Nick Ramsay: Will the Minister provide an update on the Welsh Government's policies for modernising local government?
Nick Ramsay: It's a positive point. I heard about your visit to Monmouthshire and I'm very pleased that you saw that. I think there's some really good innovative stuff going on not just there, but across Wales in terms of using tv signals and other things. Monmouthshire is also being used as the 5G test bed, which, I'm sure you'd agree, is another good innovation and hopefully we can get that rolled out...
Nick Ramsay: First Minister, I agree with much of what you've just said there with regard to the importance of private companies signing up to the code and their role in delivering the living wage. Can I also add my congratulations to those that other Members have given to Cardiff as the first living wage city? That's important not just for Cardiff but also for the city region area. However, Cynnal Cymru...
Nick Ramsay: I have to beat that. [Laughter.] Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. How do you beat that? This week marks another anniversary—the seventieth anniversary of my home town, the designation of Cwmbran as a new town, the first and only mark one new town to be built in Wales under the New Towns Act 1946. Growing up in the 1980s in the Llanyrafon area of the town, on the western edge of the Monmouth...
Nick Ramsay: Thank you for that answer, Minister. You will no doubt be aware—or certainly your colleague Ken Skates is aware—of ongoing issues with flooding on the A4042 at Llanellen, particularly at this time of year. The road was closed again during the recent bad weather, causing traffic chaos for commuters. I'm particularly concerned that this route is going to be even more critical when accident...
Nick Ramsay: 2. Will the Minister provide an update on measures to improve the A4042 trunk road at Llanellen? OAQ54622
Nick Ramsay: Can I thank the Minister for her statement this afternoon and for the annual update—the latest, as you say, in a sequence of updates? As you said, local services are vital in giving children the best start in life, helping give us a greener, more responsible environment and lead more responsible lives—I think we could all agree with that phrase that you use. And, yes, I would agree with...
Nick Ramsay: I'm pleased to contribute to this debate today. Diolch yn fawr, Siân, for opening. I think it's a sad indictment of the times in which we live that reports of hate crimes against LGBT people in England and Wales have rocketed according to new data, which was just mentioned, compiled by the Home Office and other organisations. In fact, looking at the statistics, I think that I'm right in...
Nick Ramsay: Minister, in yesterday's business statement, I raised the issue of a constituent, Mr Jim Sweet, whose wife passed away on the day she was going to begin treatment for stage 4 ovarian cancer—clearly, a very sensitive issue. There are many people involved, many people suffering from ovarian cancer in Wales, and part of the problem with this cancer is that early diagnosis before stage 4 is...
Nick Ramsay: Minister, I think the fact we are able to discuss this previously taboo subject in the open and transparent way we do shows how far we've come as a country, and I think that's to be welcomed. We, of course, in this Chamber have our own direct experience of losing our much loved colleague, Carl Sargeant, in this tragic way, so I think there's an onus on all of us to do what we can to try and...
Nick Ramsay: Will the Minister outline the Welsh Government's policies for supporting house-bound patients?
Nick Ramsay: Diolch, Presiding Officer, and—
Nick Ramsay: thank you for your statement, Minister.
Nick Ramsay: I'm still trying to think about your staycation in Wales comment earlier, given that you gave a competition. The best I could come up with was 'Cymrucation', but that's a weird amalgamation, isn't it, of two languages, and probably doesn't work? Anyway, can I just ask you about your statement and two issues in my area that you're well versed with because I've raised them many times:...
Nick Ramsay: Trefnydd, I recently hosted a charity quiz night—one of my other hats—to raise funds for research into ovarian cancer in Wales. This came about after a constituent case, a constituent whose wife died on the very day she was supposed to start treatment for cancer. She was already at stage 4, due to repeated misdiagnosis earlier on in the stages of cancer, over many months. I had a meeting...
Nick Ramsay: Caroline, will you take an intervention?
Nick Ramsay: Like you and other AMs, I've received many representations on exactly what you just said—that there's an inconsistency across Wales in terms of the applications for the blue badge scheme. So, I thought that the recommendation for putting it on a statutory basis was a very good idea, so I'd also be interested in what response you get to that query.
Nick Ramsay: Very much following a similar vein to John Griffiths's question, Minister, one of the challenges, I'm sure you'll agree, in delivering Welsh-medium education, particularly in the larger rural authorities, is the travel time from home to school. I'm pleased that Monmouthshire County Council is progressing with plans for a new second Welsh-medium education school in the north-east or north of...
Nick Ramsay: I look forward to the publication of that data, Minister. We are now six months into the devolution of the Welsh rate of income tax—the creation of that Welsh rate— and we are, as you said, significantly longer than that into the devolution of stamp duty, now land transaction tax, and land disposal tax. So, have you made any preliminary assessment of the collection rates of those taxes,...
Nick Ramsay: Well, I see what you mean when you say that the Barnett giveth and taketh—that’s a good expression in many ways. I got the document yesterday—'Reforming our union', which featured in the First Minister’s statement—and there’s an interesting section on finance here where the First Minister or the Welsh Government recognises that the Holtham floor—the fiscal framework that came...
