Gareth Bennett: Diolch, Llywydd. Minister, if I could take you back to the Brexit issues that you were talking about a few minutes ago, in September of this year you said, speaking about workers' rights, that, and I quote: 'In Wales we have always said, since the referendum, that all the rights we've won through our membership of the European Union must be protected. If the Tories cannot deliver a Brexit...
Gareth Bennett: Thanks, Minister, for your statement today. Just a couple of points to raise. Vaccination has been mentioned a couple of times. You describe in your statement that you're now encouraging social care staff to get vaccinated, which is a good development. There was an issue a couple of years ago that there was actually a less than 50 per cent take-up of the flu vaccination from within the NHS...
Gareth Bennett: Yes, you say it prepares them better, but it also hinders them from getting onto the top courses. Now, you wanted—[Interruption.] You wanted evidence, so listen to some evidence. We know from freedom of information requests that in 2017 Oxford and Cambridge universities made 153 conditional offers to Welsh-domiciled students, none of which included the Welsh bac. Imperial College London...
Gareth Bennett: Yes, I thought you would probably endorse it, so thank you for the answer. I have to say that you didn't tell us why you think that, but perhaps that will become—[Interruption.] I didn't ask. That may perhaps become clearer as we progress. I have to say—[Interruption.] I have to say, the majority of students doing the A-level version of the Welsh bac probably don't agree with your...
Gareth Bennett: Diolch, Llywydd. First Minister, one of the early policies enacted by the Welsh Government was to introduce a new educational qualification, the Welsh baccalaureate, or 'Welsh bac', as it is known. The Welsh bac has come under criticism, so do you still believe it has been a worthwhile addition to the national curriculum in Wales?
Gareth Bennett: Again, you mentioned in your statement a few weeks ago that you saw a big role for small and medium-sized enterprises in providing housing. Of course, they haven't played a major role in the housing sector in Wales in recent years, so I'm glad that you've again mentioned that today. And what you've said in that response was again encouraging. Are there any other specific incentives that...
Gareth Bennett: Thanks for the response, and it's encouraging that you are taking on this as an ongoing project, and, also, involving other parts of the public sector. There is also a UK Government scheme, whereby they're getting local councils in England to compile a register of all their available brownfield sites—the idea being that this will make it easier for developers to know what land is...
Gareth Bennett: Diolch, Llywydd. Good afternoon, again, Minister, and apologies if my first question sounds somewhat familiar, but the record didn't pick it up so I will rehearse it again. We have had some events today commemorating Carl Sargeant, who did much good work as your predecessor as the housing and communities Minister. I've just been looking through the file of questions from when I used to...
Gareth Bennett: Diolch, Llywydd. Good afternoon, Minister. There are some events commemorating Carl Sargeant, your Welsh Government predecessor as the housing Minister. Of course, he did many good things in that field. I've just gone through a file of questions that I asked—[Inaudible.]—and I see that—[Inaudible.]. I was specifically asking on that date about the use of publicly owned land in Wales...
Gareth Bennett: No thanks.
Gareth Bennett: What does intrigue me is the issue of free speech. We now seem to have—[Interruption.] Thanks, Alun. We now seem to have a situation where the concept of free speech seems to clash with minority rights. So, the political left, far from championing people's liberty to speak and broadcast their opinions, are now trying to clamp down on this and get people who say the wrong things prosecuted....
Gareth Bennett: No, not today, thank you, Neil. Some commentators would claim that President Trump is indeed attempting to roll back human rights protections in the USA. But to me he is simply trying to protect the USA's southern border from illegal immigration. I'm not sure I would agree that trying to implement an immigration policy that has been constitutionally agreed by the federal Government and its...
Gareth Bennett: Thanks to the Counsel General for bringing today's debate and to the Wales Equality and Human Rights Commission for their annual review. We in UKIP note the efforts to bring more disabled people into the workplace and bring more apprenticeships to women and ethnic minorities, among other laudable objectives that are outlined in the report. We have a number of amendments today—one from...
Gareth Bennett: Thanks to the Minister for bringing her Bill to this stage today. UKIP agrees with the general principles of the Bill. We've spoken in the past of our wish to ban unwarranted letting agency fees and this Bill does address that issue as part of its general thrust of making it easier for tenants in the private rented sector. Yes, there are currently many unwarranted fees. Leanne Wood mentioned...
Gareth Bennett: Yes, First Minister, I thought you would do you your usual thing and trumpet on about all of the foreign nationals working in the NHS. And, of course, you normally add how Brexit will be threatening the health service. However, BBC research revealed that, as of September 2016, just 2.5 per cent of all NHS staff in Wales are from the European Union. In fact, more than 93 per cent of staff...
Gareth Bennett: Clearly, your assessment of your Government's performance isn't really shared by the people of Wales, but one key issue that is clearly having a detrimental impact on the NHS is health tourism and immigration. [Interruption.] Yes. The UK Government has estimated that treating health tourists costs up to £300 million a year. There is also the pressure caused by mass immigration. The...
Gareth Bennett: Diolch, Llywydd. First Minister, for the next financial year, it has been forecast that just over half of the Welsh Government's entire budget will be spent on health. However, when we look at opinion polls, it's clear that the Welsh people don't think that the NHS is working in Wales. In May 2014, after 15 years of the Welsh Assembly, the BBC and ICM Research asked people if having the...
Gareth Bennett: Thanks to the committee Chairman for bringing today's debate. Mike Hedges raised the issue of how much regulation we need in this part of the housing market, and of course we have to be careful not to overregulate, but I think he made a good case that we need a certain level of regulation to deal with the issue of old houses and their lack of energy efficiency. So, low-carbon housing is one...
Gareth Bennett: Of course, yes.
Gareth Bennett: That's very encouraging, and thanks for enlightening us. I hope that system can be rolled out further across the prison system in Wales. In UKIP, we support some things that the Government is saying, like the privatisation of the probation service isn't really a principle that we necessarily agree with, and we don't think, looking at it, that it looks to have been much of a success. So, we...
