Mark Isherwood: Thanks, again, Deputy Minister, for meeting me this morning to pre-brief me on this, and no doubt other colleagues from across the Chamber, and for your statement. We've long provided a safe haven for victims of persecution, violence, ethnic cleansing and genocide from across the world, and long may that remain the case, because if we ever lose that, we'll have lost our humanity and true...
Mark Isherwood: This Friday in Wrexham is the launch of Wrexham's town of sanctuary, a campaign to make Wrexham a town of sanctuary and an invitation to local groups and individuals to get involved—a prime example of great work that you can benefit from by joining up the dots, I hope you'll agree.
Mark Isherwood: 7. What consideration did the Minister give to healthcare in North Wales when allocating the 2019/20 budget? OAQ53279
Mark Isherwood: Diolch. Last month the Countess of Chester Hospital, a fifth of whose patients come from Wales, reported concern that there'd been a 26 per cent increase in delayed transfers of care for its Welsh patients over the previous year. At the same time, there'd been a 24 per cent reduction for patients coming from the English side of the border, the west Cheshire patient catchment area that they...
Mark Isherwood: When REHAU Group announced proposals that may lead to the closure of its manufacturing site in Amlwch, after being there for over 40 years, it not only said that there was no sign of the market for PVC edge band recovering, but also that the manufacture of alternative products on the site was, quote, 'impossible due to space restrictions'. Given what you've just told us, what discussion have...
Mark Isherwood: Diolch, Llywydd. As we've heard, the Wales Governance Centre's report, 'Sentencing and Immediate Custody in Wales' found that Wales has the highest rate of imprisonment in western Europe and that, although the total number of prison sentences rose in Wales between 2010 and 2017, they fell by 16 per cent in England. The report's authors stated that wider research is needed to explain Wales's...
Mark Isherwood: Did you not hear me devote the majority of my speech to listing the initiatives launched by the Ministry of Justice over recent years to reflect that very finding, not just in Wales but in England too?
Mark Isherwood: 3. How is the Welsh Government ensuring best value for money for public procurement? OAQ53333
Mark Isherwood: In November I hosted an Assembly event with 3SC, a social enterprise established to bid for public and other contracts, harnessing the power of the third sector to deliver those contracts via organisations that otherwise lose out. At the event they launched their position paper, 'The Crisis in Public Sector Contracting and How to Cure It: A Wales Perspective', highlighting some of the...
Mark Isherwood: Well, as so often with this Minister for Economy and Transport, the motions begin with a newspaper headline, now claiming historic underinvestment by the UK Government in Wales's rail infrastructure. In a written statement last December, this Minister stated that Wales has been the poor relation of the UK's rail investment and that we've received less than 2 per cent of the investment in rail...
Mark Isherwood: This is genuinely what the Office of Rail and Road's annual reports are saying, which I think are independent of Governments here and in the UK. In his statement on 10 December, the Minister stated that the Department for Transport UK's own forecast indicated that HS2 will cause £200 million of annual economic damage to the economy of south Wales. The source for this is the work undertaken...
Mark Isherwood: 3. Will the Minister make a statement on the funding of healthcare in North Wales? OAQ53334
Mark Isherwood: Well, a fifth of the patients at the Countess of Chester Hospital come from Wales, and last week I questioned your colleague the finance Minister after the Countess of Chester Hospital reported in December that delayed transfers of care—better known to some people as bedblocking—for patients from Wales had gone up 26 per cent compared to the previous year, whilst falling 24 per cent for...
Mark Isherwood: Disgraceful.
Mark Isherwood: Deffo! Wales Deaf Youth Forum submitted this petition to improve access to education and services in British Sign Language, or BSL: improving access for families to learn BSL; adding BSL on to the national curriculum; improving access to education in BSL for children and young people; and providing better access to services in BSL, such as health, education, social care and public transport....
Mark Isherwood: Diolch. Russell George began by noting that Welsh Government policies over 20 years have failed to address economic inequalities between regions in Wales, welcoming the Cardiff city region deal, Swansea bay city region deal, north Wales growth deal, and possibilities for a mid Wales growth deal, and called on the Welsh Government to promote a regional development policy post Brexit that not...
Mark Isherwood: Well, it takes me back to economic lectures on endogenous growth curves, but I won't go into that at the moment. Mark Reckless talked about the difference in definition between GVA—the value of goods and services produces per head of population—and wages and prosperity, because GVA captures where value in goods and services is generated and not necessarily where people commute from. So,...
Mark Isherwood: 5. How is the Welsh Government co-producing services with the third sector and communities? OAQ53383
Mark Isherwood: Diolch. I've also worked for many years with the Co-production Network for Wales. I was in fact the only politician, I think, invited to their official launch—[Assembly Members: 'Hear, hear.']—which was well worthy of support. Last Friday, I once again visited a small charity, an autism charity supporting families with children on the spectrum, which is having to devote a massive amount...
Mark Isherwood: All police forces in Wales will receive a real-terms increase in 2019-20, up 4.9 per cent in Gwent, 5 per cent in south Wales, 5.3 per cent in north Wales and 6.1 per cent in Dyfed-Powys. The UK Home Office, as we heard, is continuing to overlay its needs-based formula with a floor mechanism and all police forces in Wales and England can expect to receive the same 2.1 per cent increase in...
