Rhianon Passmore: 3. Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on the progress being made in meeting the Welsh housing quality standard? (OAQ51196)
Rhianon Passmore: May I congratulate the Minister for Lifelong Learning and Welsh Language, Alun Davies AM, for the enthusiastic and energetic way in which he has launched his ministerial Valleys taskforce? The taskforce has stated that it will also explore the concept of a Valleys landscape park to help local communities build on many natural assets, including the potential for community energy generation and...
Rhianon Passmore: First Minister, the Tory UK Government recently made a derisory deviation from their ideological obsession with austerity when they announced police officers would get a 1 per cent bonus funded from existing budgets. Steve White, chairman of the Police Federation of England and Wales said that this announcement would leave many officers angry and deflated. ‘We were not greedy in what we...
Rhianon Passmore: Will the First Minister update Members on whether any progress has been made on the UK Tory Government’s devolving of all the powers required to the Welsh Government to ensure a successful tendering process of the new Wales and borders franchise? The people of Wales want to see the First Minister of Wales and the Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Infrastructure fully in charge of this...
Rhianon Passmore: First Minister, Andrew Evans, upon his appointment as Wales’s chief pharmaceutical officer, stated, and I quote: ‘Pharmacists in Wales are taking a central role in the Welsh government’s drive to provide patients with high-quality care promptly and closer to home. I look forward to working with pharmacists and other health and care professions, building on the significant improvements...
Rhianon Passmore: 8. Will the First Minister make a statement on the progress of the ministerial task force for the south-Wales valleys? (OAQ51222)
Rhianon Passmore: Will you take a question?
Rhianon Passmore: Would you acknowledge that, as you’ve referenced earlier on, £210 million so far, plus £20 million, has gone into Welsh non-domestic business rates? In regard to England, less than a third have had such similar rate relief. Would you acknowledge what the Welsh Government has done in that regard, and also the current consultation? And, in regard to the split multiplier, that there seems to...
Rhianon Passmore: Will you take an intervention?
Rhianon Passmore: I rise to support the amendments to the motion that have been tabled by the leader of the house, the Member for the Vale of Glamorgan. The national health service is one of the greatest creations of any democratically elected Government in the history of humanity. It is globally recognised as the optimum model of care. We, on these Welsh Labour benches, laud the achievements of the 1945...
Rhianon Passmore: First Minister, the Welsh Government, in January 2017, announced veterans and armed forces champions of health boards and NHS trusts in Wales. The Aneurin Bevan Local Health Board, which covers my constituents in Islwyn, named Brian Mawby as the champion. Congratulations to him. What impact does the First Minister believe these champions are having on ensuring that local service plans provide...
Rhianon Passmore: Thank you. First of all, I would like to welcome the action plan as a positive and transformational step forward for Wales, and my question really is based around the fact that we do have the best ever GCSE results for Wales. Are we complacent in that journey in moving forward? Do you feel that attainment gap that we are now closing is closing fast enough? And are you very confident that the...
Rhianon Passmore: Further to my cross-party statement, I wish to request a statement to this place on the status of music support services across Wales, the availability to Wales’s school pupils of affordable access to instrumental tuition and orchestral access, and the proposed benefit to Wales of a new national music performance strategy for Wales.
Rhianon Passmore: Would the First Minister concur with many, including the stakeholders highlighted by my colleague Huw Irranca, that an unamended European withdrawal Bill would be an unequivocal and fundamental assault on devolution, and further, that UK Ministers, post devolution, could enact, and therefore fundamentally destabilise hard-won democratic devolution of 20 years, and, like Neil Hamilton,...
Rhianon Passmore: Thank you, First Minister. Theresia Degener, the chair of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, has called it a ‘human catastrophe’, following their inquiry into the way that the UK treats its disabled citizens. Atos and Capita, who are tasked by the UK Government with carrying out with personal independent payment assessments, have earned over £0.5...
Rhianon Passmore: 7. What is the Welsh Government doing to protect and promote the rights of disabled people in Wales? (OAQ51039)
Rhianon Passmore: Thank you, Cabinet Secretary. The Valleys taskforce has expressed its desire to use the wonderful natural landscape of Wales to promote our economy. In Islwyn, we have the wondrous Cwmcarn forest scenic drive, which we need reopened. We have the historic grade II Navigation colliery, with its grade II listed buildings. Cabinet Secretary, what can the Welsh Government do to showcase the great...
Rhianon Passmore: 1. Will the Cabinet Secretary outline what actions the Welsh Government is taking to develop tourism in Islwyn to aid economic regeneration? OAQ(5)0199(EI)
Rhianon Passmore: Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on how the Welsh Government is improving rail services in Islwyn?
Rhianon Passmore: Thank you, Llywydd—I didn’t realise I was going to be called. In March of this year the Welsh Government announced it was introducing the Abolition of the Right to Buy and Associated Rights (Wales) Bill. In the months since, there has been an emerging near consensus in broad support for the general principles of the Bill. Too many pundits have closed their ears to practical solutions that...
