Bethan Sayed: Thank you for that response. The First Minister might be interested to know that when I was out running in Neath recently I was almost pushed into a canal by a cyclist who was travelling too fast on the same path that I was using. My question, therefore, is: given that there is this separation between cyclists and pedestrians, I’ve had people in the Mumbles area, who go there often, where...
Bethan Sayed: Diolch. The draft royal charter and the draft BBC framework agreement arrive at a time when both the National Assembly for Wales and the Government now have a formal consultation role in the BBC and its future. So, I think it’s crucial that we use this role, created in the recent memorandum of understanding, to ensure that Wales’s voice and the concerns of Welsh audiences are heard at the...
Bethan Sayed: I won’t have time, I’m sorry—otherwise I won’t get through it. Plaid Cymru have entered five amendments to the Welsh Government’s motion. Amendments 1 and 2 concern S4C. We are pleased that the channel was positively referenced in the framework agreement, particularly the shared aim of S4C and the BBC working together to safeguard each other’s independence. We would also like the...
Bethan Sayed: Cabinet Secretary, Lindsay Whittle, my colleague in the previous Assembly, who I know you know well, did a campaign to raise awareness of bullying issues in the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities in south-east Wales, and notified that there was a high level of bullying in schools in relation to that agenda. I was wondering if you had noted that research that he had done and...
Bethan Sayed: Thank you very much, Llywydd. This is the first time that this Assembly has established a committee that will be responsible for communications, broadcasting and the media—a committee dedicated to holding broadcasters and other media to account. This is an area of vital importance to Wales. We need a media that holds up a mirror to this country and explains to citizens how we are changing...
Bethan Sayed: Diolch. Thank you, Suzy. Thank you for the endorsement, I think, which we all agreed to, that we are trying to do things differently. I think, from my perspective, the reason why I personally—and I’m sure other Members will have an opinion—wanted to allow for the public to directly decide on what we did was because—and this isn’t meant as an offence to anybody sitting...
Bethan Sayed: Thank you. I didn’t pay Dai to say those kind words. [Interruption.] It would be a scandal, of course, if that had happened. I think it is important that we should communicate with the people of Wales in an innovative way. As I said in response to Suzy Davies, we have to look at models from other nations across the globe to see how they communicate with people. There isn’t one silver...
Bethan Sayed: Thank you for your comments, David. Obviously, I share your sadness, really, that the ‘Port Talbot MagNet’ is coming to an end. Whenever I was speaking at various media events, I’d always show them as a shining light in the bleakness that is the situation where we’ve had ‘The Merthyr Express’, ‘The Neath Guardian’ and others close down their offices, taking away that ability...
Bethan Sayed: Thank you. Often in these debates we scrutinise an area where we believe the Welsh Government could be doing better and highlight what we perceive to be its shortcomings, before proposing positive alternatives. For this debate, we want to try something a little different. We are taking a Welsh Government scheme that has successfully saved money and helped people, with one proviso which I’ll...
Bethan Sayed: [Continues.]—than cutting off support and sending people to the streets. Yes.
Bethan Sayed: Well, I think the strongest message that the Welsh Government can give is that they would not be committed to making any cuts to this scheme, because then local authorities will not feel that there’s any ambiguity in the process of making sure that these services are vital to what they’re doing on the ground, because, if they do not have a clear signal from Welsh Government that this is...
Bethan Sayed: Thank you. I don’t have much time, but I’d like to thank people for taking part in this important debate. I think it’s important that we do debate this particular issue. You find in politics sometimes that you can’t win whatever you do. You support a Government programme and you’re accused of making politics with it. We are here to make sure, as the main opposition, that we hold you...
Bethan Sayed: I do, but I have finished. Thank you very much.
Bethan Sayed: First Minister, Gwent Police is taking part in a three-force pilot scheme, which will see front-line officers primed to look out for coercive or controlling behaviour when attending domestic abuse incidents. This is a switch to detecting patterns of abusive conduct, following on from new laws introduced to tackle perpetrators who subject spouses, partners or other family members to...
Bethan Sayed: I just wanted to ask for a statement from the Welsh Government regarding the employment of Kris Wade, sentenced to life for murder last week—he worked for Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University Local Health Board—and particularly whether, in light of subsequent revelations about Mr Wade’s time at the LHB, the Welsh Government could consider escalating its current status from targeted...
Bethan Sayed: Thank you, and I move the amendments. Home ownership is something many people do aspire to and it is something that is increasingly beyond the reach of many people, through a combination of low wages, insecure employment and a refusal by successive Governments to recognise that house price inflation is just as bad as conventional inflation. But, creating wider home ownership must not be done...
Bethan Sayed: Will the Minister make a statement on waiting times for follow-up appointments?
Bethan Sayed: I note the Cabinet Secretary’s statement, and I think that it’s important for us to say, as a party, that the flagship programme that you’re announcing the review and the phasing out of today has come under much scrutiny over the years here in the National Assembly. In fact, we’ve probably had review after review, from the Public Accounts Committee, the communities committee, and so...
Bethan Sayed: Thank you for this debate today. Plaid Cymru obviously is completely opposed to hate crime, and what I’d like to say at the beginning is that I think the target of hate crime changes from generation to generation and from community to community. I say this because my mother comes from Belfast, from the north of Ireland, and I remember distinctly, when we were walking down the...
Bethan Sayed: Cabinet Secretary, I was wondering if the Welsh Government would consider taking a more legislation-based approach to animal welfare in this Assembly. I remember in the last Assembly, sitting on the Petitions Committee, that we received a petition calling for an animal abuse register, which would obviously incorporate those in circuses, should it be required. The Minister at the time wrote to...
