Sioned Williams: Thank you for the statement, Minister. It’s a little over a year now since I took up my role as Plaid Cymru spokesperson on social justice and equalities, and as you know, I’m also chair of the cross-party group on violence against women and girls, and I’ve heard and I’ve described several times now the starkly worrying statistics that speak of the terrible experiences, the appalling...
Sioned Williams: Thank you for the opportunity to contribute to this debate. We've broken new ground in collaborating on this Bill. It's the first piece of legislation that's part of our co-operation agreement with the Government, and I'm pleased to have been able to represent Plaid Cymru as spokesperson on post-16 education as we scrutinised and amended this Bill in a collaborative and positive manner with...
Sioned Williams: 3. Will the First Minister make a statement on the work that the Welsh Government is doing to improve public transport in South Wales West? OQ58305
Sioned Williams: Diolch, Brif Weinidog. Providing more affordable, convenient and reliable public transport is essential, of course, if we're going to improve access to education, employment, public services and leisure, and create the more prosperous, greener and more equal society that we all wish to see, especially given that 20 per cent of households in my region of South Wales West don't have access to a...
Sioned Williams: Diolch, Llywydd. Prynhawn da, Weinidog. We know that families with children are among the poorest households in our nation. Following the success of the baby box scheme in Scotland, a scheme was piloted in the Swansea Bay University Health Board area to provide baby bundles to 200 families to reduce the need for expenditure on newborn essentials. The pilot appeared to be successful, according...
Sioned Williams: Diolch, Weinidog. It's good to hear that there will be an announcement on the baby bundles. As we brace for a serious worsening of the cost-of-living crisis as the autumn and winter months begin to loom over an already grim horizon, I was wondering whether the Minister could update the Senedd on how effectively the current financial support being provided by the Welsh Government is being...
Sioned Williams: One of the first pieces of casework that I had after being elected was an appeal for help from a woman who had been relocated and rehomed as a result of escaping from domestic abuse. She was in an extremely vulnerable condition, having had to move from her home and community to a new town, having had to move her daughter to a new school, having to try to make new friends and cope with the...
Sioned Williams: Thank you, Dirprwy Lywydd. It's midsummer, and when the clouds rise, it is a time to wear light clothes, T-shirts, to open the windows, sit in the garden, hang the clothes on the line, enjoy a barbecue and to know, usually, that the energy bills won’t be as high as usual, and that the meter won’t spin quite as quickly as the heat of the sun warms our skins and our homes. But this year,...
Sioned Williams: Thank you, Dirprwy Lywydd, and I'll give a minute of my time to Heledd Fychan. I grew up in Gwent, and I would go shopping in Newport. The famous mural that told the story of the Chartists, which now, unfortunately, has been destroyed, was a wonder to me. I learnt of their battle and their sacrifice through the graphic and dramatic images of that mural. I would insist on being told the story...
Sioned Williams: Our young people have been able to vote at 16 now in two elections—the Senedd elections and the local elections this year. That, of course, is a cause of great joy and pride on a national level. My own daughter voted for the first time in the Senedd elections, and of course she voted for her mother, and my son in the local elections this year, and they clearly come from a family that...
Sioned Williams: A second issue specific to the implementation of votes at 16 in Wales was that the legislation did not include concrete statutory measures of political education, something that had been discussed in the reform process in Wales and identified as crucial in previous experiences of voting age reform elsewhere. This meant that, despite school-level commitments to citizenship education, when the...
Sioned Williams: According to the Electoral Commission report on the last Senedd elections, although the Democracy Box partnership project, which was supported by the Senedd and the Government, was a positive step, we need to extend the reach and impact of these programmes. They acknowledged that we need not only to improve current resources, but also to develop support programmes for those working with these...
Sioned Williams: Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. Prif Weinidog, you've rightly outlined the crucial importance of getting what support is available into eligible people's pockets. So, could I ask you: what evaluation of the last round of the winter fuel support scheme across local authorities has taken place? Because I'm sure that you agree with me that we need to know what worked well and what needs to be improved,...
Sioned Williams: 2. What consideration does the Welsh Government give to the impact of the cost-of-living crisis when funding schools in South Wales West? OQ58402
Sioned Williams: This inquiry and report on the Warm Homes programme and fuel poverty is perhaps one of the most important that I've been part of as a member of a committee in the Senedd to date, because every winter, hundreds of thousands of people in Wales have difficulty in affording to heat their homes, living in damp, cold conditions that are dangerous for their health. That was the situation last...
Sioned Williams: Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. The purpose of Plaid Cymru's motion today and our first debate of this new term is to foreground the need for further, immediate and emergency action by the Welsh Government on the cost-of-living crisis to support the Welsh people in the face of hardship described by many who work in the field of poverty as ‘Victorian’. It is of course a crisis, but it is a crisis...
Sioned Williams: The measures already announced by Welsh Government referenced in their amendments are, of course, welcome. Some, like free school meals, will be transformational. But there is much more that needs to be done; some of these are just not going to touch the sides. We heard the First Minister yesterday announce only one new measure, support for warm banks, and insist that efforts must be not on...
Sioned Williams: Thank you for your statement, Minister. It's chilling to think that the people of Ukraine have by now been subjected to the terror and obscenity of war for such a long period, and that, of course, has huge consequences for those who have been forced to flee their country. Our thoughts must also be with those in Russia who are bravely protesting against Putin's mobilisation policies. The human...
Sioned Williams: Diolch, Llywydd. Minister, yesterday, when asked by the leader of Plaid Cymru, Adam Price, about instituting measures such as those introduced this week by the SNP Scottish Government to protect their people from homelessness this winter, such as temporary rent freezes in the private sector and a ban on evictions, the First Minister said that he didn't think that instituting those measures...
Sioned Williams: Thank you. I look forward to seeing the result of that evaluation. We also heard the First Minister rightly condemn the Prime Minister's wish not to increase benefits in line with inflation, the benefits of people who already have almost nothing to live on. They're facing a terrifying winter. And as you know, Minister, Scotland are better able to protect their most vulnerable citizens from...
