Julie James: The Minister's indicated that he's looking at the situation with regard to looking after relatives' children and what can be done to ensure both that the safeguarding laws are interpreted properly, but also that we facilitate it in various—I mean, there are any amount of scenarios to be looked at. But he's already indicated his willingness to do that, and I'll make sure that he indicates...
Julie James: Yes, I think the Member makes a series of excellent points. It's long overdue that such an inquiry takes place. The Cabinet Secretary is indicating his extreme willingness to do both of those things: both support the Scottish Government, and to write to the new Home Secretary—we haven't written to this Home Secretary, so to write to this Home Secretary and urge that such an inquiry takes...
Julie James: I have to admire the Member's optimism that the creation of a team immediately brings a celebratory reason. As somebody from Swansea, I have to tell you that that isn't always the case. I'm tempted to say, 'Be careful for what you wish sometimes', but the Cabinet Secretary is here, listening to that, and I'm sure he took it on board. I'm sure there are lots of good cricket players across...
Julie James: Yes, the Member raises a very important point, and these big-store closures are a real worry. The Cabinet Secretary is saying that he is very happy to write to Members and set out exactly what we're doing, but it's a combination of our usual—I'm afraid to say 'usual'; unfortunately, we have some experience of large redundancy situations in Wales. So, we have a response to that, which...
Julie James: Yes, well, on that second one, we're confident that the amendments are unlikely to have an effect on the LCM. The LCM was drafted in such a way as to be quite resilient in that regard, but obviously we will be keeping an eye on what's happening in Westminster. If anything happens that does affect that—and we think that's very unlikely—then, obviously, discussions with the Llywydd about...
Julie James: Yes, I think that's the sort of issue that the Member should raise as a constituency issue with the Cabinet Secretary by way of correspondence.
Julie James: Diolch, Llywydd. There's just one change to report to today's business, which is to reduce the length of this afternoon's Stage 3 debate on the Public Health (Minimum Price for Alcohol) (Wales) Bill. Business for the next three weeks is shown on the business statement and announcement found amongst the meeting papers available to Members electronically.
Julie James: Diolch, Llywydd. There was much I found that I agreed with in Neil McEvoy's speech, which I frankly wasn't expecting. But he listed a large number of things with which I fundamentally agree also, and much that Llyr just said I also fundmentally agree with. But we do have a fundamental political disagreement around independence. I do not agree that Wales would be better independent. I take...
Julie James: The Member makes a number of points, which these pilots aim to look at. And I do emphasise the 'pilot' point here. I don't want to overemphasise the barriers that we faced in getting to this point, but it has not been simple to construct four separate pilots using different procurement and Government spend leverages in order to do this. I do pay tribute to the team that's managed to do it....
Julie James: It's a very good point, and absolutely, we have a number of—. One of the reasons I'm the lead Minister for this is that it's a cross-Government working arrangement. I'm looking at my colleague Rebecca Evans who has been very involved in large parts of it as well. There are a number of Cabinet colleagues who've been involved in setting it up. Absolutely, one of the reasons I was praising...
Julie James: Well, the issue about disabled people is a good one, and obviously one of the pilots in particular is looking to expand on a current operation that does employ a number of disabled people already. Actually, Remploy never employed only disabled people; there were always people in the management echelons, for example, who were not disabled. What we're looking to do with these pilots is make...
Julie James: Well, I'm glad that Leanne Wood started by saying she supports the initiative Better Jobs Closer to Home, and I wasn't entirely sure from the rest of her contribution quite how she supported it. On the procurement strategy, I did not say it was a barrier; I said there were a number of things that we had to take into account when constructing a scheme that allowed the Welsh Government to use...
Julie James: Well, I know the Member is extremely well intentioned in what he's seeking to do, and I'm just going to run through what the aims of this project are, and they are to use Government procurement spend in a market intervention where the market has really failed to produce any kind of employment opportunities in areas of very high unemployment, particularly in the foundational economy for people...
Julie James: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. When the First Minister formed this Welsh Government in May 2016, he made it clear that one of our central priorities as an administration would be to create better jobs closer to home. It was an instruction to all Ministers, across the Government, to spread opportunity across all parts of Wales and to use every devolved lever at our disposal to...
Julie James: The Cabinet Secretary is indicating to me that he's happy to work with our colleague the Cabinet Secretary for health to bring forward something as a result of the issues that the Member raises.
Julie James: The Member brought this up with the Cabinet Secretary for rural affairs and the environment when she was here in the Chamber the week before recess, and they had a very comprehensive conversation between the two of them in which all of those issues were well covered.
Julie James: Yes, on that second one, the Cabinet Secretary for health has made it more than plain that we have absolutely no intention at all of charging for any treatment or care received in Wales for any asylum seeker, including those who have failed to get leave to remain. Welsh Government guidance to NHS Wales sets that out very clearly, and I applaud that policy for the reasons that Mike Hedges set...
Julie James: Yes, on that second one, I think we'd be very glad to bring forward a debate on the state of prisons as a result of that report. Those of us who have prisons in our constituencies, and I'm one of them, know very well from visiting what the conditions are like and what the problems are. It's long been our Government's ambition to have criminal justice devolved to Wales and one of the very...
Julie James: Thank you for that. It's obviously a very important point. We've just announced the appointment of the new older person's commissioner, actually, and I'm sure the new commissioner will be taking a keen interest in this as well. The responsibility is spread amongst a number of Cabinet colleagues, so I will ensure that there's a co-ordinated response and we'll write to the Member with where the...
Julie James: Yes, I think Joyce Watson makes a very good point, as she always does speak up for the survivors of these sorts of outrages. We will continue our ambitious plan to improve the response to all victims of abuse and to ensure that, across all our public services, there are highly skilled, prepared professionals, ready and able to offer survivors the help and support they need. We put survivors...
