Jane Hutt: I did speak to the Minister for Refugees this morning, Lord Richard Harrington, and I again expressed my concern about the lack of progress on visas, because we want that all of the preparations, and, indeed, our supersponsor route as well—. The welcome centres are ready. Also, in the House of Lords yesterday—. I'll just quote Baroness Ilora Finlay. She said: 'Do the Government recognise...
Jane Hutt: Diolch yn fawr, Sioned Williams. As I said in response to Mark Isherwood, I'm sure that across this Chamber we all have people who are contacting us who are very concerned that they're awaiting the outcome of visa applications. They want to welcome Ukrainian people into their homes. Of course, they are often in contact with those who are waiting in different parts of Europe, waiting to come,...
Jane Hutt: Thank you very much, Mark Isherwood, for a number of questions, some of which will be answered by accessing the guidance that is provided now on the website. But just to confirm that, as we went into our supersponsor status last Friday, it is under the UK Government's Homes for Ukraine scheme and, as I said in my statement initially, it involves a commitment to up to 1,000 people. The...
Jane Hutt: They will make their way to the UK, and this is the same for people who are sponsored by individuals under the Homes for Ukraine scheme. Arrival hubs have been set up at ports of entry across Wales, including at Holyhead, Pembroke Dock and Fishguard, and at Cardiff Airport to help people arriving from Ukraine. There are also arrival hubs at Cardiff central train and coach station and Wrexham...
Jane Hutt: Dirprwy Lywydd, thank you for the opportunity to update the Senedd today about the progress of the Homes for Ukraine scheme in Wales and the help we're putting in place to support people fleeing the war in Ukraine. The UN's refugee agency now estimates that 3.8 million people have fled Ukraine. The vast majority have sought safety in Poland and in neighbouring countries. This crisis is...
Jane Hutt: Thank you very much for that very topical question, Alun Davies. The First Minister has reported in past weeks that, when he wrote to the Prime Minister at the end of February, making sure that we were offering to play our part in terms of being a nation of sanctuary and being very clear about our position in terms of Putin's aggression, he did actually take the opportunity, in his...
Jane Hutt: Diolch yn fawr, Sioned Williams. It's really important that you've drawn attention to yet another inspiring network that is working across Europe, and I would be grateful for those contacts so that we can make links with them. Our universities are rising up to the challenge. Many of them already have links with Ukrainian students, Ukrainian universities, and those links are actually being...
Jane Hutt: Thank you very much for the questions, Mark Isherwood. As I've said and as has been made very clear in the information that we've provided on our bespoke page on the Welsh Government website about what we're doing to support Ukrainian refugees, we are due to become a supersponsor under the UK Government's Homes for Ukraine scheme this Friday. We wanted to make sure we were ready and able and...
Jane Hutt: Significant progress has been made to prepare to receive people fleeing the war in Ukraine so that they can seek sanctuary and safety in Wales. The UK Homes for Ukraine scheme is now open and the Welsh Government supersponsor route will be live from Friday.
Jane Hutt: Thank you. I can absolutely assure you, Delyth Jewell, that this is crucial to us delivering on our race equality action plan for an anti-racist Wales. Obviously, I'm aware of this, it's very concerning, but I would also draw your attention to the £65 million Taith programme, open for applications now, supporting students and staff from all education sectors in Wales to study and learn...
Jane Hutt: Wales welcomes international students and the Welsh Government is committed to creating a fairer society where people do not face discrimination on the grounds of their race. Equality and employment law provides protections for job applicants and we will continue to pursue zero tolerance of racism via our anti-racist Wales action plan.
Jane Hutt: Thank you very much, John Griffiths. Well, income maximisation and benefit take-up is crucially important to this, and it is worth us looking at who is helping us with our campaign, our national benefits take-up campaign, which we delivered last year. We're running another campaign—we announced this as part of our response to the cost-of-living crisis—called 'Claim what's yours' campaign,...
Jane Hutt: We're supporting the most vulnerable people to maximise their income and build their financial resilience, and we recently announced a £330 million package of measures to help vulnerable people affected by the cost-of-living crisis.
Jane Hutt: Thank you very much, Carolyn Thomas. Wales does provide the most generous non-repayable disabled student allowance grant support available in the UK, but you have drawn attention to an issue experienced by your constituent as a result of your consultation. We're keeping a watching brief on this in terms of these regulations, and we're also in touch with all the further education colleges'...
Jane Hutt: Eligible disabled students in Wales can access up to £31,831 of the non-repayable disabled students allowance grant to support them to access higher education. This amount is increasing to £32,546 for the academic year 2022/23.
Jane Hutt: I can assure the Member of that. We're calling—the Counsel General and myself; you'll see in our written statement—we're calling on the UK Government to change direction. It's still possible to do so, and the Ukrainian crisis shows it's even more important that they do so. They should abandon the current proposals, they should recommit, not just to retaining the existing Human Rights...
Jane Hutt: Following extensive engagement with stakeholders, our response to this consultation has been sent to the Ministry of Justice and published on our website. We've made it clear we are fundamentally opposed to the proposal to replace the current Human Rights Act with a bill of rights.
Jane Hutt: Diolch yn fawr, Rhys ab Owen. I'm as impatient as you, I can assure you. It is about partnership working with the UK Government, and the residential women's centre is going to be piloted in Wales. It's a key element of the female offending blueprint. As I said, I met with the Minister very recently. I hope we can have some news very shortly in terms of this centre, because it is crucial to...
Jane Hutt: I recently met the Minister of State at the Ministry of Justice to discuss the residential women's centre in Wales. Work is progressing and Her Majesty's Prison and Probation Service Wales are working closely with Welsh Government, local authorities and other partners on this important initiative.
Jane Hutt: Thank you very much, Luke Fletcher, for your very important question.
