Adam Price: ...Lis? One can only begin to comprehend the grief that that family must be experiencing, and our thoughts and prayers are with them, with Jack's friends, with the community and with the staff of the school, who I know are also terribly affected by this awful tragedy. First Minister, in the last week, a majority of Members of Parliament in the House of Commons voted to overturn the verdict...
Adam Price: ...from the WHO today, urging the Welsh Government not to vaccinate under-18-year-olds and actually to prioritise sharing vaccination with higher risk adults in lower income countries? In relation to schools as well, I was wondering if you could say a little bit more about your current state of thinking in relation to the wearing of masks in classrooms, and indeed how does what I've just I've...
Adam Price: ...capacity with a specific agency. If you don't go down that path, how are you going to deliver on that? May I just refer to child poverty, and specifically the concerns with regard to free school meals? This was a major theme in our campaign in Plaid Cymru. You've referred to the review of free school meals. Could you give us more detail on that? With regard to the economy then, you...
Adam Price: ...year, of course, and a sector where there is a strong Welsh connection and roots stretching back almost as far the Prince's own lifespan. Prince Philip, as is well known, was a pupil at two of the schools of renowned German educator Kurt Hahn, first at the Schloss Salem school in Baden-Württemberg, and then, after the Nazis gained power, in Gordonstoun in Scotland. The core of Hahn's...
Adam Price: ...us all through these dark days. I would like to thank them all from the bottom of my heart, to all the workers in the health service; the care workers; unpaid carers; teachers, who have maintained education remotely; the police force, who have put themselves at risk to ensure that the regulations are maintained for the benefit of all of us; our transport workers; those working in shops and...
Adam Price: ...wage for carers now is a headline policy for you going into the election. I'm personally glad we've persuaded you, I'm just sorry that, like with so many other policies—the north Wales medical school, the devolution of justice, and the youth job guarantee—it took so long. But in that spirit of belated reconsideration and at your last possible opportunity in the Senedd before the...
Adam Price: ...in Wales, have written to you, asking you to commit to a cross-Government strategy to reduce these inequalities, addressing the deeper social determinants of ill health, poor housing, gaps in educational opportunity and the prior pandemic of poverty that has scarred too many people in Wales for far too long. The announcement that you just referred to—the creation of a living memorial to...
Adam Price: ...future beyond COVID, and to focus on the major challenges facing our nation and our world and the numerous crisis of our age: the climate and biodiversity crisis, as we've heard; transforming the education system in order to secure social transformation and to deliver the potential of everyone; and changing attitudes towards and strengthening mental health provision. On the basis of your...
Adam Price: ..., from the Welsh language to sustainability, actually hinders delivery. And whilst budgets are tight, the inability to work creatively and to implement policies such as the expansion of free school meals—as we heard again in the budget debate—which would bring clear benefits in so many areas and possible savings too, even after the child poverty review stated that this was the one...
Adam Price: Well, the Labour activists I've quoted are critical of your party's final policy document, which I have seen, because it does not commit to extending free school meals—the very policy you've been attacking me on for these last few weeks. It seems I'm now closer to Labour values than you are. The document contains few new ideas, but at least some new admissions. In it, Labour Party members,...
Adam Price: ...is looking at what can be done beyond the immediate, turned into a concrete plan of action. Many people working in this field are pointing out that Wales has the least generous provision for free school meals across the UK. Your Government's policy, as the child poverty action group has pointed out, means that 70,000 children living below the poverty line in Wales are currently excluded,...
Adam Price: ...'s policy, they're in line with what we in Plaid Cymru and others have been advocating. The report highlights, and I quote, that 'many of those in need' are not eligible currently for free school meals, and its central finding, as it goes on to say, is that: 'The most common suggestion was the need to expand eligibility for FSM to a wider range of children and young people.' First...
Adam Price: ...who needs it gets it. In relation to your point about finite resources, we need to be smart, so we need policies that deliver more than one objective. And so you can see, with universal free school meals, if you link it, for example, with the foundational economy—a square meal produced within the square mile, the foundation phase and the foundational economy, ensuring local procurement,...
Adam Price: First Minister, as you are aware, the Scottish Government has recently committed to universal free school meals for all primary school children. In 1943, Finland introduced a law clearly requiring free school meals to be served to all children, a policy that is in place still today. And as the Finnish experience has shown—we've modelled much of our education system on them, and actually...
Adam Price: Diolch, Llywydd. The UK Prime Minister has repeatedly scored own goals by only partially and belatedly heeding Marcus Rashford's call to provide free schools meals in England. While the Conservative Government has an ideological objection to helping the most vulnerable in society, in Wales, we have a moral obligation. Providing free school meals is one of the best ways of mitigating the worst...
Adam Price: Thank you for that, First Minister. In the TAC advice that I just referred to, they do say that a period of pre-isolation for families with children, as a result of school closures, could reduce the level of social mixing ahead of the 23 to 28 December period, and therefore have a beneficial effect in terms of saving lives. Are you considering this as an option, First Minister, and if you...
Adam Price: Diolch, Llywydd. First Minister, a study recently published by researchers at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine has found that mass testing in Slovakia, which we've discussed before, coupled with other measures—additional support for people who are self-isolating—brought the infection rate down by 60 per cent, which is considerably higher than the impact of the recent...
Adam Price: On 4 September, First Minister, SAGE warned that there was a significant risk that higher education could amplify local and national transmission of COVID-19. The risk, they said, required national oversight, and once again, they identified testing as critically important. On 15 July, you said, 'Today we can carry out 15,000 tests a day.' On Sunday, you said, '15,000 is not a sustainable...
Adam Price: ...and could definitely be communicated better, particularly for students who've moved to a different country with different regulations. So, can you answer these specific questions? To what extent is education exempt from rules allowing students to form new households? Can students studying and living in a restricted area in Wales but who live elsewhere return home? Can students studying and...
Adam Price: The forecasting team at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine are reporting currently their estimate, as of 11 September, of the R figure for Wales as being 1.43, which would put Wales as having the highest rate of growth currently in the UK and a doubling time of just over six days. Do you recognise those estimates, First Minister? If not, what are the Welsh Government's latest...
