Adam Price: You've just described a free trade agreement.
Adam Price: Well, I would suggest that it would be at least beneficial to have a target so that the level increases, rather than decreases, as is happening at the moment. Let's turn to another question that Siân Gwenllian alluded to, namely the level of regional investment. In 'Prosperity for All', the Government outlines its aspiration to ensure that every part of Wales benefits from investment and...
Adam Price: Well, I can tell the Cabinet Secretary that’s not the case and it’s going down. In 2015-16, in that financial year, 41 per cent of health service procurement was made in Wales, according to your statistics, but, by the following year, the percentage had fallen to 39 per cent. In response to an inquiry by the Public Accounts Committee recently, the Welsh Government stated that you were...
Adam Price: Thank you, Llywydd. According to the 'Wales procurement policy statement', public procurement, when used effectively, is 'a strategic tool to deliver economic benefit to the people of Wales.' It’s no surprise, therefore, that the Government, as you note in your economic strategy ‘Prosperity for All’, published just recently, is endeavouring to increase the level of Welsh purchasing in...
Adam Price: Just a few questions on the work plan in terms of local taxation. Can the Cabinet Secretary tell us whether the work that he’s talking about in terms of renewing council tax is on the radical scale in terms of making the taxation burden fairer, for example, on the kind of lines that my party have proposed in the past, as well as Professor Gerry Holtham? When is that work to be published,...
Adam Price: Some regional Governments, such as Flanders, for example, as Rhun ap Iorwerth pointed out earlier, do have a veto over the final terms of the Brexit agreement that Wales doesn’t currently have. Of course, as the First Minister will be aware, there is a very close historic link between Wales and Flanders. Would the First Minister consider leading a delegation to Flanders to appeal to them,...
Adam Price: It's over a year since you published the White Paper making the case for Wales to remain within the single market and the customs union. You haven't been able to persuade Theresa May of the merits of that policy, and perhaps you can be forgiven for that, but why haven't you been able to convince Jeremy Corbyn?
Adam Price: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I was going to say halfway through the debate that I felt it was Parliament being at its best because there was a range of views on this issue, but we were coalescing and uniting, actually, around the core principle that, ultimately, Parliament must decide. I was hoping that the Cabinet Secretary, in his remarks at the end, would give us some clarity on...
Adam Price: I was just wondering, before he concludes his remarks, could he just address the central issue of the motion, which is the question as to whether there will be a substantive vote in this Assembly after the conclusion of the public inquiry.
Adam Price: And, when we think of it in those terms, when we think of the possibility we're already looking at way over £1.5 billion when you add in these different elements, then I think it is only right and proper, of course, that this Parliament will get the right to decide. Because there's a huge opportunity cost in there: £1.5 billion, £1.7 billion, £1.8 billion. You can have a new integrated...
Adam Price: Thank you very much, Llywydd. It’s my pleasure to rise to move the motion in the name of Rhun ap Iorwerth, which is to do with the M4 relief road, a new motorway, in truth—that’s what it is, of course. It’s true to say that it is one of the most controversial infrastructure projects perhaps that we’ve been discussing, not only recently but for some decades. There is a great range of...
Adam Price: I’m very pleased to hear that. Of course, I believe that the Counsel General will be aware of a recent case of the Government revealing personal data, namely my own personal data, with regard to correspondence, not just mistakenly but misleadingly. Could he say whether he has provided advice in that particular case as to whether or not the Government has breached data protection rules, and...
Adam Price: And could he also seek clarification about the other question that he's been unable to answer? Finally, Cabinet Secretary, in an interview you gave following the Cabinet decision on 29 June to Brian Meechan on Wales at Work, I think you said that your door was still open if a restructured proposal came forward, that you were willing to sit down and talk again. And the Permanent Secretary...
Adam Price: Could I ask the Cabinet Secretary just to address specifically the detailed questions that I asked him and, indeed, I asked officials on Monday? So, was the company told, in advance of the Cabinet's decision, about the assessment that the Permanent Secretary described in terms of the need to reduce the guarantee further? And, also, were they told on the preceding Friday, before the Cabinet...
Adam Price: Diolch, Llywydd. The Permanent Secretary and other officials appeared before the Public Accounts Committee on Monday to give evidence in relation to the Circuit of Wales project. In that session, the Permanent Secretary told us, I believe for the first time, that you'd arrived at the conclusion that any solution could only be achieved if the Welsh Government guarantee was to be reduced...
Adam Price: 4. What legal advice has the Counsel General provided to the Welsh Government regarding personal data? OAQ51721
Adam Price: I do welcome this important statement and if I may also say, I also welcome the apology that I received from the First Minister earlier this afternoon. You mentioned in your statement the evidence base for the Government’s policy, and I agree entirely with that, and the research that you’ve commissioned from Cardiff Business School is useful and interesting. What we don’t have so far,...
Adam Price: Will the Cabinet Secretary outline Welsh Government plans to increase the number of Welsh-domiciled students studying medical education in Wales?
Adam Price: It may be that just people assume that we're part of the twenty-first century, so I'm not sure that I'm with the leader of the house there. Progress that has been made absolutely should be welcomed, and I do sense in the leader of the house's statement an acceptance, though, that there is a great feeling of anger and injustice among many individuals and many communities that I and other...
Adam Price: Last week, First Minister, in relation to the options being considered by Hywel Dda health board, you said that the Welsh Government had no policy at present, but that you may have a policy at the end of the process. Isn’t the problem here that you wouldn’t have a mandate for any of these options, because none of them were mentioned during the Assembly election campaign? So, for us to...
