Mark Isherwood: According to the latest estimates from Norway, the conflict has wounded or killed 180,000 Russian soldiers and 100,000 Ukrainian troops. Other western sources estimate that the war has caused 150,000 casualties on each side. In late January, the United Nations estimated that 18,000 civilians had been killed or wounded in the fighting, but said the real figure was likely much higher, with...
Mark Isherwood: Diolch. I'm pleased to move this motion. The twenty-fourth of February 2023 marks the first anniversary of Vladimir Putin's illegal and barbaric invasion of its smaller sovereign neighbour, Ukraine. But this smaller neighbour has the heart of a lion and has roared back, although the impact of ongoing attacks by Russia has been felt hard by the Ukrainian people. All civilised peoples will be...
Mark Isherwood: How is the Minister promoting rural development in North Wales?
Mark Isherwood: Do you accept—and this is a fact—that the police cuts you're referring to that were initially to 2015 were announced in Alistair Darling's last budget in 2010, and simply carried forward in terms of policing by the UK Government? It is evident in the final budget statement by Mr Darling.
Mark Isherwood: Will you give way?
Mark Isherwood: In a minute, then.
Mark Isherwood: As we've heard, funding for the four Welsh police forces is delivered through a three-way arrangement involving the Home Office, Welsh Government and council tax, with the Home Office operating a needs-based formula with a floor mechanism to distribute funding across Welsh and English police forces, and with the Welsh Government component based on consistency across Wales and England. For...
Mark Isherwood: As you reflected, 24 February marks a year since Putin's illegal and barbaric invasion of Ukraine. In your update on Ukraine here three weeks ago, you stated that: 'The UK Government has announced that there will be a new UK £150 million fund for Ukrainian housing support during 2023-24, but details are currently scant', where the UK Government had announced a new support package for...
Mark Isherwood: In order to protect residents in Alyn and Deeside, elsewhere in north Wales and across Wales from falling into fuel poverty, the Welsh Government have said that a new national demand-led energy efficiency grant scheme, focused on homes in fuel poverty, will be procured as part of the Warm Homes programme and operational before next winter. When will this scheme be operational, and will it be...
Mark Isherwood: I think 92 per cent of taxpayers in Wales are basic rate taxpayers. Only 0.3 per cent, barely 4,000, are additional rate taxpayers. Do you recognise that higher tax rates, particularly in those sorts of circumstances, can generate lower tax revenues?
Mark Isherwood: Last month, prior to your 31 January and 2 February letters to the UK Government and before The Times investigation revealed British Gas routinely sending debt collectors to break into customers' homes and force-fit prepayment meters, even when they're known to have extreme vulnerabilities, the then UK business Secretary Grant Shapps wrote to energy suppliers, stating that they should stop...
Mark Isherwood: Thank you. I'm still contacted regularly by parents of pupils with diagnosed or suspected neurodiverse conditions, many of whom have diagnosed neurodiverse conditions themselves and most of whom live in Flintshire. In recent months alone, e-mails received from Flintshire parents include the following: 'We attach evidence showing behaviours that are autism related and are held in her education...
Mark Isherwood: 8. How is the Welsh Government supporting neurodiverse pupils? OQ59072
Mark Isherwood: Will you give way?
Mark Isherwood: Do you share my concern that cuts or freezes in the housing support grant have been offered almost as a sacrificial offering in almost every Welsh Government draft budget for at least the last decade, despite the consequences of increased pressure on the NHS, accident and emergency departments, and blue light services? And do you agree that the Welsh Government should not be pursuing these...
Mark Isherwood: They're calling on the Welsh Government to implement a Wales-wide workforce strategy to recruit specialist staff to meet the additional learning needs of deaf children, provide funding to ensure there is sufficient training provision to create a new generation of teachers who are deaf, and to work with local authorities to ensure all parents are aware of the support available through the...
Mark Isherwood: I call for two oral statements or debates in Welsh Government time on two important matters. The first of these is on accessible communication and information for people with a sensory loss. Public services have legal duties under section 20 of the Equality Act 2010 to ensure that disabled people can access services on an equal basis to non-disabled people, known as the reasonable adjustments...
Mark Isherwood: How does the Welsh Government monitor the implementation of the Equality Act 2010 within public services?
Mark Isherwood: How does the First Minister ensure that the social model of disability is implemented by the Welsh Government?
Mark Isherwood: Although the blue badge scheme in Wales does not lie within your portfolio, removing the barriers for disabled people does, and the current blue badge scheme in Wales is creating barriers. I've been contacted by numerous constituents with a range of physical and neurodevelopmental conditions, whose blue badge parking permit applications or renewals were declined by local authorities quoting...
