Mark Drakeford: Welsh Government takes women's safety very seriously. Through impact assessments, engagement with the LGBTQ+ expert panel, and over 1,300 consultation responses, we continue to evaluate potential effects of our LGBTQ+ action plan on women's rights and safety.
Mark Drakeford: Llywydd, I thank Joel James for that further question. He is right that the programme did help to deliver a network of five anaerobic digestion plants as well as two energy-recovery facilities in north and south Wales, and although the programme itself has come to an end, that doesn't mean that we are no longer providing funding support to local authorities and their partners, particularly,...
Mark Drakeford: The Welsh Government's waste infrastructure procurement programme has been successfully completed, with the last contract awarded in 2018.
Mark Drakeford: Well, I think those are really important points, Llywydd. I want strongly to agree with what Hefin David just said about a strengths-based approach in this area. For too long, services make, as their first question, 'What is wrong with you?' Whereas I want the first questions to be asked to be, 'What strengths do you have? What assets do you possess? How can we work with you, from those...
Mark Drakeford: Llywydd, I thank Hefin David for the question. When the Senedd returns this autumn, we will have completed the first year of the three-year planned implementation of our Additional Learning Needs and Education Tribunal (Wales) Act 2018. That implementation is supported by £21 million each year to bring about service improvements.
Mark Drakeford: I thank Carolyn Thomas for that, Llywydd. One of the distinguishing characteristics of the Welsh Government's pilot is that it doesn't just offer an income to young people. The income is really important because it is guaranteed and it is reliable. I was disappointed to see the reaction of the Welsh Conservatives to the pilot. Thinking of the questions the leader of the opposition asked me...
Mark Drakeford: I thank Carolyn Thomas, Llywydd. The pilot is a radical and innovative project offering financial stability to over 500 people leaving care in Wales. Almost 100 young people in north Wales are eligible for the pilot, and this will enable them to make positive choices in line with the hopes and ambitions they have for their own lives.
Mark Drakeford: I thank the Member for that question. Perhaps I ought to declare an interest at this point, because I'm currently using an electric bike, which I have for a fortnight as part of a Welsh Government scheme to allow people to try out different forms of transport to see whether they can be made useful, and a very good experience it has been, I have to say. I thank the cross-party group for their...
Mark Drakeford: I thank the Member for that question. The Hands Up survey, led by Public Health Wales, has provided a nationwide assessment of the way in which primary school children travel to school. The follow-up study will capture the extent of active travel improvement in the post-pandemic context.
Mark Drakeford: I answered a question earlier from the Member for Bridgend, who pointed to the current rise in coronavirus cases in Wales. I don't think it's often recognised that the single group of workers in the population who were most adversely affected by coronavirus were workers in public transport. You were more likely to fall ill, and indeed more likely to have the more serious consequences of...
Mark Drakeford: Those are important points that Altaf Hussain makes about the anchor nature of those major institutions. My colleague Jeremy Miles is being clear with those local authorities and other aspects of the further education system who take part in our twenty-first century schools and colleges programme that those proposals will not be approved in future unless there is an active travel plan to go...
Mark Drakeford: I thank Sioned Williams for those questions. I agree with what she said about the importance of public transport, particularly in some of the communities in her region, but I don't think she offers us a fair account of the work that's being undertaken by the Swansea bay metro. This year's programme, for example, includes business case and feasibility studies into the provision of an...
Mark Drakeford: I thank Sioned Williams for that question. Last week, a support package worth a further £48 million was announced by the Welsh Government. This is to support bus services in South Wales West and other areas that have struggled to recover from the pandemic. Measures to reform the industry and to reverse the damage of deregulation will be brought before the Senedd.
Mark Drakeford: Let me make these two points to begin with to the leader of Plaid Cymru: first of all, he's completely right, of course, that in 'Securing Wales' Future' we argued for leaving the European Union on the basis that we would remain in the customs union and the single market, but that was before we left the European Union. At that point, that was a perfectly plausible policy, and, in fact,...
Mark Drakeford: Here is my position, Llywydd, and here's the position of the Welsh Government: we are in favour of the closest possible frictionless trade with the European Union. The idea that you can simply pop back into the single market or the customs union is fanciful. We may wish that we could, but we simply can't. We are no longer members of the European Union. The conditions in which we could do that...
Mark Drakeford: Well, I agree, Llywydd, that the world has moved on. The United Kingdom is no longer a member of the European Union. That is to the regret of many of us in this Chamber, but it just remains a fact. I can't remember how many times I will have said here that once the referendum was held, the focus of the Welsh Government was not on the fact of Brexit because that had been decided in a...
Mark Drakeford: I absolutely want to see a position, Llywydd, in which young people are not looked after in those very unsatisfactory circumstances. Since last May's elections, I have been meeting, alongside my colleague Julie Morgan, with leaders of the newly constituted authorities. One of my messages to those leaders is that this is an agenda for them and for their chief executives, not simply for cabinet...
Mark Drakeford: That's a distressing story, Llywydd, but it exactly reflects the point that I made originally that children like Gemma would have been better served had the system invested in preventative action and early intervention to prevent that very sad story of what happens to children when they get drawn into a system that does not have the capacity to respond properly to their needs. I am sorry to...
Mark Drakeford: Well, Llywydd, I think there are a number of reasons that lie behind that unfortunate fact. The biggest one is that we take too many children away from their families here in Wales. This is a point that I have tried to make ever since I was the health Minister and responsible for social services. We take children away from their families in Wales at twice the rate that children are taken into...
Mark Drakeford: Well, Llywydd, I thank Ken Skates for that, and I agree with him very much that the best help you can offer, particularly to young people, in the mental health field is that early and preventative intervention that gets them the advice they need. It allows them to meet with a trusted adult who has the training that is necessary to respond to their needs, and that's exactly what the Welsh...
