Mark Reckless: I certainly look forward to those Qatar flights starting. First Minister, on 11 April, Ken Skates said that there had been no transaction connected with the proposed Cardiff bus station that would create a liability for stamp duty land tax or land transaction tax. Yet, on 18 April, he said Welsh Government had recently bought the site from Cardiff Council for £12 million. Did Welsh...
Mark Reckless: 3. Will the First Minister make a statement on public ownership of retail and commercial property? OAQ52058
Mark Reckless: Up until now, it's fair for Welsh Government to say they haven't had all the tools they need to confront teacher shortages, but from next year, Welsh Government will set teachers' pay and conditions. From then, there can be no excuse if we do not see improvement in teacher recruitment. As well as improving terms and conditions, we need to increase the number of routes into teaching. Darren...
Mark Reckless: In his latest spotlight on Cardiff offices, Ross Griffin, the director of UK investment at Savills, says that the increase in stamp duty to 6 per cent on a significant office development will deter investment by making Wales more expensive as investors target English regional cities instead of Cardiff, cutting the flow of capital into the Cardiff market. He concludes that this will limit...
Mark Reckless: I'm glad to hear this will be the bee's knees by the time it comes to Cardiff. And I'd like to thank the Minister particularly for his clarity that this childcare element is aimed at working parents, and there are trade-offs, and there are some who won't benefit, and he's taken that approach, and we will see how it works, in line with his party's manifesto. I'd also say that, because it's 48...
Mark Reckless: First Minister, Newport council recently unveiled their master plan for the future of Newport city centre, but unfortunately it contained so little detail and so little in the way of firm proposals that it only attracted 24 responses. Would he join me in encouraging Newport City Council to step up to the opportunities that the scrapping of the Severn tolls gives and put real investment into...
Mark Reckless: First Minister, do you at least welcome the 100,000 reduction in the number of Welsh children living in absolute poverty since 2010, and do you accept that the benefit cap has impacted most in London, which had 90 per cent of housing benefit claims above £20,000 rather than in Wales, and will you credit the near doubling of the tax-free allowance since 2010 for its role in helping many less...
Mark Reckless: Will you provide the opportunities for adults who are currently in low-paid employment to retrain—that's likely part time—for Newport's emerging digital economy?
Mark Reckless: First Minister, the people of Newport have been promised significant investment with a new digital cluster, which could revitalise the city. Will you provide the opportunities for adults currently on low-paid employment to retrain for Newport's emerging digital economy?
Mark Reckless: Will the Member give way?
Mark Reckless: Could he help me at all to understand why spending is £700 less per pupil in Wales, when it's health spending that's had the real cuts in Wales compared to England? And I had understood that local government had been treated relatively generously in Wales compared to England. Why hasn't that money flowed through from local government to schools?
Mark Reckless: A month into his appointment as Lord Chief Justice, Lord Thomas gave a lecture in which he said that European lawyers looked at England and Wales with admiration of our legal system for its independence, for its professionalism and for the fact that it has been the essential underpinning of our democratic way of life, and our general prosperity for hundreds of years. While many of us...
Mark Reckless: 1. What assessment has the Counsel General made of the work of the Commission on Justice in Wales? OAQ51888
Mark Reckless: Is it right for women so often to be guided to midwife-led birthing units as a default option, rather than to consultant-led labour wards?
Mark Reckless: Will Welsh Government treat the Assembly with equivalent respect in that debate and vote as it has with the recent vote to publish a leak report?
Mark Reckless: 9. Will the Cabinet Secretary confirm whether the debate and vote on the M4 relief road that was announced in a letter to Assembly Members will be binding or advisory? OAQ51855
Mark Reckless: Will the Cabinet Secretary give way?
Mark Reckless: Rather than that able principle, where I don't think we'll reach agreement, what is the point of this middle way where Estyn tells you what the results are if the inspection was after 2014 but not before, and how does that help anyone if parents are comparing schools on less than accurate or up-to-date data?
Mark Reckless: If I may just take an example—it's an area where I think my view and perhaps the view of many, at least in the Conservative group, may be different from yours, Cabinet Secretary, and from the Labour Government, but it's about accountability for schools and transparency over how they are doing. We have Estyn's own assessment and the rating it gives. We then have this red, amber and green,...
Mark Reckless: I'm grateful to Estyn for their substantive annual report. Reading through it, I wasn't always clear whether Estyn is a mechanism through which Welsh Government seeks to secure its policy objectives, or whether it's more of a law unto itself, its degree of autonomy and independence, and the extent to which it may be judging the implications of its own assessment criteria. So, for instance,...
