Mark Reckless: Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on future tolling of the Severn Crossings? EAQ(5)0102(EI)
Mark Reckless: I’d like to ask why the Government in Wales isn’t doing anything about that position. The Silk commission said there’d be close co-ordination between the two Governments on the future of the Severn crossings; the St David’s Day agreement said the UK Government would work with the Welsh Government to determine the long-term future of the Severn crossings; and the Department for...
Mark Reckless: I questioned the Cabinet Secretary in Finance Committee last Wednesday, and a transcript of that session has been circulated to Members, so I don’t propose to go through all the ground that I covered then on some of the more technical aspects of the fiscal framework, although I was broadly satisfied with the responses the Cabinet Secretary was able to give. I would just like to raise two...
Mark Reckless: I’m grateful. Three hours ago, the Prime Minister stated that no decisions currently taken by devolved administrations will be removed from them. Does the First Minister take any confidence from that, or does it imply areas that are devolved but currently dealt with by the EU may actually move to Westminster?
Mark Reckless: Isn’t the reason we’re not having a referendum because they know that, if they did have a referendum, they would lose?
Mark Reckless: Will the Member give way?
Mark Reckless: Does he recall that on the ballot paper for that 2011 referendum was written an assurance that a ‘yes’ vote would not lead to the devolution of tax-raising powers?
Mark Reckless: Yesterday, the First Minister described his White Paper as balancing the message that the Welsh people gave us with the economic reality. It implies that the Welsh people don’t understand their economic interests or reality, that they somehow suffer from some false consciousness and must defer to the First Minister for their better economic interests. He says that, together with Plaid...
Mark Reckless: 8. Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on what proportion of GPs are directly employed by local health boards? OAQ(5)0103(HWS)
Mark Reckless: I’ve seen in my own area of south-east Wales in several Valleys communities that the Aneurin Bevan Local Health Board has used direct employment of GPs to improve availability and to attract people to those areas, potentially for a few years rather than for their whole careers. Is this something that the health Secretary sees as to be deployed on a sort of case-by-case basis, or is it the...
Mark Reckless: Cabinet Secretary, before meeting you this morning, the Climate Change, Environment and Rural Affairs Committee warmed up with a session on our marine inquiry, which we’re commencing. Members were struck by the sheer complexity of legislation in this area, overlapping responsibilities, the wide range of different protection areas and the rules around them. I wonder with the extension of...
Mark Reckless: 2. How long in advance would it be reasonable to expect a Welsh Government supported provider of childcare to notify working parents of their child’s start date? OAQ(5)0107(CC)
Mark Reckless: I was surprised, when starting my own three-year-old recently, not to receive advance notice. The process was to have meetings at the beginning of the term and then agree a date. I seek no intervention in my own case, which is resolved, but I just wondered, in having childcare to support working parents as well as the education of the child, would it not be appropriate, if both parents are...
Mark Reckless: We are asked to say that the UK Government hasn’t set a detailed plan. I’m not sure that is entirely fair. I felt that the Prime Minister’s speech was pretty substantive in her 12 points and what she put behind those, and we then did get a White Paper, putting some more detail around that. We are then asked to recognise the result of the referendum about the UK’s membership of the...
Mark Reckless: I will.
Mark Reckless: I thank the Member very much for bringing me on to what was going to be my next point. I have a particular concern about what David Davis said, that, in the context of devolution, there’ll be powers coming from the EU, and we will have to decide where they most properly land—whether that is Westminster, Holyrood, or whatever. That is not the case. There will be a restriction on our right...
Mark Reckless: Will my colleague give way?
Mark Reckless: Does he agree with me that the newly competitive pound has been a huge shot in the arm for the steel industry and is a big part of the turnaround we’ve seen in the prospects of Port Talbot?
Mark Reckless: Will the Member give way?
Mark Reckless: Is he aware of article 11 of the Natural Resources Body for Wales (Establishment) Order 2012 that gives Welsh Ministers a general power to direct Natural Resources Wales as to the exercise of its powers?
