Gareth Bennett: The Government’s focus on play is welcome. We now have a fairly weighty Government document on this. This document is geared up for schools, nurseries, social workers and local authorities. Surely, a major problem though is that so many parents are sedentary or even obese that we have to persuade them to get out of the house to the local park to play with their kids. So, I wondered what we...
Gareth Bennett: Thanks to the health committee for bringing today’s debate. Health issues are frequently discussed here in the Chamber, and that merely reflects the fact that they’re one of the major concerns of our electorate. As a newcomer to this place, I’m interested in the process whereby a committee, 50 per cent of whose members belong to the governing party, produce a report with concrete...
Gareth Bennett: We had a visit to the Assembly last week from Whizz-Kidz, a group of wheelchair users, who had recurring complaints that transport staff hadn’t been trained to deal with disabled people. This was unfortunately the case with rail staff, bus drivers, and taxi drivers. What can your Government do to ensure that transport staff are properly trained in this respect?
Gareth Bennett: First Minister, you explained last week that, although the Welsh Revenue Authority is being created, nearly all of the staff are having to be recruited in London because we just don’t have the skilled people here in Wales, and this is a persistent problem. But it does rather beg the question of what your Government has been doing about skills and training over the last 17 years.
Gareth Bennett: Thanks, Minister, for your statement. There do seem to have been some problems at the top end of this organisation in recent months. The Minister may well recall that the last chair, Laura McAllister, stayed in post beyond her intended term of office because the Welsh Government felt that a suitable replacement couldn’t be found at that time. You then came up with Paul Thomas, but he’s...
Gareth Bennett: Thanks, Minister, for your statement today. A lot of the discussion today has been about Communities First; well, that scheme is now going, so we do have to ensure that any kind of programme that replaces it is going to be effective, but, mainly, today, I wanted to talk about the other side of the poverty issue, which is what Dawn Bowden alluded to: employability. Now, you’ve previously...
Gareth Bennett: Thanks, Minister, for the proposed settlement that you’ve brought to the Chamber today. In general, we in UKIP share the general public’s desire to maintain police officer numbers, particularly officers on the beat. This is because we acknowledge that public perception of crime and crime prevention is an important factor in keeping public trust and retaining cohesive communities. So, we...
Gareth Bennett: Diolch, Lywydd. Minister, one of the traditional functions of local councils is in the field of housing. But sometimes excessive regulation can be a block, particularly for smaller house building companies, and some of these regulations relate to great crested newts. Now, the UK Government has brought out a White Paper in which they propose a newt-offsetting scheme. This would allow...
Gareth Bennett: Yes, thank you. We do need a balance, but I’m glad that you were mindful of considering it although I appreciate that the responsibility lies automatically with another Minister. But, thank you. Now, complying with regulations can be a recurring issue for councils. Obviously, we need regulations—sensible regulations, that is—but regulations do add cost. One recurring debate that we will...
Gareth Bennett: Thank you for that answer, Minister. Now, the last time I asked you questions with your local government brief, I was talking about traffic charges in Cardiff and you said you would write to me, which indeed you did. So, thank you for the information you provided. You stated that, in terms of parking and traffic violation charges that were collected by Cardiff council and other...
Gareth Bennett: I was interested by Hannah’s question and I had a look at the case, which I kind of had heard of from years ago. I think it used to be known as the Shrewsbury 2, rather than 24, but I gather it’s the same case. When I tried to put it into a political context, the conclusion I came to was that tougher trade union restrictions on issues like flying pickets weren’t introduced until later....
Gareth Bennett: Thanks to the committee Chair for bringing today’s debate. This was a well-intentioned Act. However, the post-legislative scrutiny work has highlighted serious problems in implementing it, which we’ve been hearing about this afternoon. One of the problems is that local councils, in large part, have to implement the Act, but it comes hard on the heels of other Acts that they also have to...
Gareth Bennett: We had a petition delivered to the Assembly last year by a pupil at Treorchy comprehensive in the Rhondda. This petition was calling for rail travel to and from school to be restored—free rail travel, I should say—by Arriva Trains, who had decided to end the scheme. With the rail franchise up for renewal next year, I wondered if thought might be given by the Government to giving Arriva a...
Gareth Bennett: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer, and thanks to the Minister and the various committees for bringing the Bill forward to the current stage. I was going to talk about obesity, but I feel several other people have spoken on that so I don’t want to labour that point. I think the public toilets issue is a moot point, not just for people with medical conditions but people in general. I was...
Gareth Bennett: Will the First Minister make a statement on the 21st Century Schools Programme in South Wales Central?
Gareth Bennett: Thanks, Minister, for your statement yesterday on improving the bus services. I was interested in your plans to improve the bus stop experience, particularly by providing more electronic information. This could be variable due to geographical factors. For instance, in the south Wales Valleys, the stops tend to be relatively smaller with a lack of shelters, plus there is also the issue of the...
Gareth Bennett: The issue of zero-hours contracts is a major one for many people in the job market in Wales; so, I welcome the debate brought forward today by my colleague David Rowlands. UKIP’s UK-wide policy, as outlined in the 2015 general election manifesto, is to end the abuse of zero-hours contracts. We do not call today for an outright ban as we recognise that some workers may benefit from them, but...
Gareth Bennett: I welcome your reference to mental health issues, which was what I was going to raise. One effective measure in treating mental health problems is talking therapy, which can reduce the need to prescribe medication, which would itself enhance the ability of people to enter the job market. What is the Welsh Government doing to assist with the provision of talking therapy in Wales?
Gareth Bennett: What discussions has the Welsh Government had with housing associations in order to deliver more affordable homes for Wales?
Gareth Bennett: 1. Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on performance against municipal waste recycling targets across Wales? OAQ(5)0115(ERA)
