Jenny Rathbone: I don't think that we should get too hung up on the European Court of Justice. We're about to leave it. You and many other people, like Theresa May, are very obsessed about this. Just let's look at the objective, which is to support the reintegration of prisoners into normal life and to tackle our appalling record on recidivism. Clearly, we are spending loads of money on something that's not...
Jenny Rathbone: What plans does the Welsh Government have to improve the nation’s diet?
Jenny Rathbone: 6. What is the extent of the Welsh Government's powers to ensure that rents for social housing are affordable? OAQ53446
Jenny Rathbone: My understanding is that the Welsh Government has set an index of 2.4 per cent rise at the September 2018 consumer price index assessment of what is reasonable, and that means that tenants’ weekly rent, if they're assured tenants, is only 2.4 per cent. Now, my understanding is that this only applies to assured rents and it will come into effect on 1 April this year. I’ve had several...
Jenny Rathbone: Thank you. Apologies. And so, my concern is, what can the Welsh Government do about this, given the implications there are for social housing tenants?
Jenny Rathbone: Thank you, Dr Dai. I do take your advice, I do have quite a low blood pressure level. I bicycle to the Senedd most days and I find it very beneficial. If I don't, I don't feel as well. Cardiff is the fastest growing city in Europe, and over the next 20 years we're going to have an extra 40,000 homes, making it a third larger than it is now. Given the already unacceptable levels of air...
Jenny Rathbone: Thank you. What about the resources that could be available through a clean air zone, obviously with a congestion charge to go with it?
Jenny Rathbone: I'd just like to return to the issue of the children's commissioner's report on protecting Welsh children from the impact of poverty. We know that this affects somewhere in the region of a third of all our children, so this is a really major challenge for all of us. I think that, on the one hand, in primary schools we know that many children who need that free school breakfast are not getting...
Jenny Rathbone: Sticking with the theme of Balance for Better, there's a great deal that we all need to do to combat climate change on behalf of our sisters in other countries, which are much more likely to be threatened by climate change, including seeing their communities disappear. We know that the easy wins have been achieved in terms of reducing the amount of coal being used for power generation. We now...
Jenny Rathbone: 8. What resources has the Minister allocated to the health and social care portfolio to implement the 'Healthy Weight: Healthy Wales' policy? OAQ53518
Jenny Rathbone: One hundred and ninety-two million pounds sounds a lot of money, but the size of the problem is enormous. We have nearly 7,000 people under the age of 25 with type 2 diabetes and 1,500 of them are under the age of 19. That is a very, very serious statistic. So, it seems to me that we are going to need to roll out across Wales, proper weaning advice for all new parents, as well as cookery...
Jenny Rathbone: Thank you for your statement. I think it's really important that we look at this with a very hard-nosed approach, because there's been a lot of concern recently about young people being encouraged to go into university education, which doesn't actually give them the sort of skills they need to get a decent job, and that all it does is load them with a lot of debt. So, there's quite a moral...
Jenny Rathbone: 5. Will the Minister provide an update on breastfeeding rates? OAQ53582
Jenny Rathbone: I appreciate that you fully understand the importance of breastfeeding for the long-term health of both mother and baby from your previous answers, but we are starting from a low base, are we not, as 71 per cent of mothers in Wales initiate breastfeeding compared to 83 per cent in England. And we know that only 1 per cent of mothers breastfeed exclusively for six months in Wales. And I think...
Jenny Rathbone: 3. What is the Welsh Government’s strategy for eliminating plastic pollution? OAQ53635
Jenny Rathbone: First Minister, I'm sure you agree with me that the 2.3 million tonnes of plastic pollution from packaging that is being generated across the UK at the moment is a major public health and environmental issue. We have recently learned that plastic pollution is a very efficient transmitter of E. coli and other waterborne diseases, which would die if they were simply relying on water as a...
Jenny Rathbone: The biggest killer of young women is cervical cancer, and I think there's a great campaign going on at the moment across the UK to get young women to overcome any embarrassment they have about their bodies and to come forward and have cervical screens, which can save their lives in many cases. But I'm dismayed to read that, in England, there is absolute chaos in the laboratories, where...
Jenny Rathbone: Clearly, we should not be in the business of canvassing for more jobs for the citizens advice bureaux or any other advice agencies who have to support vulnerable tenants to enable them to navigate their way through the legal system, so I—. David Melding makes some coherent points, and I appreciate there are some later clauses coming forward later that the Minister is proposing that ensure...
Jenny Rathbone: 4. What use has been made by the Welsh Government of plotting the journeys of those commuting to Newport and Cardiff by car as a way of informing future public transport provision? OAQ53618
Jenny Rathbone: That’s very interesting, and I’m very glad to hear that we are using the easily available data to track the future transport needs in the area east of Cardiff, between Cardiff and Newport, because, clearly, there is a major congestion problem that we face in both our cities and, at the moment, there is a gap in the metro map north-east and east of Cardiff where we obviously are going to...
