Mark Isherwood: Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board stated last Thursday that 'No vaccines will go to waste as we're using a standby list created in accordance with the national priority groups.' However, many Flintshire residents have contacted me concerned otherwise. One said, 'A neighbour had a knock on the door from a new resident who said every day there are spare vaccinations as many people were...
Mark Isherwood: In focusing on the need to support palliative care in the pandemic, our motion both acknowledges the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on those providing end-of-life care and those who are terminally ill and their loved ones, and recognises the vital importance of high-quality palliative care and bereavement support services. Palliative and end-of-life care has never been as important as now....
Mark Isherwood: People in Sandycroft, Mancot and Pentre launched a petition after storm Christoph caused serious flooding, ruining their homes for the second time in 18 months, causing heartache and devastation. The petition states that the 'drainage systems & ditches are poorly maintained and not fit for purpose, because of this people are suffering disastrous consequences & flooding in to their homes....
Mark Isherwood: Will the Minister make a statement on the evaluation of Rent Smart Wales?
Mark Isherwood: Well, in seeking this Senedd's agreement to the General Principles of the Welsh Elections (Coronavirus) Bill, the Welsh Government is essentially asking us to recycle the points and arguments made when we debated and agreed for the introduction of this Government emergency Bill just one week ago. As I then stated, an emergency Bill, 'streamlines the Senedd's law-making and accountability...
Mark Isherwood: We will be supporting the first and final of these amendment regulations. We also recognise the beneficial impact for most small businesses of the intervening proposed amendment regulation. However, we also recognise that its broader proposals to increase land transaction tax for second homes applies to a lot more than just holiday homes in a small number of high-demand areas and risk serious...
Mark Isherwood: Despite, or, some might argue, because of, 22 years of so-called and self-described progressive Labour Welsh Government policies, Wales has retained the highest poverty and lowest pay rates of all the UK nations, and, even before coronavirus, almost a quarter of people in Wales were in poverty, living, quote, 'precarious and insecure lives'. These findings are all taken from independent...
Mark Isherwood: I call for a Welsh Government statement on shopping arrangements for blind and partially sighted people. Welsh Government officials, I understand, are working with supermarkets to improve their coronavirus safety measures. Proposed measures include systems to manage the number of customers in store, more visible signage and hygiene stations, and increased social distancing markers. RNIB Cymru...
Mark Isherwood: It is a Welsh Government formula.
Mark Isherwood: Because the formula has such wide anomalies, it needs a Government to take leadership, because you can never have agreement between winners and losers within the WLGA. Under your Welsh Government's provisional local government settlement, north Wales councils are again losing out with an average 3.4 per cent increase compared to 4.1 per cent in south Wales and 5.6 per cent for top place,...
Mark Isherwood: As you will remember, the EU withdrawal Bill, which received legislative consent from this Senedd, agreed that UK-wide frameworks to replace the EU rulebook will be freely negotiated between the four UK Governments in many areas, some of which you mentioned, and also including, for example, food, animal welfare and the environment. As your colleague the Minister for environment and rural...
Mark Isherwood: 7. Will the Counsel General provide an update on the progress of the UK common frameworks? OQ56171
Mark Isherwood: When the Welsh Government seeks to introduce an emergency Bill on the grounds that it needs to be enacted more quickly than the Senedd's usual legislative process allows, this essentially streamlines the Senedd's law-making and accountability processes. It should, therefore, only be used when there's a real and unforeseen emergency. The Welsh Government has only used this method of...
Mark Isherwood: Diolch, Llywydd. Am I on? Yes.
Mark Isherwood: Thank you. Well, a single north Wales council continues to insist that legitimate self-catering businesses that do not meet all three Welsh Government criteria for the payment of business and lockdown non-domestic rate grants to holiday letting businesses are ineligible, leaving several struggling, telling me that their position is based on a telephone conversation with a Welsh Government...
Mark Isherwood: 3. How is the Welsh Government supporting self-catering businesses in North Wales during the pandemic? OQ56166
Mark Isherwood: Well, the gap between the supply of vaccines and the capacity to deploy those vaccinations in Wales is causing particular concern when it comes to police officers. Responding to you last week, I referred to calls by the North Wales Police Federation for policing to be considered for some—not full, but some—priority on the COVID-19 vaccination programme. Many current and former North Wales...
Mark Isherwood: Am I open? Yes. We will support these regulations to prevent the enforcement of evictions in Wales except in the most serious circumstances as a public health response to transmission of the COVID-19 virus, extending the suspension on eviction enforcement to 31 March. However, unlike in England, there's no exemption to the ban for those with over six months of arrears, which is relevant,...
Mark Isherwood: I call for a Welsh Government statement on COVID-19 vaccination for police officers. Responding to you last week, I referred to calls by the North Wales Police Federation for policing to be considered for some priority on the COVID-19 vaccination programme. Instead, the health Minister, Vaughan Gething, subsequently told me, quote, 'There is a real impact to moving occupational staff groups...
Mark Isherwood: Unlike England, where it's mandatory for schools to deliver a minimum amount of remote learning a day, overseen by school inspectors, there's no legal duty on schools in Wales to deliver a minimum amount of online teaching, and school inspectors are not overseeing this here. As reported today, the Future Generations Commissioner for Wales not only described online education in Wales while...
