Mohammad Asghar: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I move the amendments tabled in the name of my colleague Darren Millar. Having a skilled workforce in Wales is key for economic recovery, particularly since Wales already has a significant skills gap. Skills shortages cost Welsh businesses some £350 million in 2018 according to an Open University report. As well as the economic cost, many people in...
Mohammad Asghar: Thank you, Minister, for the statement you have given earlier, and I'm very pleased regarding the George Floyd affairs in America—very sad. I would rather say that all life matters—there is no superiority by anyone, any human being, to another one because of the race relation or caste or ethnicity. I admire your feeling on that, and you have written to Americans—wonderful. I think the...
Mohammad Asghar: Thank you, Presiding Officer, and thank you, First Minister, for your statement. I have been contacted by a number of dental practices in my region, who are concerned about the time frame proposed by the Chief Dental Officer for Wales to phase out in dentistry care. The proposal is to resume more face-to-face emergency care from 1 July, followed by routine check-ups in October and aerosol...
Mohammad Asghar: Thank you, Presiding Officer. After more than seven weeks of restrictions, the United Kingdom Government recently announced measures to ease the lockdown in England. This easing has been widely welcomed as it marks a significant milestone on the road to the return of normality. The United Kingdom Government strategy offers and sets out a clear vision for the future. In contrast, the Welsh...
Mohammad Asghar: Thank you, Minister, for you statement. My point is, our charities are playing a crucial role in Wales in this current emergency, backed up by an army of volunteers who support those most in need here in Wales. Fundraisers across Wales face a challenging time and while all the measures such as economic resilience fund and the COVID-19 funds for voluntary services are welcome, many charities...
Mohammad Asghar: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer and thank you, Minister, for your statement. I appreciate your concern on tourism. Visit Wales has released the result of a survey of tourism businesses taken after the lockdown that makes grim reading. Ninety-six per cent of businesses expect the future impact of the virus to be significantly negative on the sector. Operators have called on both...
Mohammad Asghar: Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. I appreciate your concern on tourism. Visit Wales has released the results of a survey of tourism businesses taken after the lockdown, which makes for grim reading: 96 per cent of businesses expect the future impact of the virus to be significantly negative on the sector. Operators have called on both Governments to help their businesses by urgently...
Mohammad Asghar: Will you please, Minister, agree to address the next funding round, as failure to do so would mean a waste of funded activity that has already taken place with a consequential damaging effect on the skills gap in Wales?
Mohammad Asghar: Deputy Presiding Officer, can you hear me?
Mohammad Asghar: Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer, and thank you, Minister, for your statement. I would like to ask about the effect of lockdown on the provision of skills training in the further education sector. Qualifications Wales has announced that steps will be taken to award vocational qualifications this summer for learners impacted by the virus emergency. Could the Minister give me more...
Mohammad Asghar: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. Minister, thank you very much for your statement. My point is, my very good friend in the last two weeks passed away from coronavirus, and his son died this morning, and the second son is already in the ICU in the Royal Gwent Hospital. My question to you is that I am still very surprised that no Assembly Member has mentioned the bereaved families in Wales....
Mohammad Asghar: I, again, say thank you very much for arranging this sort of Assembly meeting, which I've never experienced before, especially these days when the whole country is gridlocked. I, personally, think it’s a bit ill timed to bring this local government Bill in front of one third of the Assembly. I wish to speak on one area clearly regarding this, this afternoon. I wish to speak against the...
Mohammad Asghar: Minister, hospitals in England are being asked to carry out more video-based consultations with patients to reduce the risk of spreading coronavirus. NHS England have said that they hope this move will reduce the number of people in hospitals and lower the potential for transmission. Minister, will you look at this innovation to see if it would benefit patients in Wales? And what measures are...
Mohammad Asghar: Thank you, Presiding Officer. May I ask for a statement from the Minister for health about measures to tackle diabetes in Wales? Diabetes in Wales is now a health crisis, with the number of people suffering from the disease having doubled in the last 20 years. Wales has the highest prevalence of diabetes in the United Kingdom, and NHS Wales estimates that 11 per cent of our adult population...
Mohammad Asghar: First Minister, research by the Local Data Company shows that Wales has the highest shop-closure rates in the United Kingdom. In the first half of the last year, the number of shops in Newport fell by 3.5 per cent. The Welsh Retail Consortium points out that retail accounts for over a quarter of the business rate take in Wales. Although small business rate relief and transitional rate relief...
Mohammad Asghar: Wales has some of the highest rates of looked-after children in the United Kingdom. More than 6,800 children aged up to 18 years old are currently looked after by local authorities in Wales. It is a stark fact that over the last 15 years, the number of looked-after children has risen by 34 per cent. The figure is far higher than in England or Northern Ireland. By the end of March 2019, Wales...
Mohammad Asghar: Minister, funding cuts to local authorities have resulted in councils having to reconsider the way they provide services to deliver savings. In some cases, they're sharing services with neighbouring local authorities. However, councils in Wales inevitably focused on short-term measures to balance their budgets, rather than investing in longer term measures to transform services. Since they do...
Mohammad Asghar: Minister, the recent landslide in Tylorstown in the Rhondda valley evoked distressing memories of the terrible tragedy that occurred in Aberfan in 1966. Last year, it was announced that the Coal Authority had been awarded a five-year contract by Natural Resources Wales to undertake tip and quarry inspections in south Wales. Ultimately, the best solution is for these tips to be removed...
Mohammad Asghar: Will the Minister make a statement on the impact of recent flooding on animal welfare in Wales?
Mohammad Asghar: May I ask for a statement from the education Minister regarding guidance issued to local authorities over school admission policy? Currently, Newport City Council's school admission department will only accept medical evidence provided by a consultant for a child or young person to be considered for a specific school when the local authority needs to apply oversubscription criteria. We all...
