Ken Skates: We have a number of initiatives in place to support the development of the well-paid sectors in Wales , including Swansea. This includes increasing our funding to Higher Education Funding Council for Wales for expensive subjects in 2019-20 to support delivery of higher cost subjects, including science, technology, engineering, mathematics, IT and computing.
Ken Skates: Our economic support for north-east Wales is outlined in the economic action plan. On 28 November, I officially opened the £20 million Welsh Government funded Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre in Broughton, a catalyst for growth and jobs in Deeside, north Wales and the wider cross-border and Northern Powerhouse region.
Ken Skates: The Welsh Government will invest in all modes to deliver the modern, high-quality transport system that is fundamental to achieving our sustainability and climate change objectives and delivering economic growth across north Wales, connecting people to jobs and services and businesses to markets.
Ken Skates: We regularly review the safety of our motorway and trunk road network to identify potential road safety improvement measures where they are required.
Ken Skates: Dirprwy Lywydd, can I thank David Rowlands for his comments? I share his view that the demise of Remploy units was extremely disappointing and disadvantaged many, many people indeed. Can I also thank David Rowlands for recognising the good work that is taking place by Business Wales and Careers Wales? The Member rightly identified the need to improve access to employment, and that includes...
Ken Skates: Can I thank Mike Hedges for his comments and his questions? He was right to say that disabled people are more likely to be unemployed, and that disabled people, if they are in employment, are more likely to be underpaid. Therefore, as a consequence, it is clear that disabled people are more likely to be living in poverty in this modern age, and that is morally unacceptable. The Welsh...
Ken Skates: Can I also thank Dai Lloyd today for his contribution and the very, very keen interest and commitment that he has shown to this important area of policy concern for Welsh Government? I'm sure that Dai Lloyd also believes, as I do, that equality of outcome for everyone sits at the heart of everything that we do, and should do, and that our ambitions for Welsh society are ambitions rooted in...
Ken Skates: Can I thank Mark Isherwood for his incredibly constructive comments, and also for his questions, and recognise the dedication that he's given to this particular agenda over many years? I think that Mark Isherwood would agree that we all wish to ensure that all disabled people have the same freedom and dignity and choice and control as everybody else in society, whether it be at home, in work,...
Ken Skates: Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. Today is the United Nations International Day of Persons with Disabilities, a day designed to promote the rights of disabled people and to increase awareness of the challenges they face. However, as a Government, our role is far greater. Working with disabled people's organisations, arms of Government, the third sector and business, we must lead in the identification...
Ken Skates: Now, I've already developed our vision for bus and community transport against a background of future trend predictions for Wales, which foresee a significant growth in the number of single-person households with private vehicles remaining the dominant mode of transport for those who can afford it. But we will need, at the same time, a significant change, whether through a modal shift to...
Ken Skates: Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. Can I begin by thanking Mark Reckless for bringing forward this debate today? It's a hugely important issue; bus services concern an enormous amount of not just my time as Minister for transport, but also the time of many, many Assembly Members in this Chamber. And there is no doubt that bus services are central to everything that we do in terms of trying to integrate...
Ken Skates: Within months of the—. Yes, of course.
Ken Skates: No.
Ken Skates: We're increasing capacity on each of those lines in line with our vision for metro services, so there will be more seats available to commuters at key times, there will be more services, there'll be four trains per hour on metro lines. This is a huge undertaking, an incredibly ambitious exercise, and within months of the start of the new franchise we were also able to give the gift of new...
Ken Skates: Diolch, Llywydd. I'll begin by just stating again—and it's something that I've said before—that we made a very deliberate decision at the start of the franchise procurement not to tie the hands of bidders by preparing a rolling stock strategy, in line with the advice that we received from industry leaders and observers at the time, and which has been subsequently widely recognised as...
Ken Skates: I move.
Ken Skates: Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. I'd firstly like to thank the Member for putting forward this legislative proposal. As Jenny Rathbone has, however, said, there is existing primary legislation under the Transport Act 2000 that already allows workplace parking levies to be implemented by local authorities in Wales and England. I'm not going to go into too much detail about the Act, other than to...
Ken Skates: Can I thank John Griffiths for his questions and also for coming along to Orb with the First Minister and me last week? I thought it was an incredibly productive discussion that we had with Roy Rickhuss and Community union with workers from across the site? Of course, with a potential loss of 380 jobs, some people would choose to retire, some people would choose to go into employment with a...
Ken Skates: Can I thank Bethan Sayed for her contribution and the many important points that she's also made in the questions that she's raised today? I think it's fair to say that when workers tell Members that this hasn't come necessarily as a surprise, it's probably because the four strands of the transformation programme include one that specifically states that they wish to reduce employment costs....
Ken Skates: Can I thank Jack Sargeant for his contribution and for his questions? I was only reflecting earlier this afternoon on the experience of having grown up, obviously, in north-east Wales and seeing Shotton steelworks almost fully close. We did manage to fight, albeit for a smaller number of jobs than once existed. But, as a consequence of further investment by owners of the site and by...
