Mark Drakeford: Diolch yn fawr, Llywydd, and thank you to Nick Ramsay for those questions. I’ll start with his final point, which I think is an important one. I was very keen in discussing the nature of this report with my officials some months ago that it should not set out to be a report that purported to be a set of answers that people could just go to, because I think it could be positively misleading...
Mark Drakeford: Thank you very much, Llywydd, and thank you, Adam Price. Of course, I agree—this is an initial report before the Assembly this afternoon. We did go out and speak to people who will use the report in due course, as the Act requires us to do, and the one thing they kept coming back to tell us was, ‘Don’t prepare a report that is too lengthy to be usable. Try, if you can, to prepare a...
Mark Drakeford: I thank Mike Hedges for those questions. He’s absolutely right to point out the danger of using future trends reports in a deterministic way, where we project into the future the situation we see in front of us. His horse manure example is a well-known one. My own favourite, Llywydd, recently, was I heard a Pathé News item from the late 1930s—I can’t do Pathé News voices for you, but...
Mark Drakeford: I thank the Member for his contribution. I’m glad that he’s found the sessions that the committee has had with the commissioner useful. Her office was part of the group that helped in putting together this report. There will be many further opportunities, I’m sure, to hear from the commissioner and to work with her to make sure that the information in this report is useful to...
Mark Drakeford: The first stage of the Active Travel Act (Wales) 2013, mapping and assessing existing routes has been completed across Wales. We are now working with local authorities and partners preparing local plans for integrated walking and cycling networks detailing the routes that will be developed over the next 15 years.
Mark Drakeford: The national transport finance plan sets out the measures we are taking to ensure that Wales is connected via a reliable, modern and integrated transport network.
Mark Drakeford: Swansea council, as a stock retaining local authority, are able to build their own homes since exiting the housing revenue account subsidy. The Milford Way development is being built to innovative design standard Passivhaus, and will consist of 18 affordable homes. The site will be completed by September 2017.
Mark Drakeford: The latest NHS activity and performance statistics published on 20 April show improvements over the short term against several key performance measures, including referral-to-treatment, diagnostics, urgent cancer and delayed transfers of care.
Mark Drakeford: House building in Wales is a key priority for this Government, and statistics demonstrate an increasing trend in the number of new homes being completed. This is being supported by our successful Help to Buy—Wales shared equity scheme and our 20,000 affordable homes target.
Mark Drakeford: Llywydd, diolch. I regret any uncontested seat at a democratic election. On Thursday this week, some 7 per cent of the principal authority places will be filled without a contest. The percentage in 2012 was 12 per cent.
Mark Drakeford: Well, Llywydd, I’m aware of the system in Scotland. I don’t think it’s possible to attribute directly to the system the fact that they have had contested elections there, because, of course, they have larger areas, with larger numbers of councillors as a result. Our White Paper, published in January of this year, proposes to allow a choice in the way that elections are conducted—the...
Mark Drakeford: Well, Llywydd, I think it is always preferable when candidates in local elections have an identity with that area and that they are known to local people. There are already a series of qualification tests that people have to pass, including living, or working, or having a business in the area, and it’s for returning officers to make sure that any candidates meet those qualifying criteria....
Mark Drakeford: Well, Llywydd, the way in which the White Paper has been constructed is to allow a series of choices to be made by local authorities themselves—people who know their areas, and are able to design systems that fit best with their needs and circumstances. And that principle runs right through the White Paper, and I think it rightly applies to the choice of election method, as it will to other...
Mark Drakeford: Dirprwy Lywydd, as part of the £210 million provided in Wales to help businesses with their tax bills, £10 million has been provided in a dedicated scheme to assist those on the high street. The calling of a general election will not delay the provision of that help in Wales.
Mark Drakeford: Well, Dirprwy Lywydd, one of the ways in which I hope we will use our new fiscal responsibilities is to be able to look at the interaction between different forms of taxation in Wales. So, we have non-domestic rates, which fall on local businesses, but we have other forms of taxation, and the Finance Committee looked very carefully during its consideration of land transaction tax, for...
Mark Drakeford: Well, the party that’s in Government in Wales has a manifesto commitment not to raise income tax rates during the lifetime of this Assembly. Voters will be listening very carefully to what the Conservative Party has or has not been willing to say in relation to taxation and I think will be much more worried about the prospects of tax rises under a Conservative Government than they will be...
Mark Drakeford: Adam Price is quite right when he refers, I think indirectly, to the fact that the Silk commission ruled out devolution of VAT on the grounds that it wasn’t a workable variable tax within the European Union. Once we are no longer members of the European Union, then VAT, I think, does come back onto the table for debate as a possible devolved tax for Wales because we would be potentially...
Mark Drakeford: Well, Dirprwy Lywydd, I began my answer to Mark Reckless’s question by expressing my regret that any democratic election doesn’t have a contest and doesn’t offer a choice to the electorate. There are things that Governments are able to do in making elections more attractive, in opening opportunities to people who might be willing to stand, through our diversity in democracy project, and...
Mark Drakeford: The Labour Party goes into local elections with manifestos right across Wales, explaining to local electorates exactly what a Labour-controlled authority would offer to them. They do that against the background of a White Paper in which this Government has set out our national policies for local authorities in the future. I agree with what the Member says—that it is a very important...
Mark Drakeford: Dirprwy Lywydd, an uninstructed listener would find it difficult to have discerned from that the fact that it was the Member’s party that introduced PFI schemes and enthusiastically put them in front of local authorities to persuade them to do it. There are Conservative local authorities in Wales that have PFI schemes as well. What this Government has done, particularly under the leadership...
