Lee Waters: You’re a politician.
Lee Waters: Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. I’m delighted to have tabled this debate today, along with my colleagues Hefin David, Vikki Howells, Jeremy Miles, and my friend David Melding—genuinely delighted. Just as we pressed last month that we must do all that we can to bolster the so-called foundational economy, we must also look at the external trends that are set to change our lives and our economies....
Lee Waters: What progress has the Welsh Government made in developing a national strategy on precision agriculture?
Lee Waters: 1. When will every child in Wales be taught to code? OAQ(5)0577(FM)
Lee Waters: Thank you, First Minister. My daughter was nine yesterday, and, for her birthday, she asked for a Raspberry Pi, which is not a fruit-based pudding, but, in fact, as you know, a small computer manufactured in your constituency.
Lee Waters: In your area. [Laughter.] But when she leaves education, the ability to programme computers will be an essential skill, everything from programming a manufacturing line to designing the next innovation. But the chief inspector of schools found that ICT standards are strong in only a very few schools, and not enough understand the potential of digital learning to aid teaching and learning....
Lee Waters: Minister, it’s now been 12 years since the cocklers of the Bury inlet have reported significant die-offs of shellfish and we still don’t know the cause of these deaths. We do know, however, of its economic impact: an export industry has been devastated and local cocklers are now struggling to make even a basic living. Six years ago, courts found against Welsh Water and now they found...
Lee Waters: Would the Member give way?
Lee Waters: There is no doubt that there are practical matters that need working through, but, as Carl Sargeant has just made clear, the chief constables are now all of a view that these are surmountable and in the best interests of policing for this to be devolved so that it can be aligned with other local public services.
Lee Waters: Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. Cabinet Secretary, I’d like to warmly support the passion you have for nurturing leadership as a way of achieving excellence in standards. Can I just ask a couple of questions about how you see this sitting within the existing landscape of initiatives, bearing in mind that we are meant to be doing fewer things and keeping things simple? So, how, in particular, do you...
Lee Waters: Diolch yn fawr, Gadeirydd. There’s no doubt that huge progress has been made with the intervention of the Welsh Government over the last year, with a 12 per cent increase in the number of GPs in Wales since the Assembly was established, and in just the last year, the number of GP training places being filled is at 84 per cent, whereas it was at 60 per cent a year ago. So, the intervention...
Lee Waters: Will the Member give way?
Lee Waters: Would he acknowledge that the city deals rather than the city regions, which I think he mentioned, which, of course, the Welsh Government set up, are simply displacing cuts in public spending through austerity, and the failure of the UK Government to acknowledge the case for fair funding? So, when put in the whole context, this bit of funding that has been passed down through the city deals...
Lee Waters: Will the Member give way?
Lee Waters: I give you some credit: having been part of a Government that did have a transformative impact on the Valleys, you are in a position to judge. [Laughter.] But, on the Circuit of Wales, as members of the Public Accounts Committee, we’ve both read the auditor general’s report on that, and there are significant concerns in there about the way the project has been handled to date. Wouldn’t...
Lee Waters: Okay, I’ll do my very best. Thank you for giving way. In response to that point about the failure to build houses organically over the years so that now there’s a glut that needs to be built, would you accept that it’s the failure of Conservative Governments in the 1980s to replace those houses that were sold off to council tenants, quite rightly, but then an alternative wasn’t built...
Lee Waters: Isn’t part of the problem, First Minister, that some Members seem to think that bypasses are part of active travel networks? Sixty per cent of all car journeys are for journeys of less than five miles, and an emphasis on everyday journeys is one of the key ways of making the active travel Act achieve its potential. In Carmarthenshire, the council’s draft strategy has an emphasis on sports...
Lee Waters: I did preface my remarks, Llywydd, to talk about the Newtown bypass, which has just been referenced.
Lee Waters: Indeed. I’m talking about the way local authorities are implementing and interpreting this Act, and whether the First Minister, and the Welsh Government, will issue strong guidance to local authorities, to make sure the emphasis is on short journeys, practical journeys, and not bypasses.
Lee Waters: Cabinet Secretary, you said that the outset that this is a fast-changing environment that has been vulnerable to a degree of disruption in recent years. The report decides that the Welsh Books Council is the best body—best place—to lead up through this uncertain terrain, but it also says that the Welsh Books Council needs to develop different levels of risk appetite, it needs to develop...
