked a question about prisons. I have a prison in my constituency. It was very controversial when it was built. I was the ward councillor when it was built at the time. Now, no-one takes any notice of it. It employs many people, there’s a housing estate being built not far from the...
Carwyn Jones: Well, we would not do anything that would jeopardise the future of the Swansea metro, that’s true, but there are broader issues here that do have to be addressed. The prisons are crumbling, there’s no question about that. As somebody who was familiar with the system at one time with my job, our prisons are long overdue being replaced—we know that some of them are Victorian. We export...
Carwyn Jones: Well, she’s telling half the story. First of all, she knows full well that licensing is not done by Ministers; it’s done by an outside body—that’s the whole point—so that the politics is taken out of it. What I’ve seen so far is one person has said there may be an issue here. Well, of course, that issue needs to be addressed, but we’ve got be careful here because the waste from...
