Julie James: I'm not aware of all of the details of some of those examples, and I'd be very grateful if Mark Isherwood would kindly pass them on to me; I am aware of some of them. There are three things to say about that. Where somebody has signed up to the ethical code of procurement practice, then they ought to comply with it, and I'll be taking those up with the local authorities in question where...
Julie James: [Inaudible.]—the beginning of that. I'm very sorry, Mark Isherwood, I didn't hear what you started saying. I wonder if you'd be kind enough to repeat it.
Julie James: They certainly aren't. Myddelton College, the first Microsoft school in north Wales, is currently benefiting from 5G wireless technology, which the rest of the UK won't start seeing until 2020. So, they're well ahead. College pupils there are working on tablets allowing real-time interaction with teachers for lessons and marking. The school estimates it will save around £100,000 a year on...
Julie James: Yes, the Member will be aware that we went out for consultation on the changes to the permitted development rights and I am expecting to be able to announce the results of that very shortly. Deputy Presiding Officer, I have an oral statement next week—it's very unfortunate that it's timed this way around. But I am hoping—I'm not certain, but I'm hoping to have some announcements to...
Julie James: Yes, I've appointed Innovation Point to advise, stimulate and co-ordinate activity on 5G across the whole of Wales.
Julie James: Unfortunately, mobile technology isn't devolved to Wales. If it were I would be able to answer that question in a much more simple fashion. But we are engaged with the UK Government to discuss exactly how the spectrum sales of 5G will be sold, and much will pivot on how they are in fact sold in the end. And that's why we have Innovation Point looking at a whole series of innovative test-beds...
Julie James: Yes, it was a very positive meeting, actually, and discussed quite a few innovative solutions that both we could do in co-operation with Monmouthshire council itself, and actually with a group of the residents who are very keen on looking to see if they could have a bespoke solution for their particular community. That does give me the opportunity to say to everybody in the Chamber—no doubt...
Julie James: The Superfast Cymru scheme facilitated the roll-out of superfast broadband access to over 5,490 homes and businesses across the town of Monmouth, investing just over £1.68 million. Average speeds across the county of Monmouthshire are over 95 Mbps.
Julie James: Superfast Cymru provided almost 733,000 premises across Wales with access to fast fibre broadband. The average download speed across Wales is over 86.9 Mbps.
Julie James: The Superfast Cymru scheme facilitated the roll-out of superfast broadband access to over 32,140 homes and businesses in Caerphilly, investing over £7.6 million. The average download speed across Caerphilly is 67.7 Mbps.
Julie James: I have met my Cabinet colleagues to discuss equality within their portfolios and the gender review in particular. I chaired the first bi-monthly meeting of the gender review steering group on Monday. These meetings will maintain momentum and provide an opportunity to influence gender equality—and intersectionality—across our policies.
Julie James: The Welsh Government has been clear from the outset that leaving the EU must not lead to any regression in human rights protections. The Counsel General and I are working together to monitor developments with regard to equalities legislation and assess the potential implications for Wales.
Julie James: We are engaged in ongoing discussion with UK Government to ensure that Wales is fully represented during the UN reporting milestones of 2019, including the examinations of the UK under the UN convention against torture, and the UN convention on the elimination of discrimination against women.
Julie James: The latest Ofcom 'Connected Nations update' shows 56 per cent geographic coverage for 4G services across the whole of Wales and 75 per cent geographic coverage for 2G, 3G and 4G combined.
Julie James: A range of improvements are being made across and within all Cabinet Secretary portfolios relating to digital transformation. I took a paper to Cabinet on 2 October discussing further opportunities for digital to support and accelerate transformation across the Welsh public sector.
Julie James: The Equality and Human Rights Commission has statutory powers to assess the extent and manner in which a public authority in Wales has complied with the public sector equality duty. The Welsh Government works closely with the Commission on monitoring arrangements and on the Welsh Ministers’ report on equality.
Julie James: Yes, actually, I share his concern around the data and I'm the Minister responsible for that, in fact, so I will look into that and come back to the Member.
Julie James: To be fair to the Cabinet Secretary, that's a problem of the amount of business that it was possible to fit in. He was more than—[Interruption.] Well, he was more than happy to do it, but a number of things happened over the course of the last couple of days around business coming in and out of the agenda. So, it will issue as a written statement. It's my responsibility to see whether we've...
Julie James: The Minister is due to make a statement next month on changes to our homelessness policies, but I do think that the Member should take into account the effect on homelessness of his own UK Government party's universal credit roll-out and general assumption that young people can stay at home, because he's just pointed out that that's very frequently not the case.
Julie James: Yes, I will certainly discuss with the Cabinet Secretary the possibility of that, or of how we could communicate where we are with the taskforce on Virgin Media. I share the Member's concern about the actions of the company and some of the stories that are happening there. So, I'll certainly have that discussion with the Cabinet Secretary to see how we can best facilitate those discussions...
