Jane Hutt: Through our digital inclusion and health programme, Digital Communities Wales, we are supporting organisations across all sectors to help people maximise the opportunities digital can offer. Having the basic digital skills, motivation and confidence can help people gain and retain employment, access health services and support their well-being.
Jane Hutt: We are working to ensure all our new Afghan friends have access to support they need to integrate fully with our communities. Working collaboratively with partners, we will ensure women are equally supported to access language tuition, employment support, cultural activities and more to enhance their skills and employability.
Jane Hutt: I regularly discuss the proportionality and effectiveness of the COVID-19 regulations with Cabinet colleagues. Current rules mean places of worship, like other premises, must put in place reasonable measures in response to a risk assessment to reduce the spread of coronavirus. Face coverings are also required indoors.
Jane Hutt: What is clear, and has been expressed so powerfully in this debate, is that the £20 that so many people needed at the beginning of the pandemic is still needed now. Circumstances have not changed. Harms have become more entrenched. The numbers claiming universal credit, as we all know as Senedd Members, have doubled from 3 million to 6 million from the start of the pandemic. As so many...
Jane Hutt: Diolch yn fawr, Dirprwy Lywydd. I'm really pleased to respond this important debate today, and I do thank Plaid Cymru for bringing it forward. In response to Sioned Williams in her opening speech, when a lifeline like universal credit is under such attack, when those who rely on it are faced with such injustice, we must unite in opposing this entirely voluntary decision by the UK Government.
Jane Hutt: Formally.
Jane Hutt: Thank you very much, Joyce Watson, and, as I said, thank you for your support for the nation of sanctuary and everything that we are striving to achieve here in Wales in this response. I think it's very important that we recognise that they will have indefinite leave to remain as a result of arriving under either of these two schemes. And that's so crucial in terms of access to services and...
Jane Hutt: Thank you, Altaf Hussain, and thank you for attending the technical briefing last week with the very relevant questions, as all Members raised with me last week, which has helped us with our planning. The majority of families who've arrived in Wales so far, as I've said, have direct links to those Wales-based and Wales-facing armed forces units. There's actually been, I understand, over the...
Jane Hutt: Diolch yn fawr, Delyth Jewell. I was very pleased to have an early letter from both Delyth Jewell and Jenny Rathbone as Chair of the committee for equality and social justice as well as yourself as Chair of your committee, and because it also set out questions that we were ready to be answered as soon as we had the responses from the UK Government and the engagement that we needed, but it...
Jane Hutt: Thank you very much, Sam Rowlands, and thank you for acknowledging the way in which we have worked together across the four nations and, indeed, with all our partners in Wales, and also, as much as we can, on a cross-party basis in terms of this humanitarian response—an all-Wales and a made-in-Wales response. I think it's very important that at the meetings that we've had we've included,...
Jane Hutt: Diolch yn fawr, Heledd Fychan. I thank you so much for your strong statements this afternoon in support of our, as we've said, made-in-Wales humanitarian response to the situation with the Afghan citizens who we're now welcoming to Wales, and particular recognition of our ambition and our aspiration to be a nation of sanctuary. We have a lot to do to achieve that, clearly. I think, again,...
Jane Hutt: I thank Mark Isherwood for those questions and thank him and the Welsh Conservatives for their support for the nation of sanctuary. I’m very happy to respond to the questions, particularly recognising that we are initially talking about that temporary accommodation response. I think it is very helpful for us to, at this point—. Again, I’ve made it quite clear in my statement that it is...
Jane Hutt: Diolch, Llywydd. Prynhawn da. I am pleased to update the Senedd on the steps we have taken in Wales to respond to the evacuation of Afghan citizens over the past few weeks, with my thanks to Members across this Chamber for their engagement in promoting Wales as a nation of sanctuary. Wales has now welcomed more than 50 families from Afghanistan and work continues to increase this further. I...
Jane Hutt: I welcome this broad cross-party support this afternoon for the creation of a community bank for Wales. It is tightly regulated, as Members know, the banking sector, so we really have to await the satisfactory conclusion of the regulatory assessment. That's about assurance for investors and future members of Banc Cambria. But what they do—their aim is to open up in the order of 30 new...
Jane Hutt: And I very much appreciate that this is probably a next step. As the Member said, we need to establish Banc Cambria, we need to address the paucity, the devastation in terms of lack of bank branches. But I think it could be a model, couldn't it, and we will certainly be, I'm sure, building on that with your advice and support too.
Jane Hutt: This is the work of Banc Cambria, as they take this forward. I'm very glad that they have sought to meet Members and key people, spokespeople, across the Chamber. They're looking particularly at relationship working and partnership with credit unions, so I can give you an example in terms of Cambrian Credit Union in north Wales engaging with this. It is still a proposal; it envisages in terms...
Jane Hutt: Yes. Well, thank you very much, Jack Sargeant, another champion and pioneer for the community bank bid, alongside former economy and transport Minister Ken Skates, who got this initiative under way, and it is so good that we are taking this forward. I know how hard the Member for Alyn and Deeside—and Buckley, I believe the town council have campaigned for a community bank in Buckley. So,...
Jane Hutt: I'm very glad that Jack Sargeant has also raised this question this afternoon. At the end of 2021, there will be just one bank left serving the people of Clwyd South. The area has lost 80 per cent of its banks since 2015. It puts residents at risk, travelling out of town. The Barclays branch in Llangollen is the only physical bank branch left in the constituency. The community bank, just to...
Jane Hutt: Llywydd, I understand that you have given permission to group questions 7 and 8. The private sector proposal to establish the community bank for Wales is contingent on regulatory approval. Operational delivery plans continue to develop in parallel with regulatory assessments and wider Welsh Government evaluation, in order that Banc Cambria can be established at the earliest opportunity post...
Jane Hutt: I don't accept that at all. I hope that you will look at our Travelling Ahead plan as a local Member. Every local authority has a responsibility in terms of ensuring that local authorities provide adequate and culturally appropriate sites where there is a need. Denbighshire County Council—I understand, and we must encourage—has a legal duty to undertake a new Gypsy and Traveller...
