Adam Price: What consideration has the Cabinet Secretary given to including a new strategic hub covering the western valleys of the Amman and Gwendraeth as part of the ministerial taskforce for the valleys?
Adam Price: I do think that, as we look at this policy area—it does make you feel particularly depressed, because this was the technology that had the potential for us to undo the disbenefits of being geographically peripheral, or being located in a rural location. It was this technology that was supposed to provide the solution for rural business, but, because of the lack of progress that’s taken...
Adam Price: I was wondering if possibly the Cabinet Secretary could address the key point in the question, which is the concern about the soaring cost, potentially. In the interests of transparency, it is true, isn't it, that this is effectively a modified private finance scheme with a public sector equity stake, but the standard form that is being used was based originally on the Department of Health...
Adam Price: Well, in the debate that later we'll be having on digital infrastructure Members will form their own view on whether Superfast Cymru should be held out as a paragon in terms of what we want to achieve with this contracting process. Can I just paraphrase the answers that he's just given me? So, the Welsh Government hasn't reached final agreement on franchise funding with the UK Government. You...
Adam Price: Cabinet Secretary, isn't the real reason that Arriva pulled out because there are too many unknowns with this franchise? It's difficult for us to form a judgment of that because, of course, the Welsh Government has departed from the standard practice of actually publishing the invitation tender, but we do know, of course, that there are unknowns about the exact nature of the devolution of...
Adam Price: Diolch, Llywydd. As we know, Cabinet Secretary, one of the four companies bidding for the Wales and borders franchise suddenly and unexpectedly pulled out of the process on 30 October. I asked you in a written question what the reasons were for that decision and you said in a written statement on 9 November that that was because of their own commercial analysis of the contract. I...
Adam Price: 2. Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on the A465 Heads of the Valleys road enlargement scheme, following reports that the long-term cost of the project could soar from £428 million to more than £1.2 billion? 68
Adam Price: What discussions has the Cabinet Secretary had regarding the Amman Valley railway?
Adam Price: Earlier this afternoon, Llywydd, the leader of the opposition asked the First Minister whether he still stood by the reply he gave to Darren Millar in 2014 that there had been no allegations of bullying, or whether he had misled the Assembly. Now, the First Minister refused to respond to that question, so we have complete lack of clarity now as to whether the Assembly was misled, which is a...
Adam Price: The common practice, I believe, is to refer the question to the Cabinet Secretary. The Minister yesterday referred to the need for evidence now for the best models in terms of language regulation. I think that the predecessor Minister had only been able to refer to a very general report on regulation from the House of Lords, which went back to 2004. So, there's a lack of an evidence base;...
Adam Price: I was very pleased to be able to speak at a Seren network event in Llanelli on Friday. I think all of us would want to encourage as many Welsh students as possible to apply for these two world-leading education institutions, but also to others in the same category as well—to Trinity College Dublin, to the Sorbonne, to Heidelberg, to Tübingen, and further afield to Princeton, Stanford and...
Adam Price: I would have to declare an interest. But, look, the Diamond review made a commitment that we would actually open access to right across Europe and also have a pilot beyond Europe itself—for North American and other leading institutions. Can the Cabinet Secretary update us on where the Welsh Government are with that proposal?
Adam Price: 12. Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on the Welsh language White Paper? OAQ51289
Adam Price: What consideration has the Cabinet Secretary given to the use of patient hotels within the Welsh health service?
Adam Price: I was talking about the main Welsh language organisations that have convened their opposition to the idea of abolishing the Welsh Language Commissioner.
Adam Price: Could I also welcome the new Minister to the post? Also, could I congratulate her for saying that she has an open mind? That has characterised her and her attitude towards politics generally, the fact that she does reach out to people. And we greatly need that, I think, in discussing where we go from here with this White Paper because the debate about the annual report, of course, naturally,...
Adam Price: If that is the case—and I agree with you, First Minister, because of the historic low interest rates that we're still facing, notwithstanding the recent decision to have a slight increase—why aren't we borrowing at the full amount available to us? I mean, we are not actually even drawing down over the next three financial years the full £425 million that we could borrow. We're £50...
Adam Price: I’m grateful to the Chair of the committee upon which I sit. I’ve written to him and pointed out that you’ve misrepresented me on a whole series of occasions. You’ve just read out the quote—what did it say? Explore: exactly what the Cabinet Secretary said, so stop making things up by saying that we support it. We’re saying we have open minds. Let’s look at the merits and...
Adam Price: Well, the Scottish Government, last month, in its programme for government, has committed to scrapping the pay cap for NHS staff, for teachers, for civil servants and other hard-pressed public sector workers. Responding to this, the interim leader of the Labour Party in Scotland, Alex Rowley, said: This SNP u-turn is long overdue, and it is welcome to see that’ finance secretary Derek...
Adam Price: 3. Will the Welsh Government scrap the public sector pay cap? (OAQ51243)
