Suzy Davies: Thank you very much for that. As you know, there are a fair few ports in my region, and one of the opportunities for Wales if we leave the EU could be the development of free ports, as they would allow for goods to be imported to parts of Wales, stored or manufactured into finished products, and then exported, all without taxes and tariffs. Of course, we have free ports in the UK already....
Suzy Davies: Thank you for those remarks just then, I thought they were very useful, and I'm also looking forward to the White Paper. In the meantime though, in 2016 you announced a five-point plan to support bus routes, offering all bus companies in Wales assistance through Business Wales and Finance Wales, and, at the same time, you called upon—as you've done again today—local authorities to make...
Suzy Davies: 3. What discussions has the Counsel General held regarding the role of Welsh ports after Brexit? OAQ54001
Suzy Davies: Will the Minister make a statement on the role of the M4 in developing the economy of South Wales West?
Suzy Davies: Thank you very much—diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. That was a very full statement, and I appreciate your answers today. But, in response to what you were saying to John Griffiths, it's my understanding that the Welsh Government's responsibility for human rights and equality cuts across all Government departments. This isn't just a matter for the Assembly, and one of the things that perhaps I want...
Suzy Davies: Thank you very much, Minister. I'm sure, like everybody in this Chamber, actually, we come across teachers who still tell us that workload is one of the main issues for them and the update we've had today will help us understand and perhaps ask them whether they've had the kind of support that you've just been talking about in the schools in which they teach, because I suppose one of the...
Suzy Davies: Thank you for the question today, Carwyn Jones, and your response, Minister. Can I just begin by saying, though, that I think if we overplay the Brexit hand in any conversations of this nature, we're going to reach a point where we're blaming everything on Brexit and not really being able to evaluate the effect of Brexit? So, while I'm prepared to accept that there may be an element of this,...
Suzy Davies: Well, I think that our learners of Welsh are an under-utilised resource in Wales. And, as we know, not all adults living in Wales will have been through the Wales school system. For many of them, their first approach to perhaps learning some Welsh will be through the Learn Welsh website, and I was surprised to see that the disparity between the availability of taster sessions—specifically...
Suzy Davies: Right, well, Minister, that's two questions you haven't answered now. I have read the Cardiff University briefing, as you clearly have. I just wanted to know what you thought, and I do want to know what you think about this situation generally regarding unpaid loans, which effectively become Government grants, and what you think Wales could do to improve the situation in a way that doesn't...
Suzy Davies: What a warm answer. I wasn't suggesting for a second that we should be following England's lead in this. I just wondered what the impact or what you thought the impact would be on Welsh universities of this particular review, and I don't think I've learned any more from this. One thing that Augar does say, though, in his review is that there are already differences between the nations'...
Suzy Davies: Diolch, Llywydd. Good afternoon, Minister. I see that you're going to be meeting your Scottish and UK Government higher education ministerial colleagues shortly—you may have already done it, I don't know—to discuss Brexit and the findings of the Augar review. The issue, of course, of funding post-16 education is devolved, but the systems in all these nations support competition between...
Suzy Davies: Minister, can I just ask why we're still in this rather ridiculous position of fire service co-responders not being called out to amber incidents, when of course they can prevent those calls escalating into red status calls through delay, or in some cases negate the need for having an ambulance or hospital admission at all? I have to say, this fight about who pays for the calls isn't a good...
Suzy Davies: First Minister, in March I called on your environment Minister to consider, along with the rest of your Cabinet, the environmental reasons, as well as the economic reasons, for assisting Tata Steel to create its own local energy supply, through a proposed state-of-the-art power station. At the time, I was told that the environment Minister and the economy Minister would be having a joint...
Suzy Davies: No, I realise—. Thank you for taking the intervention a little later on. In your opening remarks, you said that you thought the people of Wales would be happy enough that Wales had caught up with the rest of the UK. Are you sure that that's not a bit of a low ambition, when, actually, we should have been using this opportunity of devolution to make Wales soar and not just catch up very...
Suzy Davies: Now, unlike Israel or the US, our culture doesn't accept failure as the next step towards success, and I think that's unhelpful; it depresses wealth creation. But, when you are using my constituents' money to back a horse, you'd better know how to read a form book. It's your record that we are not confident about on this. You might find that simplifying and improving access to small business...
Suzy Davies: As I note that we still haven't had sight of the report on kukd.com yet, I think I'll begin with the First Minister’s response to last week’s FMQs when he accused my party of not being prepared to take risks when it came to supporting businesses. I think he forgot he was talking to the Conservatives. This is the very group that been exhorting this Government for years and years to be...
Suzy Davies: Minister, two months ago I asked you about your 20 Welsh for Business officers and your helpline, and you said that you thought—quote—that you needed to do more marketing in this area, and I agree with you 100 per cent, particularly in my own region. Now, in the new financial year, how much new work are those officials carrying out, and how many new enquiries has the helpline had as a...
Suzy Davies: Thank you very much for that, Minister, because as you have oversight of this, I'm sure you'll bear in mind that budget decisions are supposed to give regard to the principles of equality and, of course, bear in mind the 2050 target for 1 million Welsh speakers. So, can you tell me what discussions you've had with the Minister for Education about financial support for those who can deliver...
Suzy Davies: Minister, there's a difference between looking at something as a discretionary rate relief and something that, actually, should be hidden from public view. Within my own region, there seems to be some confusion about how this is awarded, with, I understand, two of the councils in my region proactively seeking out businesses that could benefit from this, advising them and then administering...
Suzy Davies: 6. Will the Minister make a statement on the Welsh Government's approach to budget monitoring and management? OAQ53923
