Suzy Davies: 3. Will the First Minister provide an update on the Swansea Bay city deal? OAQ52649
Suzy Davies: Now, we've had years of inappropriate early entries and we should have stopped this long ago. But now that they have been stopped—they were down by 77 per cent this year—the attainment of good GCSE grades is lower still: A* to C in maths, English language and literature, Welsh language, biology, chemistry and physics—the biggies—all down according to Qualifications Wales. You cannot...
Suzy Davies: Diolch yn fawr, Dirprwy Lywydd. I've had quite a lot to do in my first 24 hours in this new role. I want to begin, colleagues, on behalf of us all, I think, by offering my congratulations to students, teachers and staff across Wales on the work that you put into this year's exams, and offer our best wishes to everybody, whatever their results. There are many ways to shape a future, and exam...
Suzy Davies: The 14-19 learning pathways—this is for you, Minister—that entitles young people in Wales, as you know, to study the subjects they want, even if it's not in their own school and they can go to a nearby school. However, the funding that previously went from Welsh Government to local authorities to enable that has been combined with other funding grants, which has made it difficult to...
Suzy Davies: Well, thank you for that answer. It takes nine months to produce a child; I hoped it would have been a bit quicker to produce a code. The school standards Act and the rights of children and young persons Measure aren't the only pieces of legislation that are relevant to school reorganisation; the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 is now in force, and I'm pleased to say that in...
Suzy Davies: Well, thank you for that answer and for your very kind words, of course. I have to say, though, that the majority of responses that came in on the consultation were from councils, diocesan bodies and unions, and the children's voice was represented solely, it would seem to me anyway, by the children's commissioner, and I'm not quite sure how she managed to get the information or views of...
Suzy Davies: Diolch yn fawr, Llywydd. First of all, can I just thank Paul Davies for appointing me to this new position? I cannot tell you how much I'm looking forward to it. I hope the Cabinet Secretary won't mind if I start with something of personal interest and return to rural schools, bearing in mind the experience of my own family over the last 15 years or so. I can see that the consultation on...
Suzy Davies: First Minister, it has been just over six months now since the 50-mph zone on the M4 was extended between Port Talbot and the Earlswood turning for Swansea, at the time, your Minister telling us that this was in advance of completed detailed modelling that would be taking place in the summer. Well, summer's over, so can you tell us what those three months have produced in terms of data,...
Suzy Davies: Thank you very much, Llywydd. I am more than content to note this report and even to welcome it. Over the past year, it seems to me that this place has started to feel slightly different; the Record has improved and I’m pleased to see that some of our security staff have started to welcome me in Welsh. They’ve probably seen my lanyard; I hope that's the only reason. I also feel that I...
Suzy Davies: Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. I'd like to begin by wishing a very happy fifth birthday to the Keep Me Posted campaign. The Keep Me Posted campaign was set up, as I said, five years ago to protect consumers' rights to choose paper bills and statements without charge or penalty. It's not an anti-digital campaign. It's about making sure that everyone is in the best position to control their finances....
Suzy Davies: Obviously, I acknowledge the Welsh Government's interest in this and, actually, the hard work of Joyce Watson on this matter for some considerable period of time, but I'd be quite interested in hearing a little bit more about specific activity between the two Governments, if you like, since Theresa May introduced this Act in 2015. As Rhun mentioned, many agencies are involved in identifying...
Suzy Davies: What consideration did the Cabinet Secretary give to social care when allocating funding to the health and social services budget?
Suzy Davies: Perhaps I could start with the smacking ban as well, if I may. Obviously, we recognise your policy objective on this, but there is still this problem in as much as the current defence is a construct of the criminal law and removing the defence doesn't remove the actual offence that remains from the realm of criminal law either. So, whether there's a prosecution or not—and I know this is...
Suzy Davies: Three things, If I may, Llywydd. You may have heard—sorry, leader of the house; apologies—that there was another fire in Heol-y-Cyw fairly recently in the woodchip facility that they have there. I just want to mention that the Cabinet Secretary, in 2006, said that she would look closely at regulations and powers regarding the storage of flammable materials. I asked your predecessor twice...
Suzy Davies: Well, I think those figures just highlight the critical role of unpaid carers in overnight care, for people within their family usually. Obviously, in those circumstances, it's very often mental health care and traditional domiciliary care is not appropriate anyway. You'll remember that the Welsh Conservatives launched a policy last month to give grants to young adult carers to help them...
Suzy Davies: I'm not a member of this committee, but can I really, really thank them for this report? One of the things I like about it is it absolutely conveys a sense of urgency, at least in terms of political decision making, for a quick and relatively straightforward response to a problem that we shouldn't have. I have to say I think it uncovers a whole range of other omissions that, frankly, I find...
Suzy Davies: Thank you for taking the intervention. Do you wonder whether the Cabinet Secretary's reluctance to sign up to this particular recommendation may be because they will be removing permanent nursing in residential care homes and that nurses won't be there for 24 hours, as some of them are at the moment?
Suzy Davies: Cabinet Secretary, perhaps I can take you back to lagoons as part of that mix. I asked the First Minister yesterday whether that £200 million we've all been talking about is definitely earmarked for lagoon and marine energy. He didn't answer. I'm picking up from your answers today that there is £200 million there. Bearing in mind that you've already indicated that some of that could be...
Suzy Davies: In that statement, you said that people should think through very carefully the responsibilities they're undertaking when they're thinking of having a pet. But I'm glad to hear you say also that you recognise that people's circumstances can change quite suddenly and through no fault of their own. Cats Protection is reporting a rise in the number of cats coming to them because landlords, some...
Suzy Davies: Cabinet Secretary, back in May, I asked you if schemes like Arbed and Nest had contributed to the number of ground- and air-source heat pumps installed in Wales, and can I thank you for writing to me with a bit more information on that? I was a bit surprised to see from your letter, though, that just nine air-source heat pumps were installed through Nest in the six years leading up to 2017...
