Hefin David: On 8 April, I and my colleagues, Dawn Bowden and Rhianon Passmore, held a local summit of our own to discuss the Cardiff capital region deal, at which Alun Davies spoke very well. [Interruption.] The event was attended by representatives of the local authority, local employers—he was heckling me there, reminding me to mention it—further and higher education and transport providers. One of...
Hefin David: As far as I can see on the HEFCW website, the current staffing numbers are 50 staff across four directorates. Can you confirm if that’s correct? If so, how would the future staffing and organisational structure compare to the current Higher Education Funding Council for Wales arrangements?
Hefin David: Just to say, universities in Wales are suffering because of the Conservative Government’s immigration policies, which are turning away students who could come to the UK. I know this from experience. I have to say, David Rowlands, I don’t think you’re right about that.
Hefin David: In spite of the bleak facts that Vikki Howells has presented there, she’s also presented, towards the end of her speech, a very optimistic and forward-thinking set of tools to help us with the route out of this. Poverty is a gross injustice and we recognise it as a gross injustice, and we can be therefore justifiably angry about what poverty does to our communities. Therefore, we should...
Hefin David: Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on bowel cancer screening in Wales?
Hefin David: Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on Welsh Government support for Velothon Wales?
Hefin David: Bryn Compost Ltd in Gelligaer in my constituency recycles all of Caerphilly county borough’s food waste. The people of Gelligaer have been plagued by odours from the failed in-vessel composting facility that exists there, and have decided over the longer term not to recycle their food waste as a protest, and it’s something I’ve supported them in. An anaerobic digester placed there has...
Hefin David: 1. Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on the support available for veterans in Caerphilly? OAQ(5)0164(CC)
Hefin David: I know, Cabinet Secretary, first-hand, from my constituency casework, that the issues faced by veterans range from housing, homelessness to healthcare. Research carried out by Swansea University and the Forces in Mind Trust has suggested that veterans may be more at risk than non-veterans of developing gambling problems and this vulnerability may be related to experience of prior traumatic...
Hefin David: 2. Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on Welsh Government support for Armed Forces Day? OAQ(5)0161(CC)
Hefin David: Huw Irranca-Davies says there’s a theme emerging, but it’s a slightly different focus. I was delighted to attend the Armed Forces Day celebrations in the Owain Glyndŵr fields in Caerphilly on Saturday, and the First Minister attended, together with the Secretary of State for Wales. It was a great pleasure to see many festivities, such as a Spitfire flying past and march of the regimental...
Hefin David: I’ve estimated, Cabinet Secretary, that there’ll be approximately 100 jobs in Caerphilly affected by this. Last night, I attended a long-arranged consultation meeting with major retailers, which included Morrisons, Asda, Boots and Specsavers, and Tesco were down to attend and they weren’t there. They were notable by their absence, and they were missing again today, as far as I could...
Hefin David: I declare an interest as an associate lecturer at Cardiff Metropolitan University. I want to focus my contribution on the importance of part-time education. I speak having had 15 years’ experience of teaching part-time students, and I guess that’s probably around 1,000 part-time students in that time, one of whom—just to demonstrate how well part-time students can do—was Alun Cairns...
Hefin David: Yes, it was very much a resource issue—that they needed Wednesday afternoons and Thursday mornings off to study, and organisations simply couldn’t afford that. But what I would say is private sector employers and public sector employers have a duty to educate their people. Employers say, ‘What happens if I educate my people and they leave?’ Well, what happens if you don’t educate...
Hefin David: 7. What work has the Welsh Government undertaken to implement the recommendations of the Ministerial Supply Model Taskforce Report published on 2 February 2017? OAQ(5)0703(FM)
Hefin David: One of the issues raised by the report was the variable, inconsistent and complex picture of supply teaching. I was pleased to see that the Cabinet Secretary picked up all 10 recommendations, although she did recognise that care must be taken with regulating standards of commercial supply agencies. I’ve got a constituent who is a supply teacher who’s written to me, and she tells me that...
Hefin David: Thank you, Minister, for the responses you’ve given so far. It’s an interesting comparison with what we were talking about with Tesco just a couple of weeks ago, where we were concerned that we couldn’t influence this large corporate, and now the Government, the UK Government, which can pay heed to our communities, is doing almost the same thing as Tesco did, which I find extraordinary....
Hefin David: One of the pieces of advice my highly esteemed predecessor as Assembly Member for Caerphilly, Jeff Cuthbert, gave me was to always take the opportunity in debate to raise the issues and concerns of your constituents, and therefore this is a very timely opportunity to do that. My knowledge of this dreadful disease came about as a result of meeting a constituent, Glyn Davies, who’s...
Hefin David: Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on the recruitment of supply teachers in Wales?
Hefin David: 5. Will the First Minister make a statement on the Welsh Government's approach to inclusive work-based learning? OAQ(5)0736(FM)[R]
