David Melding: Can I say I was greatly moved—I was still at school, actually—when the Brandt commission reported? I know this will not recommend it any further to a certain party but, of course, Edward Heath was one of its prime members. It established the 0.7 per cent target of GNP that should be devoted to international aid. As part of that report, it also emphasised, to respond directly to Neil...
David Melding: UK Government has phased out direct aid to Governments. It doesn’t happen anymore. We give aid to international partners like UNICEF, to organisations, to British charities that are working there, and to co-operatives and the like of other community bodies in these countries. We do not give money to foreign Governments as aid.
David Melding: Can I say that the Conservative group will also support the Plaid Cymru amendment because we do think that we need to have a unified expression, at least for the other parties? We interpret the call for a comprehensive international policy as one working through British institutions like the foreign office and the British Council, just in case people think that we’ve run away with Plaid...
David Melding: Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on NHS waiting times in South Wales Central?
David Melding: As chair of the Welsh Conservative party group and the only Member first elected in 1999, it is my sad honour to make this tribute. Devolution was a shaky structure when Rhodri became First Minister in February 2000. Only narrowly endorsed by the electorate, it lacked decisive leadership and had not created a stable Government. Rhodri provided the energy and vision that devolution needed to...
David Melding: 2. What is the Welsh Government doing to address the fruit and vegetable deficit in Wales? OAQ(5)0150(ERA)
David Melding: Thank you for that, Cabinet Secretary, and welcome back, incidentally. This is my first opportunity to say that to you. We only produce about 10 per cent of what we consume, so the deficit is up to 90 per cent, certainly of fruit and veg that can be grown in our climate. With 2 per cent of Welsh agricultural land given over to fruit and veg, albeit 10.5 per cent of grade 1 to 3 land, we would...
David Melding: 6. What is the Welsh Government’s strategy for improving the ecological footprint of Wales’s urban environments? OAQ(5)0144(ERA)
David Melding: First—First Minister? Cabinet Secretary—[Interruption.] Yes, that was a quick promotion. If everyone in the world consumed as much as we do in Wales, we’d need 2.5 planets. I was looking at the ‘Ecological and Carbon Footprints of Wales’ 2015 report by the Stockholm Environment Institute, which I’m glad to say the Welsh Government did commission, and about 11 per cent of our...
David Melding: 3. Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on how the Welsh Government embeds in its work the principles set out in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child? OAQ(5)0145(CC)
David Melding: Thank you, Cabinet Secretary, for that. The national participation standards set out what children are entitled to expect from the services they are involved in. These standards, as I understand, were reviewed last year and, as a consequence, updated guidance was necessary to local authorities to improve their self-assessment. I wonder if that guidance has been issued and whether we are...
David Melding: 8. What assessment has the Cabinet Secretary made of the Children’s Commissioner’s Hidden Ambitions report? OAQ(5)0144(CC)
David Melding: And I very much welcome the St David’s fund. I think that is an innovative and imaginative way of improving the well-being of many looked-after children’s lives. I wonder how impressed you were also by the commissioner’s findings that social services, housing and education departments need to both co-operate and co-ordinate their work to improve the independence of care leavers, and...
David Melding: Can I thank the Counsel General for his statement? The proper enforcement of animal welfare, food production and fisheries law is very important—these are serious responsibilities. And of course, with effective enforcement, self and natural compliance is increased. That, presumably, is the objective of what we want. These powers have been held by the Welsh Government for some time, but, as...
David Melding: Many, many months.
David Melding: Can I start by being polite and commending Plaid Cymru’s initiative in using the new flexibility in Assembly resources to commission research projects? Generally, I think it’s a good idea and, in fairness, you’ve put your ideas out and we can have an excellent debate, I’m sure, on this proposal. So, I think we need more of this, and you deserve a serious response to your central...
David Melding: Yes.
David Melding: Well, it brings me nicely on to the point that it is not an efficient or perfect market.
David Melding: I can hear a UKIP Member muttering, ‘There’s no perfect solution either’, and that probably does sum up the difficulty we’re in. But energy prices are high and they’re also very difficult to understand whenever you get your energy bill. Unless you did double maths at A-level, I don’t think you’ve got a hope, and perhaps you need to have studied it at university as well. But, in...
David Melding: First Minister, I’m sure you agree that we should be aiming for a good deal—a good deal for the United Kingdom, a good deal for Wales, and a good deal for the European Union—and I’m very confident that that is what will happen. But, can I just refer you to the UK economic outlook that was published in November 2016, which did identify—and this was on the trends before Brexit—that...
