Darren Millar: ..., Minister. It's precisely what I would have expected you to say. One thing I am concerned about is the focus that we seem to have in Wales on protecting younger children going in and out of the school premises in terms of safer routes to school and the active travel routes that are being developed. I've seen significant investment in those in recent years in my own constituency, and...
Darren Millar: 2. Will the Minister make a statement on safety in and around school premises? OQ57506
Darren Millar: ...the horrors of the Holocaust and all genocides since, and Holocaust Memorial Day helps us to do just that. I want to pay tribute as well to the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust and to the Holocaust Education Trust for the work that they do, not only on Holocaust Memorial Day, but all year round, to promote remembrance of these things. Because they don't only offer us an opportunity to consider...
Darren Millar: I'll be voting against the Welsh Government's relationships and sexuality education code today. As the Minister will be well aware from debates that were held in the previous Senedd, I regard parents as the primary educators of their children, not the state, and I believe that the Welsh Government's removal of the parental right to withdraw their children from sex education lessons was a...
Darren Millar: ...a priority for the Welsh Government. We believe that you have got far bigger fish to fry, frankly, with getting our economy back on track, getting our health service back on track, and getting our education system back on track after the pandemic. But, you haven't listened to that advice. You have gone ahead and established your commission anyway, which I think is disappointing....
Darren Millar: Can I ask what action the Welsh Government is taking on home-to-school transport? Obviously, one way in order to get towards a net-zero situation is to promote public transport as a means of getting people to and from school, but too many people are obviously using their cars to ferry children to and from school at the moment. And yet, the current home-to-school transport arrangements don't...
Darren Millar: ...resources to be able to do the real work that people want you to get on with, which is to sort out the backlog in our NHS, get to grips with the problems in our economy, and deliver the catch-up education that young people across Wales desperately need. Just in terms of the appointment of the co-chairs, I very much welcome the appointment of Rowan Williams. I think that that’s a very...
Darren Millar: ...of her personal passion to want to get to grips with the problems that we've had in our young people's mental health services over the years, and I was a member of the Children, Young People and Education Committee when it produced its 'Mind over matter' report. And I'm very much hoping that the Minister will be able to address many of the concerns that, unfortunately, we all know, are...
Darren Millar: ...to ensure that we can have a handle on getting to grips with the catch-up programme that needs to take place for those young people, for those children, across Wales who lost out so dearly on their education during the pandemic?
Darren Millar: 7. Will the Minister provide an update on education catch-up post pandemic? OQ56966
Darren Millar: Thank you for the business statement. Can I call for two Government statements, please—the first from the Minister for education on the availability or unavailability of examination certificates from the WJEC? I've been contacted by a constituent this week who's very eager to embark on a nursing degree, but has had to put it off twice because he is unable to access the copies of his...
Darren Millar: ...priorities, such as getting to grips with the economic recovery, making sure that our NHS is able to cope with the backlog that it now has as a result of the pandemic, and, indeed, helping our schools and education system to recover from COVID as well. But, given that you've made this statement, I would just ask a number of questions today about it. First of all, you've said that 'from the...
Darren Millar: ...University Health Board, and was told that, because of the staycation market being so significant, and north Wales being such a top destination, they've currently got—and this is outside of the school summer holidays—two wards full of people from outside of Wales occupying beds within the region. That obviously displaces the availability of healthcare for local residents, and is a...
Darren Millar: ...period with the pandemic, we've got people waiting—one in three people on a waiting list waiting over a year for their treatment—when we've got schoolchildren having to play catch-up with their education? Don't you think that these are the matters that the people of Wales want the Welsh Government to get to grips with, rather than talking about tinkering with the constitution, which...
Darren Millar: Minister, can I thank you for your statement? You made reference to outdoor education centres and the opportunities now that can be afforded to primary school children as a result of some of the changes that you've made. I've been contacted by the head of the Army Cadet Force in north Wales, who has said that unfortunately these ongoing restrictions will affect around 1,000 cadets in Wales,...
Darren Millar: ...the Senedd to look at a whole range of issues that are of critical importance to the people of Wales, but instead of choosing to focus on those other important issues like our health service, our schools, our economy, they have decided instead to start the new parliamentary term with a proposal that was overwhelmingly rejected at the recent Senedd elections, an election in which Plaid...
Darren Millar: ...hear that you have referred to the need for JCVI advice on this, because, of course, some parents are concerned that mandating or requiring the use of the vaccine could be something that individual schools will insist upon around Wales. What assurances can you give to parents that children will not be vaccinated without their permission? And what discussions have you had with your Cabinet...
Darren Millar: ...-being and the well-being of staff. But concerns have been raised by many young people and their parents with me regarding the ongoing requirement to wear face masks and face coverings in secondary schools in Wales. Given that there has been a significant change across the border in England and that that requirement no longer is there, what consideration has the Welsh Government given to...
Darren Millar: ...single-use plastics ban in Wales and will also deliver a clean air Act for our country. We are a party with solutions to Wales's problems. We want to see more jobs, better hospitals and first-class schools. So, I encourage everybody in this Chamber today—this virtual Chamber—to vote for our motion and to send that message out to the people of Wales that the choice is before them and...
Darren Millar: ..., there's Betsi, in my own backyard, languishing in special measures for the longest time of any NHS organisation in history and still with problems that are yet to be resolved. If you look at education, people have already made reference to the fact that Wales has the worst performing education system in the whole of the United Kingdom, as far as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation...
