Angela Burns: 8. Will the Minister outline how the Welsh Government plans to assess the success of the Rural Development Grants programme? OQ55502
Angela Burns: Minister, you'll be very aware that the 'Ensuring Value for Money from Rural Development Grants Made Without Competition' Audit Wales report, published in June, has damningly concluded that the Welsh Government awarded £53 million of rural development funds without ensuring the grants would deliver value for money. Amongst other findings, the report also found that the Welsh Government made...
Angela Burns: 1. Will the First Minister outline the process by which sites are selected to temporarily accommodate refugees waiting for their asylum cases to be heard? OQ55568
Angela Burns: Thank you for that, First Minister. We all know that the flow of people seeking asylum is building, and I understand that the Home Office, whilst facing a deluge, needed to act quickly. But, in my view, mistakes have been made, and communication from the Home Office was very late in the day and very poor. I've put my concerns in a very detailed letter to the Home Secretary and to members of...
Angela Burns: Unfortunately Minister, this isn't a one-off, is it, because the Wales audit office has repeatedly highlighted areas of public expenditure where the money either was being wasted or failed to deliver a notable outcome? So, we can refer to, for example, the rural development grant or Communities First—those are two that immediately spring to mind. Now, I understand and appreciate that it's...
Angela Burns: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. Well, that was interesting. Minister, you were so affronted that I had to skip back and reread our motion because I thought that perhaps we had put in it things that I had missed. But, no, I don't see anything there that says that we do not think that higher education and further education institutions haven't stepped up to the plate. I mean, we...
Angela Burns: Will the Minister provide an update on the Welsh Government’s current international development projects?
Angela Burns: Good afternoon, First Minister. Please forgive me if I cut across anything you've already said; unfortunately, the translation wasn't working on my computer. Many of the visitor experiences in Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire are provided by microtourism businesses, whether they are eco tree lodges in the forests of Carmarthenshire or small campsites and businesses along the...
Angela Burns: What emphasis does the Welsh Government place on its statutory goals in fulfilling its economic development objectives?
Angela Burns: Thank you for your answer to Mr McEvoy and also your previous answers to the last couple of questions, because it's all along the same theme. But I think the real barrier to being able to provide and to meet the Cymraeg 2050 target is actually the difficulty of getting Welsh-speaking teachers in play. We need more of them and we need them in all the different areas of Wales. There are some...
Angela Burns: Deputy Minister, they say that often the loneliest place to be is in a crowd and you will know of the older people's commissioner's report that was issued earlier on care homes and loneliness, isolation, the whole blanket bans that we're having on care homes and how difficult it is with all the lockdowns. Before we go back down that road again, how can the Welsh Government ensure that this...
Angela Burns: Diolch, Llywydd. The motion tabled by the Welsh Conservatives today is very clear: do not waste the taxpayers' money. And the motion is clear because the Welsh Conservatives are the party that understands the true value of the taxpayers' money—money the people of Wales and the United Kingdom have worked hard to make—the graft it takes and the hope it gives for a decent way of life. We...
Angela Burns: The evidence is clear and unambiguous: over £1 billion has been wasted by successive Welsh Labour Governments in the past decade. It makes no odds whether they're joined at the hip with Plaid Cymru or the Liberal Democrats—the waste goes on and on. As I will demonstrate during this contribution, too many projects, policies and initiatives struggle—and I'm struggling, sorry, with my...
Angela Burns: The committee was damning in its condemnation of NRW following contracts it had agreed on timber sales. They highlighted the auditor general's findings that the contracts were novel, repercussive and contentious and reinforced views that uncertainty existed around whether Natural Resources Wales complied with principles of public law and state-aid rules. What makes these findings worse is...
Angela Burns: First Minister, a report by Barnardo's earlier this year highlighted the crisis that's facing fostering, with a 45 per cent rise in children needing foster care within Wales, and yet, conversely, a 51 per cent drop in the availability of foster carers because of the pandemic. Obviously, we can all appreciate the issues that this has thrown up for being able to find foster carers for young...
Angela Burns: 6. How does the First Minister ensure that Welsh Government spend provides value for money? OQ55711
Angela Burns: An interesting response, and I ask this question because there are a number of areas where there does not seem to be value for money for the Welsh taxpayer. The sustainable management scheme clearly states its aim is to support collaborative action that improves natural resources. The scheme has just received a further allocation of £3 million, despite the fact that only £6 million of its...
Angela Burns: 4. How is the Welsh Government promoting gender equality in Wales? OQ55712
Angela Burns: As you will know, Sunday was the International Day of the Girl, and in many places in the world girls are still a commodity, to be used, to be abused and to be trafficked. In many places, Minister, you will know that girls have little education, become pregnant too young, feel abusive relationships are their only route, are pressured to marry, suffer genital mutilation, and are treated as sex...
Angela Burns: I'd like to thank Jenny Rathbone for suggesting that we should hold this debate, because this is an incredibly important issue that does affect so many people. One of the points that Jenny made at the very beginning is that this is not simply a woman's issue, but actually it is very much something that affects the men who are in the lives of the women who have this chronic and debilitating...
