Carwyn Jones: I agree entirely. One thing that I can say to him is that the Secretary of State for Wales knows and understands that any support for the Wales Bill will depend on a fiscal framework being in place. There’s no good having that and then having the fiscal framework. Scotland was given that courtesy. There’s no reason why Wales shouldn’t have the same level of courtesy. And he’s right,...
Carwyn Jones: I am grateful to the Member for his advice. He won’t be surprised that I don’t accept his advice that a referendum that would cost £4 million would be of particular help, given the fact that political parties in their manifestos explained their position to the people of Wales at the election in May. The people of Wales took a decision in terms of what they wanted to do. This is an issue...
Carwyn Jones: Yes. We have introduced legislation, policies and a range of interventions to improve diets and increase physical activity. But, of course, this can’t be done by Government alone. It is something that we are tackling together with a wide range of organisations.
Carwyn Jones: Well, this, of course, is something that is part of the Donaldson review—namely to say that the purpose of education is to ensure that children are healthy, confident—and will be part of the work that is being done as regards the new curriculum. Health and also, of course, physical activity will be central to the new curriculum structure. At present, about 96 per cent of schools are...
Carwyn Jones: The active travel design guidance sets out the parameters and standards for their use.
Carwyn Jones: Well, cyclists are duty-bound to ensure that they don’t speed so that they would hit someone, because, of course, that would be their fault. What does happen in the Mumbles—and I know the path very well, as I’ve cycled on it myself a number of times—is that walkers walk along the cycle path and on the route of the cyclists. Now, they don’t realise that, so one of the things that...
Carwyn Jones: Thank you, Llywydd. It’s a pleasure to announce the publication of ‘Taking Wales Forward’, our programme for government for the next five years. It is a bold, strategic and ambitious programme, but also one that is focused unerringly on delivering real improvements in the everyday lives of the people of Wales. The document is clear, concise, and I want to ensure that everyone in Wales...
Carwyn Jones: Well, I’m surprised to hear the leader of Plaid Cymru describe the policies that are included in this document as ‘platitudes’. Free childcare for working parents is a key pledge in the Labour manifesto; reducing tax for small businesses—a key pledge in the Labour manifesto; a development bank for Wales—both manifestos supported that; a new treatment fund for life-threatening...
Carwyn Jones: I think it’s important to remind the leader of the Conservatives of one thing: he lost the election. He tried all this before May. He made all these points and, in fact, his party went backwards. Many of us remember he was on tv saying, ‘I will be First Minister’. He was doing it at 10 o’clock on the night of the election. I look at Ken Skates because his people were saying that Ken...
Carwyn Jones: I welcome his comments from outside Wales and suggest to him that he would carry more weight—
Carwyn Jones: No, it’s not silly. They’d carry more weight if he actually lived in Wales if he’s going to criticise what we’ve done within Wales. I think that’s perfectly fair—perfectly fair. As far as he says there’s no detail here, well, free childcare for working parents, the detail is there; the development bank, the detail’s there; the reduced taxes for small businesses, that detail is...
Carwyn Jones: I think there are a number of ways of doing that. Improving the public transport offer is absolutely key and, by that, I don’t just mean the metro—important though that is—but encouraging cycling. The Active Travel (Wales) Act 2013, of course, was hugely important in terms of starting the process of, and I use the word, as far as the public are concerned, ‘normalising’...
Carwyn Jones: Well, first of all, this isn’t a document with all the detail, as he will understand, because this is a strategic document to give you the Government’s direction. As regards carbon, one of the things that we can’t do anything about are the non-devolved issues, but that doesn’t mean to say that we’re not going to do anything because of that. We must ensure that fewer and fewer people...
Carwyn Jones: A number of questions there: first of all, when we look at health, we have to remember that our population is older than the UK average, and generally less well than the UK average. Part of that is the legacy of mining and the legacy of heavy industry, which we’re still dealing with. We intend, of course, to keep on funding health in Wales at a level per head that is higher than in England....
Carwyn Jones: No. We know that that is vital. But, what is problematic, of course, is the position as regards European funding, ultimately. It’s also true to say that we need to look at the route from St Clears to Haverfordwest and ensure that that is improved. But, no, we haven’t forgotten the A40. We understand its importance, and it’s very important in order to get the traffic up to Fishguard and...
Carwyn Jones: Well, I think there’s great scope for looking to devolve services locally where the structure is right. I don’t believe the structure is right at this moment in time with our 22 local authorities. Working with them, we would like to get to a position where we have a structure in place where they can deliver more effectively, where they don’t have departments that effectively begin to...
Carwyn Jones: Well, it's still a priority for us, of course. We know how important modern facilities are, and that work is still ongoing in terms of the business case process. In terms of the other issues raised on procurement, I think we covered that quite extensively in First Minister's questions. The key for small businesses, quite often, is to be able to work together with other small businesses to bid...
Carwyn Jones: Well, first of all, on the A55, if we start eastwards, we know there are issues around the junctions further east and the issues around the junction with the A494. The Llanfairfechan and Penmaenmawr roundabouts are going, so that the problem will disappear on that stretch of the road. If we go further west, we're still looking at the issue of a third Menai crossing. The A55 is not a true dual...
Carwyn Jones: This is hugely important. He will know that, last week, I launched an initiative to link skills to employment and education. He welcomed it publicly, and I thank him for that. It is European funded, of course, some of it, but it was something that found favour with him. We know full well that it is hugely important that, as we identify which skills are needed for the future in Wales, we work...
Carwyn Jones: In terms of child poverty, it wasn’t exactly helped by the bedroom tax or the cuts that were made to the welfare system, which his party has to take responsibility for. What I said earlier on is this: on many economic indicators, we have done incredibly well. The challenge is to keep on increasing our people’s collective gross domestic household income and, ultimately, gross domestic...
