Lesley Griffiths: Carwyn Jones.
Lesley Griffiths: Thank you, Presiding Officer. I want to draw the attention of the Senedd to a real success story for Wales and how we can build on this success for the future. Wales has achieved the highest municipal recycling rate in the United Kingdom and, if it were to report separately, the fourth highest rate in Europe. I would like to pay tribute to my predecessor, Carl Sargeant, for his contribution...
Lesley Griffiths: I’d like to thank Simon Thomas for his comments and I look forward to him shadowing me; I hope his jokes improve over the coming months. I actually agree with you about the circular economy, because when the title of the statement was put in front of me, I baulked a bit. But I think you’re right; we need something that people very much understand and can grasp hold of. We have made a huge...
Lesley Griffiths: Well, I haven’t undertaken that piece of work in the first month of the portfolio. But I think you raise a very important point, and there is that prospect of bringing more jobs in. I mentioned how we could be looking at encouraging businesses in the way I’ve mentioned about Ken Skates’s constituency having the coat hanger one. I think it’s really important that we recognise that...
Lesley Griffiths: Thank you, David Melding, for your kind words. I only realised just yesterday—because, obviously, I’ve only been here since 2007—that ‘Cabinet Secretary’ was used. So, again, that was a much better joke than Simon Thomas’s. [Laughter.] You are quite right, and it’s very good that you recognise the high achievement of the recycling rates municipally. That’s why I was so candid...
Lesley Griffiths: I thank the Member for her questions. You’re right—you heard me say to Simon Thomas that we’ve been very closely working with the Scottish Government, and certainly officials are watching what they do. They’re going to come forward with some advice that I’ll consider certainly before the end of the year, but it is a very complicated process to bring forward a deposit-return scheme...
Lesley Griffiths: I thank Darren Millar for his question. I was aware Conwy are going to pilot to trial four-weekly collections. I think they’re starting at the end of next month. We, as a Welsh Government, don’t have a policy for monthly collection of non-recyclable rubbish. It really is a matter for local authorities to decide the frequency of their waste collections and what’s best for their community...
Lesley Griffiths: Thank you, Jenny Rathbone. You will have heard me say to previous Members my views on deposit-return schemes, in relation to your last question. In relation to throwing out by weight, a briefing I read was embracing what other European countries have done. I think Austria and Italy and parts of Belgium were areas where they’d had a pay-as-you-throw tax. I actually think that’s quite...
Lesley Griffiths: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer, and I thank Nathan Gill for his question, although I think it was a little bit sour. It was a shame that that was the last question to end what I think has been a really positive statement. You know, the statistics don’t back up what you’re saying. I don’t think we’ve had to use carrots and sticks. I really think people have engaged with this. I do...
Lesley Griffiths: Diolch, Lywydd. I’d like to thank Llyr Gruffydd for bringing this short debate forward. As you said, it’s the first one of this fifth Assembly, and I think it’s a very important topic to choose for the first one. The Environment and Sustainability Committee’s report on smarter energy is a very important contribution, I think, to the energy policy debate, and I do look forward to...
Lesley Griffiths: Yes, Nick.
Lesley Griffiths: I’ll come to that bit in a moment. I had a meeting this morning, actually, with Carl Sargeant, who’s obviously now responsible for housing, where we discussed that very issue. But I will refer to that later on. I think the energy system is already being transformed, and this is clear from the low-carbon generation report that we published last November. Wales had 2,280 MW of renewable...
Lesley Griffiths: Can you just hang on? I think also we need to streamline planning, and Jenny Rathbone and Lee Waters both referred to community energy benefits. And someone—I can’t remember who it was—referred to land. And again, Welsh Government has got land and we’re looking to what we can to do, maybe, to have a pilot to see what sort of houses we can do. I’ll give way.
Lesley Griffiths: That’s exactly what we were discussing; we’ve got five big developers in Wales who perhaps would not be persuaded to build the sort of houses that we are talking about. So, what I did with the Cabinet Secretary for Communities and Children this morning, and officials, was talk about how we can perhaps identify a local authority, maybe, that we could do some sort of pilot with. There would...
Lesley Griffiths: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. The food and drink action plan delivers our food strategy in Wales. Published well in advance of the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015, it is delivering on all seven of the well-being goals. The plan’s 48 actions encompass five priorities, including a leadership board of industry and sector leads; strong provenance for Wales’s food and...
Lesley Griffiths: I thank Simon Thomas for his questions and comments. I’m glad to see your jokes haven’t improved since last week’s oral statement, but I do look forward to celebrating both the NFU and CAMRA events to be held here tomorrow. Just in relation to Carmarthen ham, I’m expecting several items of food to receive the PGI later this year. I can’t give you a definitive date but I’m very...
Lesley Griffiths: I thank Paul Davies for his questions and comments, and I, too, very much look forward to working with him in this very important area. You asked about the procurement of Welsh produce and products in the public sector, and, as I said, we’ve been working very closely with the National Procurement Service, which, you’ll be aware, was established back in 2013, I think it was, and that...
Lesley Griffiths: Thank you, Jeremy Miles, for that question. I think you raise a really important point around ensuring that we do create innovative, and maybe novel, approaches to encourage industry training for SME businesses. What we’re going to do is have a cluster approach, and we’re already trialling this with food businesses to support business growth. Upskilling and training is absolutely...
Lesley Griffiths: Thank you, Julie Morgan, for those points. I think it’s not just about food waste; I mentioned in my answer to Simon Thomas about the huge amount of food waste that there is, although some is redistributed, and obviously some goes for animal feed, it’s also about encouraging businesses to resource much more efficiently than they do. I’m not quite sure about incentivising large...
Lesley Griffiths: Thank you. Yes, I know that the Member is sponsoring the CAMRA event, and I very much look forward to attending and speaking at it tomorrow evening. You’re quite right about ale. I attended a cider and beer festival, and I think it was my very first engagement in this portfolio. As someone who doesn’t normally drink ale, I was absolutely astonished to see how many different types there...
