Nick Ramsay: Thank you, First Minister. I know you like to accuse this side of the Chamber of calling for funding increases in all areas of Government; I'm sure in an ideal world we would all like to see that. But it's not just this side of the Chamber—[Interruption.] Or, indeed, your Minister emeritus. It's not just this side of the Chamber that has concerns about local government funding; the Welsh...
Nick Ramsay: Diolch, Llywydd. Cabinet Secretary, I'd like to ask you about funding available to the local government portfolio and vis-à-vis to our local authorities. As you're well aware, Welsh local authorities have been less than satisfied with the local government settlement this year, citing £262 million of budget pressures. Meanwhile, the First Minister has claimed that local government will be...
Nick Ramsay: So, I think we can read from that that 'front of the queue' doesn't necessarily mean first in the queue. Cabinet Secretary, whether we're talking about £550 million—you think it's a lower figure—I think the point is that there is additional funding. I think we can be agreed on that. There is additional funding through consequentials as a result of that UK budget. I'll give you this: you...
Nick Ramsay: Thank you, Cabinet Secretary. I could, of course, have asked you about support for small businesses, and we know that there was around £25 million as a result of the UK budget—that, across the border in England, money is being used to reduce business rates for businesses with a rateable value of up to £50,000 by a third. And I'll keep that one for another day. [Interruption.] But you may...
Nick Ramsay: Will you take an intervention?
Nick Ramsay: Thanks, Suzy. David Rowlands and I and Mohammad Asghar visited the King Henry VIII Comprehensive School in Abergavenny regarding the Youth Parliament to speak to some of the new candidates and I was really impressed by their attitudes. So, I think we fully understand the pressures on the Commission in trying to do something totally new. So, there was no suggestion within our report that...
Nick Ramsay: I'm pleased to contribute to this debate today as a member of the Finance Committee, and to reiterate the views of our new Chair, who actually covered the issues in our report very fully and comprehensively, so I don't need to add much to that. It was clearly an area of enormous importance that we were looking at during our reporting stage. The issue of how we replace EU funding post the UK's...
Nick Ramsay: I fully recognise the problems that the Welsh Government have in this regard. I think to say we don't know anything is going a bit further—[Interruption.] Hang on. I've taken one intervention. We don't know everything, but to say we don't know anything at all I think is wrong. We can estimate exactly—not exactly, but we can estimate how the system will potentially look, so certain work...
Nick Ramsay: Will you take an intervention? I don't disagree with you, Dave. I think it's not an ideal situation. I'd like to see much more detail of the shared prosperity fund myself. The only point I was making was that there are certain assumptions that can be made, and I know full well that the Cabinet Secretary's officials have been looking at different options; of course they have. So, there is...
Nick Ramsay: First Minister, I think it's fair to say that we could be using the business rate regime far more imaginatively to target support, whether that be for hydroenergy projects, as Siân Gwenllian has alluded to, other renewable projects or, indeed, our high streets, and we know full well the problems that have afflicted some high street businesses in areas such as Monmouth in my constituency in...
Nick Ramsay: Leader of the house, I asked you last week, I think it was—it was certainly recently—about the availability of flu vaccine across Wales and whether we could have an update from the Cabinet Secretary for health on that availability. Since then, I've been inundated by more e-mails by people who've been unable to access the vaccine, one only yesterday from a patient of the Castle Gate...
Nick Ramsay: Cabinet Secretary, you recently highlighted the importance of understanding the real levels of HIV in Wales, and I think, as you added, the number of people living with HIV here is probably underestimated. The Terrence Higgins Trust have produced statistics that relate to the UK as a whole, with a breakdown, but there's very little data in their statistics relating to Wales specifically....
Nick Ramsay: 4. Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on the availability of the flu vaccine this winter? OAQ52954
Nick Ramsay: Something of a groundhog day here, Cabinet Secretary, but Darren Millar did ask about this area as many other AMs have, like me, received e-mails from constituents concerned about the availability of the vaccine in question. The most recent e-mail I received was from a 75-year-old from Abergavenny, who was unable to receive the vaccine as his local GP practice has limited stocks and is...
Nick Ramsay: Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on GCSE outcomes in summer 2018?
Nick Ramsay: Paul Davies.
Nick Ramsay: I'm not au fait with the rural observatory, either, First Minister, you'll be pleased to know, so I'll ask you about a different aspect. I'm sure you'd agree with me that sustainable rural communities require a sustainable transport infrastructure. I often joke that you could have hopped on a train in my village of Raglan back in 1955 and travelled to Cardiff to work or to shop. Sixty years...
Nick Ramsay: Welcome to your new position, Trefnydd—I hope I got that right. Could we have an update from the Welsh Government—either the Minister for Economy and Transport or his deputy—on the provision of electric charging points for cars in Wales and the electric charging infrastructure in general? We know there have been some issues with that over the last year. In my constituency over Christmas...
Nick Ramsay: I seem to remember some time back, Minister, being pretty positive about the free breakfast scheme when, possibly, some Members weren't, including you, obviously, but water under the bridge. The Welsh Government's free school breakfast scheme has been a flagship policy, as you yourself said, for many of your predecessors for a long period of time, but it has come under increasing pressure...
Nick Ramsay: I'm pleased to contribute to this debate and, indeed, to have been a member of the Finance Committee and to have taken part in the report of the Finance Committee review. It was a thought-provoking inquiry about an issue that, as the Chair of the committee has said, is of growing concern and should be of growing concern to all of us. As we've heard, the proportion of older people in Wales has...
