David Rowlands: As my colleague Gareth Bennett said, UKIP's debate today is about one thing: improving the lives of farm animals from rearing to slaughter. UKIP has been at the forefront of dealing with animal welfare policy. As a party, we have promoted high standards of animal welfare for livestock and domestic animals. Indeed, long before the changes to the law in England, my party was calling for...
David Rowlands: Will the First Minister make a statement on the process for awarding the new Wales and Border franchise?
David Rowlands: Diolch, Llywydd. Some 18 to 20 years ago, former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair famously made a pledge to have 50 per cent of young adults progressing to a higher education by 2010. This target seems to have been enthusiastically embraced by the Welsh Government, because latest figures show that we are close to achieving that target in Wales. However, Cabinet Minister, the problem lies in that...
David Rowlands: Thank you, Cabinet Secretary, for your answer. We in UKIP believe that many students would be better off following another route to their desired career path; in other words, education should be more closely linked to employability rather than pure educational qualifications. Given such statistics as those quoted in the Wales section of the employer skills survey of 2017, which shows a...
David Rowlands: Again, I thank the Cabinet Secretary for her answer. Regional labour market reports published by the Welsh Government also have an interesting story to tell with regard to skills shortages. My region of south-east Wales has its highest skills shortage vacancies in the sectors of manufacturing, construction, transport and communications. The mid Wales region, where of course your constituency...
David Rowlands: Diolch, Llywydd. On behalf of the Petitions Committee, may I thank Members for the opportunity to hold this debate today? This petition, 'Presumption in Favour of Rural Schools', concerns the Welsh Government's school organisation code and the protection afforded to schools in rural areas. As Members will know, recent revisions made to the code attempt to provide stronger safeguards and...
David Rowlands: Diolch, Llywydd. Can I thank the Members for their contributions to the debate, and thank the petitioner again for bringing the petition forward? I will make a short synopsis of some of the comments that were made. Andrew R.T. Davies made the point of a rural school often being at the heart of a community, citing Llancarfan school in his constituency as an example of closing a school that...
David Rowlands: My interest in this subject is prompted by the many years I spent as a justice of the peace, where I saw first-hand the terrible effect that domestic abuse has not only on the victims but also on the families. So, can I thank the leader of the house for her statement? It is gratifying to see the steps being taken by the Welsh Government to eradicate these abhorrent crimes. The Violence...
David Rowlands: Will the First Minister outline the costs of bringing Aston Martin Lagonda to Wales?
David Rowlands: Diolch, Llywydd. Cabinet Secretary, I was unable to question the First Minister in Plenary yesterday due to time restraints, so perhaps I can use this opportunity to question you along the same lines. Why is there a reluctance to disclose the cost of attracting Aston Martin Lagonda to Wales?
David Rowlands: Well, I thank the Cabinet Secretary for that rather obscure answer. I, for one, will say that I hope you remain in your position after next week, but I'm sure that many in this house and further afield in Wales would say that it would be difficult to put a price on attracting such an iconic motor manufacturer to Wales. Perhaps I'd go as far as to say you would be justified in spending a...
David Rowlands: Well, Cabinet Secretary, I feel I may be echoing some of your sentiments there, but, Cabinet Secretary, is it not time to silence your critics and point out that bringing Aston Martin to Wales opens up the possibility of attracting other iconic names and high-profile companies to invest in Wales? These are the companies that can help bring long-term quality jobs and wealth to the country....
David Rowlands: As the committee Chair pointed out, our inquiry centred on three areas: trade, tourism, skills and training. It must be acknowledged that selling a small country such as Wales on the global market is no easy task. Sadly, our diaspora throughout the world is far smaller than that of either Scotland or Ireland. Consequently, the world's general knowledge of Wales is far less than that of these...
David Rowlands: You were saying people were lied to in 2016. What about the lies that took us into Europe? Are they nothing to them? We would never surrender our parliamentary sovereignty. We would keep full rights over all our fishing. We would never be asked to go into a single currency. There would be the supremacy of British courts. They are the lies that took us into Europe, David, and I fell for them...
David Rowlands: 5. Will the Cabinet Secretary provide an update on action taken to address pollution in Welsh rivers? OAQ53073
David Rowlands: As you will be aware, the fishing association have referred a complaint to the EU Commission that argues that huge quantities of slurry and poultry manure are being spread indiscriminately on large areas of farm land, and that the rules and guidelines governing how this should be done are consistently being broken. This is, of course, having a substantial impact on the ecology of our rivers....
David Rowlands: Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. First, leader of the house, can I make reference to your statement on the Superfast Cymru scheme, and acknowledge the success of the implementation of such a massive and mammoth task, and, indeed, the increased provision of mobile phone provision that you've had? Following on a little from Bethan Sayed's comments, I know that you will be aware that 5G technology is...
David Rowlands: Thank you for that answer. I'm sure that the leader of the house is aware of the international concerns regarding Chinese companies, who are said to be world leaders in fifth generation technology. What steps will the leader of the house be taking to ensure that the issues that have led to the USA and Australia banning some Chinese product suppliers do not occur in Wales?
David Rowlands: Again, I thank you, but I think you'll see that the thrust of my questioning is that, for instance, the European Commission Vice-President, Andrus Ansip, has said he was concerned that Chinese technology companies were required to co-operate with Chinese intelligence services on things such as mandatory back doors, which are designed to allow access to encrypted data. With those concerns in...
David Rowlands: Abstain.
