Huw Irranca-Davies: I thank the First Minister for that answer, and he's rightly stood very firmly on the principle of 'not a penny less, not a power lost' in respect of the shared prosperity fund. Yet, over the last year, there has been little if any real engagement by the UK Government with the Welsh Government, and little detail beyond that headline. Meanwhile, quietly but assiduously in the background, the...
Huw Irranca-Davies: 3. What discussions has the First Minister had with the UK Prime Minister regarding the Shared Prosperity Fund? OAQ54889
Huw Irranca-Davies: This is the first year pupils have taken the new Welsh second language GCSE following the removal of the short-course option. It's more challenging, but the rise in entry numbers has resulted in a 12.5 per cent increase of learners attaining A* to C in the full-course qualification. This year, an additional 1,500 learners sat GCSE science exams, building on last year's significant uptake as...
Huw Irranca-Davies: In the last six weeks?
Huw Irranca-Davies: Do you mean during the election campaign?
Huw Irranca-Davies: I've visited every school in my constituency in the past year.
Huw Irranca-Davies: I say this as a proud comprehensive schoolboy: we can never be complacent about striving for ever-higher outcomes from our school and our college education, and we do need to see continued and accelerated improvement on the trajectory we're now seeing. But as we approach the season of cheer and good will, I will not be talking down the achievements of our students and our teachers and our...
Huw Irranca-Davies: Mohammad Asghar, in opening this, asked the Minister to look at the issues of the root causes of homelessness, and I would extend that to rough-sleeping as well. Shelter, in a study earlier this month said, despite, I have to say, despite the measures that were being taken in places like Wales and in Scotland, that there will be as many as 4,000 or more children who will be made homeless by...
Huw Irranca-Davies: I'm very glad, in that response to Nick, you mentioned the aspect of buying local, and that's what I wanted to focus on. Hopefully, the Minister—if she hasn't seen it yet, I'll send it to her—has seen the report commissioned recently by the Wales Co-operative Party and members of the Co-operative group here in the Assembly, by the Sustainable Places Institute of Cardiff University,...
Huw Irranca-Davies: And finally—. Finally—gosh, I always get to this point when I know others have spoken for—. Sorry. My final point, then, would be: have you had time to look at Sustrans's 20-minute neighbourhood planning principle proposals, which is the idea that no community in Wales should be developed where you are more than 20 minutes away by bike or cycle from all essential services? Because, in...
Huw Irranca-Davies: I always get to this point. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. Can I give a broad welcome to the statement and the announcements today, but, like many individuals and organisations outside, this is a bit like that 'Bake Off' moment, where they describe to us what they're going to do and we're licking our lips at it but we're waiting to see what actually comes out of the oven? So, there is a...
Huw Irranca-Davies: Will the Minister give way?
Huw Irranca-Davies: There is a really interesting example that's already come up on the committee, so ably chaired by David Rees, which is the negotiation, or the re-negotiation, of the UK-Korea trade deal, compared to the previous EU-Korea trade deal. In the EU trade deals, it has become common practice to put as part of the legally binding agreement human rights. It is common practice. In the UK-Korea...
Huw Irranca-Davies: Would the Minister give way there? I wonder whether the Minister would look as well at smaller-scale community trust regeneration models. I've been involved with these in my past, and, on a street by street level, their local knowledge and intelligence, and some well-minded people—if they have the right expertise behind them and the right financial support to get it off the ground, my...
Huw Irranca-Davies: Can I begin just by thanking my fellow members of the committee and also the Chair for, as always, his excellent stewardship of this? It was great that the Chair and the committee decided to return to this, rather than park previous reports and leave them sit, but to actually come back with the intention of encouraging, assisting, showing the Government where we still need to make progress....
Huw Irranca-Davies: One of the key areas of cross-border co-operation post Brexit, but actually post general election, is going to be the extent of engagement between Welsh Government, Wales Office Ministers and also Whitehall departments on the issue of funding streams that have a Wales and UK bite. Now, of course, we have scant details at the moment on the UK shared prosperity fund and, during the course of...
Huw Irranca-Davies: Can I tell the Minister that people on every single station stop from Maesteg to Cardiff are really looking forward to the introduction of the refurbished 170 carriages, and the Sunday service from the middle of this month? It's going to be a real shot in the arm for that line and for frequency of services, particularly on a Sunday. And I thank him for his written reply that I've had today on...
Huw Irranca-Davies: Could we have a statement, or a debate, on plastic shopping bags, which can help inform the Minister's deliberations as she decides the way forward to make Wales a global leader in reducing single-use plastics? It would allow us then to debate the first long-term scientific study of biodegradable, oxo-degradable and compostable plastics, which has shown that, after three years of deposition...
Huw Irranca-Davies: Will the First Minister make a statement on the Welsh Government's plans to strengthen and develop social partnership in Wales?
Huw Irranca-Davies: I thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer, and I genuinely seek your help and assistance here, because that's what I heard as well. It was a sweeping statement of a Cabinet of the Labour Government that was available for hire. Now, I can understand if there had been satisfactory prosecutions, either by a standards commissioner or in a court of law, of individuals who are guilty of corruption or...
