Rhianon Passmore: First Minister, yesterday, the economy Secretary kicked off a week of job announcements with the outstanding news that the BBI Group is consolidating and expanding its UK manufacturing operations onto a single site in Crumlin, in my constituency, at the Border Technology Park. This is, in great part, thanks to a Welsh Government grant of £1.8 million, and this considerable investment will...
Rhianon Passmore: What action is the Welsh Government taking to help combat fly-tipping?
Rhianon Passmore: Cabinet Secretary, I welcome the announcement from the Welsh Government of the new £36 million fund to address infant class sizes. Nobody can seriously argue—apart from one or two Members present—that it is desirable that 7.6 per cent of infants school pupils in Wales are in classes of more than 30. That is 8,196 young children vying for the attention and support of their teachers and...
Rhianon Passmore: Thank you. Tonight on BBC Wales’s ‘Week In Week Out’, Nick Servini goes behind the scenes of Arriva Trains Wales as it investigates the worst overcrowding on commuter trains for years. My constituents in Islwyn continually raise with me overcrowding on Arriva Trains Wales, but the focus of Arriva Trains Wales has made a profit of £133.88 million in dividends for its parent company...
Rhianon Passmore: 7. What discussions has the Welsh Government had with the UK Government to improve current rail services in south-east Wales? OAQ(5)0397(FM)
Rhianon Passmore: Today, I will be joining my Labour colleagues and voting for this legislative consent motion on the Wales Bill. Indeed, as said by many, it is what it is. For this, we have a Conservative UK Government, which has once again let down the people of Wales in this stated imperfection—. In October 2015, the then Secretary of State for Wales, Stephen Crabb, stated that the Wales Bill was: ‘a...
Rhianon Passmore: First Minister, in March last year, as part of the Getting Ahead 2 programme, Learning Disability Wales were given £10 million over five years to transform the lives of over 1,000 young people aged 16 to 25 who have a learning disability or learning difficulty, and that is through undertaking a paid work placement lasting between six and 12 months. What does this commitment demonstrate about...
Rhianon Passmore: Will the Cabinet Secretary outline the educational support the Welsh Government is providing to pupils in areas of economic deprivation within Islwyn?
Rhianon Passmore: Thank you. Will you acknowledge, when you say that maths results are worse, that you’re talking of OECD system processes, and will you acknowledge the hard work that teachers the length and breadth of Wales have undertaken to actually improve level 2-plus data on GCSEs? They have improved and they continue to improve, as A-levels are continuing to improve and you’re bringing the whole of...
Rhianon Passmore: And the OECD have acknowledged—
Rhianon Passmore: Thank you, Cabinet Secretary. Earlier this month, you announced that the Welsh Government will invest an additional £30 million this year towards providing 20,000 affordable new homes. The Welsh Government’s affordable housing target of 10,000 additional affordable homes in the last Assembly was exceeded, with the housing supply pact between Welsh Government and Community Housing Cymru...
Rhianon Passmore: 3. Will the Minister make a statement on the Welsh Government’s plans to deliver affordable new homes in Islwyn? OAQ(5)0086(CC)
Rhianon Passmore: Will the Minister provide an update on the support the Welsh Government is giving to former members of the armed forces community?
Rhianon Passmore: First Minister, the Welsh Government has consistently supported the National Union of Mineworkers’s call for the surplus to be put back in the scheme for the benefit of the retired miners and coal industry workers. Mr Ken Sullivan, who has collected a petition of 8,000 names from my constituency, worked in Oakdale colliery near Blackwood for 24 years. The people of Islwyn, like my...
Rhianon Passmore: Will you take an intervention?
Rhianon Passmore: Thank you. It’s quite clear from statistics from the ONS that 4.4 per cent of our GDP spending was infrastructural under the Labour Government, and then it went down to 3.3 per cent, and then it’s gone down further to 2 per cent from Osborne to Philip Hammond at this moment in time.
Rhianon Passmore: Yes, carry on.
Rhianon Passmore: I completely agree with the Member opposite. I think it’s time the OBR did look at its revisions and how it revises its revisions on a very regular basis. I wouldn’t take them as a measure. So, the OBR was projecting a national living wage of £7.60 an hour in 2017. The Conservative motion itself notes it will be 10p lower, at £7.50. This is going to cost the average recipient on the...
Rhianon Passmore: I sometimes think I’m in a surreal reality. Let nobody be in any doubt, then, that this autumn statement is yet more proof, if it were needed, that the UK Tory Government treats Wales as an afterthought, with virtually nothing to say on the significant challenges facing our country. The additional much lauded £436 million for Wales, which we’ve heard a lot about, for the next five...
Rhianon Passmore: In the Welsh Government’s community cohesion national delivery plan 2016-17, the then Minister, Lesley Griffiths, for communities and tackling poverty stated: ‘We are moving to a new climate where a Wales of Cohesive Communities is enshrined in the national goals through our Wellbeing of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015. This will ensure cohesion remains at the heart of how Public...
