Delyth Jewell: I'd like a statement explaining the Welsh Government's decision to continue to attend the Defence and Security Equipment International arms fair. The First Minister said in 2019 that he would review the Government's presence at this event, after Leanne Wood called its participation 'abhorrent', but the BBC reported this week that the Welsh Government was attending this year's event. Trefnydd,...
Delyth Jewell: I'm grateful to the Member for Blaenau Gwent for raising this important issue today. Plaid Cymru has been calling for a constitution commission for some time. Our idea was for a commission to consult with citizens about the different constitutional options for our future as a nation. Now, Minister, the remit of the Government's commission hasn't been published yet, so I believe that this is...
Delyth Jewell: 1. What assessment has the Welsh Government made of the impact of significant gas price increases and the concurrent increase in energy prices on Welsh consumers? TQ565
Delyth Jewell: Thank you, Minister, and diolch, Llywydd, for accepting this topical question. This crisis is global, of course, in nature, but the UK is in a particularly perilous situation due to unusually low gas storage, the loss of the IFA interconnecter, hampering our ability to import electricity from Europe, and lower-than-usual wind energy production. We're seeing a crisis that sits within many...
Delyth Jewell: Wales and this Senedd have declared climate and nature emergencies, but the legislation needed to underpin the urgency and the emergencies—the environmental governance, nature recovery targets, clean air targets—are all missing, Dirprwy Lywydd. The Welsh Government must act on these issues, and we in Plaid Cymru believe that this Senedd is the appropriate and necessary body to be passing...
Delyth Jewell: Our landscapes wear the scars of Wales's past. Pitheads, crumbling viaducts, bridges that lead nowhere, and coal tips that stain our mountainsides, tips that speak of a time of soot and clamour, of fires raging underground, and lives buried in the soil. Our Valleys paid long and hard for the spoils of coal mining, and it is maddening to think, Dirprwy Lywydd, that legislation surrounding tip...
Delyth Jewell: 2. What discussions has the Minister had with the Minister for Health and Social Services regarding the workplace safety regulations that employers in South Wales East are expected to follow? OQ56929
Delyth Jewell: Thank you, Minister, for that initial answer. I've received a letter from the Public and Commercial Services union raising, and I quote, 'real concerns about safety being compromised by Department for Work and Pensions management in Newport, recklessly putting both staff and claimants at risk at Newport jobcentre'. The letter notes a series of concerning issues, Minister, relating to a lack...
Delyth Jewell: Ambulance waiting times in the south-east are a matter of great concern, Minister, and this is compounded by A&E waiting times. Figures released this week show that the Grange hospital in Cwmbran has regrettably had the worst performance on record of any hospital in Wales, with only four in 10 patients being seen within four hours there. Many communities in the Rhymney valley have been...
Delyth Jewell: The human mind is a precious and vulnerable thing. We live with our memories and when we are robbed of them and a condition like dementia takes hold, it can be cruel and debilitating. As we've heard, it's estimated that 50,000 people in Wales are living with dementia, but it affects not just individuals, but entire families who have to deal with grief and loss every day, even though their...
Delyth Jewell: Thank you, Dirprwy Lywydd. I move those amendments.
Delyth Jewell: When the Welsh Government declared a climate emergency in 2019, many of us expected radical action, and in some policy areas we've seen strong ambition on homes, energy, forestry—the list goes on—all tied together by a bold net-zero target for 2050, but we all know that more radical ambition is needed, and more action to underpin it. Today's debate concerns transport, an area of policy...
Delyth Jewell: As we approach COP26, I'd like a statement about what the Government will do to address the climate anxiety being felt by increasing numbers of young people. I led a debate on this issue in June, Trefnydd, and I'm desperately keen for us to see progress. A University of Bath study found that 56 per cent of young people believe humanity is doomed because of climate change. This feeling of...
Delyth Jewell: Thank you very much. I have a series of questions here, Llywydd, not a speech. The committee hasn't discussed this issue amongst ourselves, and I'd like to emphasise that. This is an issue that will be of great interest, clearly, to many different cultural and sporting groups, so I'd like to ask the Minister, when she responds to the debate, to outline the rationale for introducing these...
Delyth Jewell: [Inaudible.]
Delyth Jewell: Minister, I'd like to ask you firstly about environmental governance. Environmental Standards Scotland has commenced its statutory role as an independent environmental governance body. Scotland has also put in place core environmental principles, with associated duties and guidance, and the Westminster Environment Bill is expected to pass this autumn with the office for environmental...
Delyth Jewell: Okay. I look forward to hearing that statement when it comes.
Delyth Jewell: I'll be asking the next question in Welsh, Minister. Over the past year, we've seen important commitments for nature on the UK level through the leaders' pledge for nature, the High Ambition Coalition for Nature and People, and the G7 2030 nature compact. The commitment is to safeguard 30 per cent of land and sea for nature by the year 2030. It's a key milestone. It's referred to as 30x30,...
Delyth Jewell: Thank you, Minister. Obviously, making commitments of this nature, they're symbolic, and so many of these principles that underpin the commitments are fundamentally important, so I won't make any apology for calling on you to make another commitment in my final question, in fact, which is about the declaration of the nature emergency that we as a Senedd made in June, which we were all so...
Delyth Jewell: Children's happiness should surely be one of the metrics any Government or society takes most seriously. Now, it's not always easy to quantify happiness or to pinpoint how contentedness manifests itself, but, when patterns develop and take hold, we all have to take notice. Last year, a Cardiff University study was published that had interviewed children in 35 countries across the world. The...
