Caroline Jones: Sorry.
Caroline Jones: Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. Apologies for my overeagerness to come in last time—to you and to Carwyn. Thank you for your statement, Minister. What assessment has been made of the effectiveness of local lockdowns in driving down infection rates? Do you have any data on adherence rates to measures to tackle COVID-19 and how many people have been fined for breaking the rules? What support is being...
Caroline Jones: I have supported the Welsh Government's legislation throughout this pandemic, because these measures were necessary to avoid thousands of unnecessary deaths, so of course they have my backing. I will continue to support all necessary measures and will therefore be voting for all of the legislation before us today. However, I do have issues with the way the legislation is being handled. We are...
Caroline Jones: Minister, 2020 has highlighted how vulnerable our economy actually is—vulnerable to COVID and vulnerable to a changing climate. We are woefully unprepared to cope with such shocks to our systems. What discussions have you had with colleagues across all four nations about ensuring funding goes towards mitigating the risks of future pandemics and the challenges we face from climate change?
Caroline Jones: I thank the Welsh Conservatives for bringing forward this debate on the impact COVID is having on further and higher education and I will be supporting them today. The coronavirus pandemic has affected everyone's lives, but perhaps none more so than our young people—young people who have had their education put on hold, their social development hampered, and who are facing one of the...
Caroline Jones: Diolch, acting Presiding Officer. I formally move the amendment tabled in my name. The national development framework should provide us with the opportunity to tackle one of the biggest threats facing our nation—that of climate change. The effects of our changing climate have been felt quite dramatically in recent years. Whilst coronavirus may be dominating the 2020 headlines, the impact of...
Caroline Jones: 5. What steps is the Welsh Government taking to ensure there are no disruptions to children and young people's education during the next six months? OQ55604
Caroline Jones: Thank you, Minister. Unfortunately, in recent weeks we have discovered just how hard it is to keep coronavirus in check. Future outbreaks are sadly inevitable. What we have to do is ensure that those outbreaks do not disrupt a single day of education. Minister, we have seen entire year groups sent home as a result of infections, and while we do everything possible to prevent the infections...
Caroline Jones: Diolch, Llywydd. I formally move the amendment tabled in my name. Trust in politics is at an all-time low and is being made worse by a trail of broken promises. People are losing faith in devolution, because devolution has failed to deliver the promised benefits. Policy failures and Government waste have accelerated the erosion of trust in our institution. As the Welsh Conservatives point...
Caroline Jones: 3. What plans does the Welsh Government have to increase the penalties for those breaking COVID-19 rules? OQ55666
Caroline Jones: Thank you, First Minister. It is blatantly obvious that the carrot approach is not working and the fines imposed aren't much of a deterrent either. Most of the population of south Wales are once again in draconian lockdowns and all because of the actions of a selfish minority. We have had our liberty curtailed because a few people wanted to have house parties. We are not allowed to visit...
Caroline Jones: Trefnydd, I would like to call for two statements from Government Ministers. The first is a statement from the Minister for health regarding cancer care in Wales during the pandemic. Whilst urgent cancer care continues, to an extent, cancer screening, like much of the NHS, is on hold while resources are focused on the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak—understandably so at the beginning of the outbreak,...
Caroline Jones: Minister, if our economy has any chance of surviving this pandemic, we have to learn to live with COVID-19. Living with the disease means that we have to keep apart from those not in our immediate family and for us to wear masks in enclosed spaces. Thankfully, masks are now mandatory on public transport, but keeping apart is more difficult. We have to ensure that not only can social...
Caroline Jones: Diolch, Llywydd. October marks Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and aside from wearing pink, I want to mark it in another, more personal way—to talk about my journey with breast cancer, to point out that you can survive this terrible disease, and to urge women across Wales to take the threat seriously, and to check, check, check. It has been 13 years since I found a suspicious dent in my...
Caroline Jones: Diolch, acting Presiding Officer. I would like to thank our committee Chair and the committee clerks for their amazing work throughout this inquiry. COVID-19 certainly meant that this was no ordinary inquiry. Remote working made holding such an inquiry even more challenging. However, the challenges faced by committee members pale into insignificance when compared with the challenges faced by...
Caroline Jones: Thank you for your statement, Deputy Minister. Pavement parking is one of the biggest problems facing those with mobility issues, young mums with pushchairs and small children, and persons with sight loss. Deputy Minister, unless measures are strictly enforced, my constituents will continue to have to run the gauntlet whenever they leave their homes. How will measures be enforced, and what...
Caroline Jones: No, Llywydd, I haven't put in to speak in this debate, diolch. Sorry.
Caroline Jones: 2. What assessment has the Welsh Government made of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on local government resources? OQ55709
Caroline Jones: Thank you, Minister. As Audit Wales point out in their recent report, Wales's councils will struggle financially, despite nearly £0.5 billion in additional funding from the Welsh Government, and, while everyone looks to central Governments for action on tackling the pandemic, it's local government that are implementing the measures and keeping our schools open. Minister, what discussions has...
Caroline Jones: I thank the Welsh Conservatives for bringing forward this debate, and for acknowledging that my amendment would have added to the debate. As I've said previously, lockdowns were a necessary evil at the start of this pandemic whilst we built up capacity to deal with the outbreak. However, we have had seven months to build up that capacity, and it is getting harder and harder to justify the...
