Mark Reckless: And that monitoring shows that food prices in the EU are substantially higher than outside the EU. Once we leave the EU, does the Cabinet Secretary agree that it will be for the UK Government to determine the extent to which we apply World Trade Organization tariffs against imports from outside the EU, and it's up to that Government whether to apply those at all or whether to negotiate free...
Mark Reckless: 8. What assessment has the Cabinet Secretary made of the difference between world food prices and EU food prices? OAQ51360
Mark Reckless: First Minister, the average Help to Buy house price for first-time buyers in Monmouthshire is £240,000, similar to Gloucestershire across the border. Are you not concerned that, if your Government fails to match England's approach to first-time buyers, some of our young people will leave Wales and buy over the border instead?
Mark Reckless: 5. What assessment has the First Minister made of the prospects over the next four months for first-time buyers in Monmouthshire? OAQ51388
Mark Reckless: Will the Member give way?
Mark Reckless: He talks about not engendering uncertainty, but those first-time buyers, particularly in the higher value areas, who may be rushing in because they fear he's going to increase their tax rate next April, as he said before—would they be wise to do that or should they hold off?
Mark Reckless: With the UK budget today, I think some of the implications of tax devolution, perhaps, hit home rather more clearly than they did before, because the implications for Wales of decisions made on tax don't just reflect those that are made in this Siambr, but also those that are made in Westminster. I served on the Land Transaction Tax and Anti-avoidance of Devolved Taxes (Wales) Bill committee...
Mark Reckless: May I take this opportunity to congratulate the Member on his appointment as Counsel General? It gives me particular pleasure personally to have done so having attended university with him some quarter of a century ago now. As lawyers, we might see it as a good thing were the size of the legal profession to expand, but I wonder: speaking on behalf of the Government, does he have a view on...
Mark Reckless: 1. What assessment has the Counsel General made of the effect that the development of a separate legal jurisdiction would have on the size of the legal profession in Wales? OAQ51315
Mark Reckless: First Minister, as well as Wales ageing as a nation, the trends are quite different within different parts of Wales, and the Valleys, for example, have a much greater demographic ageing trend than the nation as a whole. Are you confident, First Minister, that our provision of dementia services is sufficiently decentralised, and also that the resourcing of it is sufficiently aimed at those...
Mark Reckless: Will the Cabinet Secretary provide an estimate of the hours worked, including the value of those hours, by community health council volunteers?
Mark Reckless: But isn't this a hangover from when we, perhaps, were more of a spoon-fed baby Assembly, as the Member puts it, and there was a Welsh Assembly Government and there was no legal distinction between one and the other? Now the Government is accountable to the Assembly and the Counsel General advises the Government, so surely the Welsh Government should decide. I am as keen to defend the rights...
Mark Reckless: I'm afraid I didn't really catch the Member's response to my point earlier. I think there was a sedentary intervention you may have been replying to instead. But my fundamental point is: the Counsel General is the chief adviser to the Welsh Government, and surely it's a matter for the Welsh Government to choose who their chief legal adviser should be.
Mark Reckless: Surely, a fundamental principle of our legal system is that a client should be free to choose their own legal adviser? Why would Plaid Cymru deny that right to the Welsh Government?
Mark Reckless: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer, in particular, for your consideration. Can I also congratulate the Minister on his appointment? He knows he has big shoes to fill. From my own part, I have to say I have great confidence in his serving the Government in Wales as ably as he did the UK Government previously. I welcome the report from Sally Holland, the children's commissioner, and thank her...
Mark Reckless: First Minister, you described your approach to the public finances on 23 April, when you were asked, 'The Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell said £500bn more borrowing is in order to give the economy a bit of a boost—you’d go along with that then would you?' You answered, 'Yes, I would'. Do you still think borrowing £500 billion—10 times the current UK deficit—would be sensible, and...
Mark Reckless: Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on what impact property transaction tax changes will have on the supply of commercial property?
Mark Reckless: I’m very happy to clarify. The Presiding Officer wrote to Andrew R.T. Davies and to myself and confirmed that I should be considered a member of the Conservative group for all purposes of this Assembly, just as she has ruled that the committee Chairs should be moved in order to reflect the balance of the party groups. It ill behoves this institution, which wishes to be considered a...
Mark Reckless: The unemployment rate in south-east Wales has fallen to 3.5 per cent this year; the employment rate in the year to June is up from 70.2 per cent to 72.5 per cent. Given that the Government in Westminster’s welfare reforms are designed at least in part to help people into work, and the Cabinet Secretary himself says he supports the principle of universal credit, shouldn’t he be welcoming...
Mark Reckless: Cabinet Secretary, shouldn’t that engagement, though, come before the plan is finalised? You have limited resources in your department; you face having to make more savings. There are extraordinary challenges about these marine protected areas; we know very little about what goes on at the bottom of the sea, and it’s very expensive to find information. Why do you not bring the...
