Julie James: I announced a suite of measures in my oral statement of 30 January to further extend fast broadband coverage across Wales. The mobile action plan I published last October set out how we will work with others to improve mobile connectivity.
Julie James: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. There are no changes to this week's business. Business for the next three weeks is shown on the business statement and announcement found amongst the meeting papers, which are available to Members electronically.
Julie James: Well, I'm not entirely certain what I was being asked, but the Cabinet Secretary was here to listen to the Member's constituency case load, and he's obviously in correspondence with the Cabinet Secretary, which, I imagine, will continue.
Julie James: The Member raises three very important and very diverse points. On the producer responsibilities, the Minister is indicating to me that she's in negotiation with producer organisations in Wales and will be bringing a statement forward once those negotiations are complete. I would like to just say that I do share the Member's frustration at some of the producer packaging that we have, and in...
Julie James: Indeed. Well, two very important points indeed. In terms of the art project, I'm delighted to hear that there's a painting going up in her office; I look forward to having a look at it. Of course, it isn't devolved to us, but it impinges on a lot of devolved Government services: employability, social services, caring, and so on. So, what I'll do is I'll have a conversation with various...
Julie James: Yes. The Cabinet Secretary has already said that there will be a debate on the floor of the house about the M4 and all of its ramifications as soon as the outcome of the public inquiry is known. So, I'm sure that that is an aspect—businesses displaced by the proposals, whatever they might be as a result of the public inquiry, I'm sure will form part of that debate.
Julie James: The Member makes a very important point. It's one of the very desperate effects of the austerity agenda overall, and although councils in Wales have been protected by this Government in a way that hasn't been possible for councils in England, nevertheless the austerity agenda bites hard. And it bites hardest on some of our hard-fought-for and much-loved community facilities. And that's...
Julie James: The Minister's listening to your remarks, which I'm sure she concurs with, and she will be bringing forward a statement for the house to consider shortly. I would like also to say, though, that there's very much an equalities issue here as well. One of the interesting things, if Members have access to university studies about clean air, is that, in Swansea for example, much of the pollution...
Julie James: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. International Women’s Day, 8 March, is recognised around the world. It is a day to acknowledge and celebrate the achievements of women and girls everywhere. This year’s theme is Press for Progress. I want to take this opportunity to highlight the progress we are making in Wales and the challenges we continue to face. Gender stereotyping is both a...
Julie James: Well, going in reverse order, because that last one is very important indeed, I do think there's a real issue about teaching healthy relationships, in the context of gender stereotyping, and some of the cultural things that are going on in our society today. We are running several schemes across Wales, actually, pre-Donaldson, as you put it, and I went to see one run by Hafan Cymru only very...
Julie James: Yes, I largely agree with everything you said, Siân Gwenllian. There are some nuances, but the nuance isn't awfully important. I'm going to jump about all over the place just because that happens to be the way my particular papers are, but, for example, in the diversity and democracy programme, we ran that programme and we have kept in touch with the mentees—I should have said that to Suzy...
Julie James: Absolutely. I hadn't actually realised it was an anniversary date, but we all very much remember your father's contributions here in the Senedd. He managed to be both amusing and forthright and also compassionate and committed on a subject that he clearly cared a lot about, and I'm very proud to have inherited some part of his portfolio and to be able to, in some small way, step into his...
Julie James: The Member makes a very important point—that last point, in particular, is a really important point. We have been working extremely hard in a range of areas to make sure that reporting and prosecution takes place. They tend to be very complex cases to prosecute and, actually, prevention is better than prosecution anyway. So, we've been rolling out our training across all professionals who...
Julie James: Indeed. Very swiftly, Deputy Presiding Officer, I would say that absolutely, I agree with that. There's an enormous list in every constituency of women who've been absolutely instrumental in moving every walk of life in Wales on. I'm looking forward to the 100 notable women campaign that WEN Wales will be putting forward and we've already said that we will put Government money behind the...
Julie James: I completely agree with absolutely everything you've said. There is an issue about dignity and embarrassment, and that's very much part of the sex and healthy relationships agenda. Actually, there's a real issue in primary schools as well, because many girls start menstruating before they're 11 and move on to secondary schools, and that's a real issue for them. So, it is about making sure...
Julie James: Yes, indeed, that's a very important point. I've actually been discussing with the First Minister and a number of other colleagues various gender impact assessments that we should be making—budget gender impact assessments not least—and we will be bringing forward some proposals in that regard. I had not thought of automation, but I'm more than happy to include that in it. The real issue...
Julie James: I think that's appalling, and I most certainly will do exactly that. I'm very happy to do that. Deputy Presiding Officer, I will just say this, because the clichés sometimes make the point: we've all heard of the congresswoman's sign on her desk in America—'To do this job, you have to be twice as good as any man. Fortunately that's not difficult.' But, actually, I was taught while I was at...
Julie James: Yes, on that second one, I'm in advanced negotiations with the various parts of the Government in order to make sure that we do sign up to that initiative. I was very proud to be able to speak, if only briefly, to the LeadHerShip event last week. I did say to the protagonist there that I was about to do FMQs and I was completely and utterly terrified and that I was going to do it anyway. The...
Julie James: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I want to start also by thanking the committee for examining the scrutiny of regulations to be made under the powers contained in the UK Government's European Union (Withdrawal) Bill. The Welsh Government has not yet had an opportunity to formally respond to the report, which was only published a couple of weeks ago. However, we completely understand why...
Julie James: Yes, I take that, but I think we want to reflect a little bit more on that as we go forward. So, as I say, we're taking it under advisement rather than rejecting it outright at this stage, which is why we are supporting the report overall. So, in respect of the committee's recommendations 4 and 7, we agree with the amendments set out in paragraphs 44 to 46 of the committee's report, and we...
