Mark Drakeford: Diolch yn fawr, Llywydd. At Stage 2 in front of the Finance Committee, there was a discussion of an amendment tabled by Steffan Lewis that would have enabled local authorities to make representations about the higher rate of tax. I’m grateful for subsequent opportunities to discuss this matter with the Member, because I have no difficulty with the general principle that we need to engage...
Mark Drakeford: We take all opportunities to make such representations. The Minister for Economy, Transport and North Wales met the UK small business Minister on Thursday and the Secretary of State for Wales yesterday. A quadrilateral of UK Governments takes place tomorrow, where further representations will be made.
Mark Drakeford: ...will be able to retain the help that they have received; we're not looking to claw it back from them. We have changed the advice to local government about self-catering accommodation because of the representations we received from local authorities in Wales, including her own Conservative-led Conwy, that the system was not operating in the way that made sure that help went to the right...
Mark Drakeford: We have regularly expressed concern about significant job losses across Trinity Wales publications in Wales. We will continue to make representations to Trinity about the developing situation with staff in north Wales. We recognise the importance of a healthy media sector as an essential component of a modern democratic society.
Mark Drakeford: ...a UK research and innovation body, the Cabinet Secretary for Education, the Minister for Skills and Science and the chief scientific adviser met the UK Minister responsible and sought proper Welsh representation on UK research and innovation’s board. They made the same point to interim UKRI chair, Sir John Kingman. Discussions with universities on UKRI engagement started only recently.
Mark Drakeford: Llywydd, I share the Member's concern, and I know that the education Minister does as well, at the over-representation amongst school exclusions of pupils with additional learning needs. It's partly why we are investing £20 million to prepare the system and staff for the new regime that flows from the Act that was put on the statute book in this Chamber, and, in doing so, we certainly look...
Mark Drakeford: ...strengthen the White Paper. That is what I’m looking for from the respondents to the White Paper. If people ask questions, that does help, but it’s better still if they offer solutions and make representations on how we can strengthen our proposals in the White Paper, and to assist us in answering questions such as those raised by Sian Gwenllian this afternoon.
Mark Drakeford: ...of voting. He asked me about the provisions in our Bill. Let me just give him one example of why we are so determined to act. The UK Government’s Bill places new barriers in the path of workplace representation. Now, why do we think that having proper access to time in order to represent your members is so important? It’s because you cannot have a social partnership model unless all...
Mark Drakeford: ...at the JMC on European negotiations, and is normally represented at the JMC on Europe. That does provide us with an opportunity to discuss directly with UK Ministers the way in which diplomatic representation will be organised the other side of Brexit. We take every opportunity we have to impress on those representatives the need for a UK presence to be genuinely representative of the...
Mark Drakeford: Llywydd, I thank Laura Anne Jones for that question, which is a proper and serious question that I know my colleague Ken Skates is thinking about and will have heard the representations from Monmouthshire. When I last spoke with Peter Fox, the Conservative leader of Monmouthshire, he was clear that local lockdown restrictions were not yet required in that county, and I hope that we will be...
Mark Drakeford: ...of Wales in the Brexit context. I know that he has seen 'Brexit and our land', and very many people have responded to that policy. The Minister Lesley Griffiths at this point is reviewing all the representations made and she will publish a report on people's comments on 'Brexit and our land' in the spring. For the first time this afternoon, Llywydd, I will have to say that I am not...
Mark Drakeford: Well, Llywydd, we work with our local authority colleagues, of course, to make sure that the contribution they can make through their representation at further education, and in the schools that they themselves run, to make sure that the skills agenda is understood and implemented there. It's one of the key things that Government does, Llywydd, to invest in people and to provide them with the...
Mark Drakeford: Llywydd, the funding formula is reviewed every year. A group of people with expertise in this field, including representation from local government look, every single year, at the formula. They look at all the component parts of it: demography, geography, economy and social factors and, every year, they bring forward proposals, and governments, in my experience, accept the advice that they...
Mark Drakeford: ...of the Senedd—every nine months. Where's the referendum on that, I wonder? Now, I agree entirely with what my colleague Alun Davies has said. You cannot find an independent report into the representation the people in Wales need in order to take the important decisions that are made here on their behalf that believes that 60 Members is a sufficient quantum to discharge those...
Mark Drakeford: I do indeed get direct representation from workers in many settings across Wales. In the case of the DVLA, for example, by some strange route, a member of staff at the DVLA phoned me at home. Now, I was here in work and my wife ended up speaking to a lady, as my wife thought, in her fifties and living alone who was acutely distressed at what she believed to be the conditions under which she...
Mark Drakeford: ...s a very fair summary of my position. And that I believe that, 'all decisions made by the Welsh Government must be seen in the context of those made by the UK Government'. Again, an absolutely fair representation of my view. They then say, 'CBFJC have therefore shifted their focus to ensuring that Wales is fully scrutinised in the UK Covid-19 Inquiry'. I think it's easier that I put their...
Mark Drakeford: I thank the Member for that question and for pointing to the important issue of disability and representation at local authority level. I congratulate all those people who stood for election and those who were successful, and particularly people who, in taking that quite brave step, sometimes, to put yourself in front of the public, will know that there will be some additional challenges that...
Mark Drakeford: ...to RCT and to the women who stood successfully there, and as I said in my original answer to Dawn Bowden, we are still some way from where we would wish to be in terms of diversity of representation across Wales. But there is some good news in that the number of women elected for the first time to local authorities in Wales in May of this year rose right across Wales, and there are some...
Mark Drakeford: ...out on behalf of people here in Wales, and that the case made in the McAllister review for an increase in Assembly Members was well made and doesn’t depend, I believe, on reducing other forms of representation in Wales in order to achieve that.
Mark Drakeford: ...Wales. The report will be a useful contribution to the consultation that Qualifications Wales is carrying out, but in the end, it will be Qualifications Wales that will be responsible for making representations to the Welsh Government as to how we have a qualifications system that stands alongside our new curriculum, and that all of that underpins our ambition. And we are as ambitious as...
