Mike Hedges: 3. Will the First Minister make a statement on the development of football in Wales? OAQ(5)0102(FM)
Mike Hedges: Thank you, First Minister. I’m also very pleased with how the Welsh team did in the European championships, and I am sure that I’m not the only one who spent Sunday night thinking, ‘It could have been us’, especially when a former Swansea City player won the tournament for Portugal. In order to continue to develop football, there is a need for improved pitches. I would like to ask the...
Mike Hedges: This is a very simple supplementary budget that involves two major financial changes. As the Cabinet Secretary said earlier, the main purpose of this supplementary budget is to restructure to reflect the ministerial portfolio changes of the new Welsh Government. It also sets out details of the additional allocations, most of which have been previously committed in policy statements in this...
Mike Hedges: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I have given a minute in this debate—[Interruption.]
Mike Hedges: I have given a minute in this debate to Jeremy Miles. I welcome this opportunity to raise a subject that I believe to be vital to the future of people in Wales. Housing, or the lack of it, is perhaps the greatest challenge facing this Assembly, and I welcome the opportunity to discuss it so early in this term. It’s certainly a major issue in my constituency, not just people who can’t get...
Mike Hedges: Will the Minister make a statement on transport links within the Swansea Bay City Region?
Mike Hedges: This is the second cyclical set of GCSE results that have been achieved since Schools Challenge Cymru was launched. I visited Pentrehafod School and Morriston Comprehensive School on GCSE results day to be told that Pentrehafod had achieved their best ever GCSE results, and that Morriston had increased their A* to C grades by 17 per cent. Can I ask the Cabinet Secretary for Education to make...
Mike Hedges: I very much welcome the statement by the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government on the land transaction tax. We know, on the land transaction tax, it’s a volatile and cyclical tax. We also know that it fell by £110 million between 2007-08 and 2009-10. We also know that the rate of increasing revenue in the south east, especially London, is greater than in the rest of the United...
Mike Hedges: First Minister, do you agree with me that it’s of prime importance, in devolving any taxes, for Wales to suffer no detriment from the devolution of those taxes? Will you press for independent arbitration to resolve disputes with the Treasury? I don’t want to sound pessimistic, but I have a feeling that we may end up with the odd dispute with the Treasury. And if the Treasury acts as judge...
Mike Hedges: Can I ask for a statement on census data collection for the 2021 census? What input does either the National Assembly or Welsh Government have on the boundaries of lower super output areas? These data, as you know, are used by the Welsh Government to target anti-poverty programmes. The mix created can—and has in my constituency—led to some of the poorest parts missing out because they...
Mike Hedges: Can I associate myself with the remarks that Dai Lloyd made? I think that almost everybody, if not everybody, who represents the area, and certainly the people who live in the area, are concerned that it seems to be taking a long time for the city deal to actually come to fruition in Swansea as opposed to other places in Britain. What I would like to ask the Minister is: what further needs to...
Mike Hedges: 7. Will the Minister make a statement on the performance of Welsh councils? OAQ(5)0021(FLG)
Mike Hedges: I thank the Minister for that response. I think we’ve seen local authorities doing incredibly well with diminishing funds. The local government data unit’s details on council performance was, I found, very interesting. I can, however, find no evidence that larger authorities are performing better than medium or small authorities. Can the Minister find that evidence from the data?
Mike Hedges: I welcome the statement by the Chair and the new practice of committee Chairs reporting to the Plenary session. Can I congratulate whoever came up with that as an idea, because I think it does help with the Assembly to make sure that committees don’t work in little silos, but actually inform the rest of the Assembly as to exactly what’s happening? As we move from solely an allocation of...
Mike Hedges: 6. Will the Minister make a statement on Estyn inspection of schools in Wales? OAQ(5)0019(EDU)
Mike Hedges: Thank you, Cabinet Secretary, for that response. As well as the Estyn inspections, schools also undergo an annual assessment by the regional consortium under the GAR—better known as the traffic light system. Why do they produce different results, and which ones should parents pay most attention to?
Mike Hedges: Diolch. Can I first of all thank you, acting Presiding Officer, and, more importantly, can I thank Eluned Morgan for a minute in this debate, and raising the issues? Let me state at the outset I don’t necessarily agree with everything she said, but I think the issues are worth raising, and they are important. Most social services departments in Wales are under more financial pressure than...
Mike Hedges: 1. Will the First Minister provide an update on the Swansea Bay City Region? OAQ(5)0171(FM)
Mike Hedges: I believe that the Swansea bay city region is developing very well as a vehicle for economic development. I, however, see a more strategic role for it in things like a structure plan. Does the First Minister agree, and will the First Minister look to use the footprint of the Swansea bay city region for Welsh Government-funded public services?
Mike Hedges: Can I also thank the Cabinet Secretary for his statement? Councils in Britain are the largest in Europe, as the Cabinet Secretary knows. John Stewart has said ‘the average size of a British local authority is 10 times the average size of local authorities in the rest of Europe.’ At a Gorwel meeting last week, chaired by David Melding, it was stated that Slovenia, a country roughly the...
