Altaf Hussain: Minister, it is tough to imagine what the workplace of tomorrow will be like. If someone had said this time last year that artificial intelligence would pass the interview for a level 3 programme engineer at Google, we would have thought them crazy, but that is exactly what ChatGPT did just a few days ago. The swift rise of artificial intelligence brings a whole new set of challenges for the...
Altaf Hussain: Thank you for your statement, Deputy Minister. We broadly welcome the LGBTQ+ action plan for Wales, as well as its introduction during LGBTQ+ History Month. We have come a long way in ensuring equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people. The mistakes of the past, such as section 11 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885, which saw thousands of men prosecuted in the 1950s...
Altaf Hussain: Minister, the provision of step-down care is vital if we are to tackle the ever-growing waiting times experienced by patients in my region and across Wales. Of course, if a previous Welsh Government had not closed community hospitals and overseen the removal of over 10,000 beds from our NHS, we might not be in this predicament today. However, what is important now is that step-down care is...
Altaf Hussain: Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer. Great achievement, Minister. Now, people from deprived areas of Wales face worse outcomes when it comes to lung cancer, ovarian cancer or other cancers, and my concern is, which was raised by Laura as well, about the screening—targeted screening—between the age of 55 to 74, as we do with bowel cancer. And it is vital to understand and address...
Altaf Hussain: Minister, the fact that we don’t always have a smooth transition between healthcare and social care has placed our NHS under a tremendous burden. Nowhere is this more evident than in end-of-life care. At the cross-party group on hospices and palliative care last week, we heard that accessing out-of-hours services was diabolical. A carer took over 20 hours to get through to the 111 service...
Altaf Hussain: Minister, we all accept the need to decarbonise our steel industry. While the funding being offered by the UK Government to Tata to move to electric arc furnaces is welcome, an alternative has emerged in the past few days. Scientists at the University of Birmingham have developed a process to radically reduce emissions from a traditional blast furnace. This technology converts carbon dioxide...
Altaf Hussain: Thank you, Minister. I was really disturbed to read the comments of Detective Superintendent Gareth Rees, the right-wing terrorism lead at counter-terrorism policing, who said that there has been an incredibly alarming rise in teenagers involved with neo-Nazi groups and far-right extremism. His comments came following the conviction of a Cardiff man for belonging to a banned far-right group...
Altaf Hussain: 3. What action is the Welsh Government taking to tackle extremist views amongst young people? OQ59064
Altaf Hussain: What action is the Welsh Government taking to increase surgical capacity in the Welsh NHS?
Altaf Hussain: Thank you, Minister. It's not just in public spaces that women do not feel safe. Even in the House of Commons Chamber, women face vile misogyny. Labour MP Rosie Duffield, during a recent speech on the Scottish gender reform Bill, was subject to vile abuse from fellow Labour MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle, who later went on to abuse every woman who raised concerns about the Bill. His actions should...
Altaf Hussain: Thank you for that response, Minister. If only the WRU could be more like the FAW, who are to be congratulated for bringing in equal pay for male and female footballers. Of course, it behoves all of us to tackle misogyny head on. Chwarae Teg recently launched a petition aimed at making public spaces safer for women after the UN Women national committee UK found that 71 per cent of women in...
Altaf Hussain: Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. Minister, on Monday, allegations about rampant sexism and misogyny at the WRU resurfaced. We watched as harrowing tales unfolded of women who had contemplated suicide as a result of sexist bullying. All the while, senior management failed to take any action at all. In the programme, Charlotte Wathan, who was hired by the WRU to help transform women’s...
Altaf Hussain: Thank you for your statement, Minister. Friday marks the seventy-eighth anniversary of the day that Auschwitz, the largest Nazi death camp, was liberated by Soviet forces; 1.1 million people were murdered at that camp, nine out of every 10 of whom were Jewish. This is why 27 January is chosen to mark Holocaust Memorial Day. Why do we each year remember this Holocaust? It reminds us to learn...
Altaf Hussain: Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. I would like to thank my colleague, Janet, for introducing this important debate. In the midst of an energy crisis caused by Putin’s illegal war, and with dire warnings that 2023 will be the hottest on record as a result of climate change, it is right that we look to foment a green energy revolution in Wales. The war in Ukraine has vividly underlined the need for...
Altaf Hussain: Thank you, Minister. Without bees and other pollinators, we would starve. And if we are to avoid the fate of farmers in the US, who have to rely upon bees being transported by lorries over large distances, we have to ensure bee-friendly corridors across all of Wales. Next week I'll be planting a blossom tree as part of the National Trust's blossom project. Minister, will you encourage farmers...
Altaf Hussain: Minister, surely the best way for local government to support their residents is for them to avoid hikes in council taxes. Rising energy costs due to Putin's illegal war and rising food costs as a result of the pandemic and climate change are impacting households hard. The last thing they need are excessive tax hikes. Minister, will you urge restrain among your local authority colleagues,...
Altaf Hussain: 1. What action is the Welsh Government taking to make Wales pollinator friendly? OQ58955
Altaf Hussain: I would like to request a statement from the Minister for Climate Change on actions the Welsh Government are taking to accelerate energy efficiency improvements to Wales's social housing stock. Recently, Friends of the Earth Cymru unveiled their list of the coldest neighbourhoods in Wales. They calculated the energy crisis hotspots using statistics on consumption and fuel price. These results...
Altaf Hussain: I would like to thank my colleague Joel James for tabling this important debate today. It also is a timely debate, coming as it does during Love Your Liver Awareness Month, as well as during a liver disease public health emergency. We know that the number of people aged 65 and under dying from liver disease has grown by a staggering 400 per cent. Nine out of 10 of those deaths are...
Altaf Hussain: Thank you, Minister. Last week, the retiring managing director of Sony Bridgend said that Wales needs to be more innovative, and that the key to our success will be in educating, nurturing and retaining talent here in Wales. Mr Dalton believes that manufacturing in Wales has a great future if we can only learn to innovate, develop green technologies and focus on untouched markets outside the...
