Alun Davies: I'm grateful to the Minister for her statement opening this debate. I noticed that the Minister seems to be making a great deal of notes during this debate. She's always welcome, of course, whenever we're debating these things, but I'm sure she's been as shocked as I am during this debate that, having spent 10 years listening to Tories lecture us on austerity, lecture us on being very careful...
Alun Davies: I'd like to ask for a statement, if I could, from the Minister for health on the impact of COVID on the NHS workforce, specifically how people who have been infected by COVID and have continuing issues with their health, rendering them unable to work, will be cared for by the national health service. I'm thinking particularly of a constituent of mine, Steve Bell, who was working in the...
Alun Davies: If you look at the building safety LCM, a Bill could have been taken through this place in a similar timescale to that which the LCM has taken, and with scrutiny and with the option of people here voting on it. So, I'm grateful to you, Deputy Presiding Officer, for the time this afternoon, and I'm grateful to all Members who have participated in the debate. I hope that as a consequence of...
Alun Davies: I can understand that you want to make another speech rescuing your situation, but this isn't the opportunity to do that, I'm afraid. In terms of where we are, what you do of course when you scrutinise an LCM is that you scrutinise the LCM, the memorandum; you don't scrutinise the legislation, and that is the key failure of this system. It's not in any way—. I don't think you can easily...
Alun Davies: Of course, yes.
Alun Davies: Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer, and I'm grateful to everybody who took part in the debate this afternoon, with the potential exception of that somewhat bizarre contribution from Darren Millar. Deputy Presiding Officer, it's the role of oppositions to oppose Governments, usually, and to seek as many different parliamentary techniques as possible to frustrate the Government from...
Alun Davies: I'm grateful to the Minister for his statement this afternoon. You'll be aware, Minister, that I met with Banc Cambria in Abertillery some weeks ago to discuss the potential of locating a branch in the town. Many of our Valleys communities have seen the withdrawal of financial services and have seen some real hardship, both for local businesses and local people, as a consequence of that. Many...
Alun Davies: I'm grateful to the Minister for her answers. One of the issues that has been troubling me for some time, as we've come through this pandemic, has been the disappearance of children from education, and the significant increase in the number of children being educated from home. We know from tragic history that, when children are taken into the home to be educated, we can lose contact with...
Alun Davies: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I'm grateful to the Minister for the update that he's given us this afternoon. Members may remember that the committee reported on the legislative consent memorandum on 21 October and on memorandum No. 2 following our committee meeting yesterday. In our first report, we noted the points that the Minister has already referred to and the concerns that he...
Alun Davies: I recently met with Mark Hooper from Banc Cambria in Abertillery to discuss the availability of banking facilities in different parts of our communities. The Welsh Government has restated today, in its statement on the programme for government, its commitment to community banking. Would the First Minister agree with me that the priority for community banking and taking forward the launch of...
Alun Davies: It might not be a coalition, but it looks like one. I welcome the agreement. I welcome the publication of the documents today that underpin the agreement; I think that's important in terms of transparency. I welcome the politics of the agreement; I think it's a good thing to do. And I welcome the statement from the Presiding Officer this morning on the advice that she has taken. But this...
Alun Davies: Can I say I welcome that from the Minister? The Minister will have seen the same reports as I've seen and listened to the same experiences of constituents that I represent and she represents, in different parts of the country. We know that there's a real crisis in the interface between the national health service and the people it serves at the moment, and we know that at the heart of that is...
Alun Davies: 6. Will the Minister make a statement on the response time of ambulance services in Blaenau Gwent? OQ57272
Alun Davies: I'm grateful to the First Minister for that response. You will remember that, last week, I asked him about the transport services that serve the borough of Blaenau Gwent, and I want to return to that this afternoon. I'm sure he will have shared the distress of our Conservative colleagues to discover that the 'Union Connectivity Review', commissioned by the United Kingdom Government, supported...
Alun Davies: 7. Will the First Minister make a statement on the delivery of public services in Blaenau Gwent? OQ57273
Alun Davies: I wanted to say a short word in this debate this afternoon. If I look back over the years that I've served in this place, concerns about some animal shelters and rescue establishments are one thing that I saw in Mid and West Wales, and I see today in Blaenau Gwent. I see people who are genuinely distressed by the things that they have witnessed. I see people who have done their best to...
Alun Davies: —European norms. Therefore, First Minister, my question is: how do you see the operation of common frameworks, if there is a determination in UK policy—and we saw Lord Frost saying this again—that they want there to be a major turn away from EU regulations, because that will have a direct impact on the way that common frameworks operate here in Wales?
Alun Davies: Like others, I welcome the oral statement this afternoon. I welcome the opportunity to debate and discuss the issues that have arisen, both from the meetings last week but also the wider issues of relationships in these islands. Like others who have spoken this afternoon, I also agree that the council is a good opportunity for us not just to root and deepen peace in the islands of the British...
Alun Davies: Minister, over the last few months, we've seen the complete collapse of UK policy towards the European Union, and the collapse of many of the agreements made in the withdrawal agreement last year. The consequence of that may well be that article 16 is activated. This could cause enormous damage to the Welsh economy and to Welsh society. I'd be grateful therefore if the Welsh Government could...
Alun Davies: First Minister, the people of northern England discovered last week what we in Wales have known for some years—that you can't trust Tory promises when it comes to investment in infrastructure and trains and the future of connectivity in our communities. The people of England discovered last night in the House of Commons that this is a Government in London for London, that doesn't care about...
