Mark Reckless: Does he agree with me that, even with delays and now the postponement of the Filton Bank work into Bristol, electrification offers huge opportunities for Newport as a business hub, and does he also recognise that, combined with both the western rail link and expansion at Heathrow, we will be ideally placed to benefit as we jump to the front of the queue for a trade deal with the United States?
Mark Reckless: 7. Will the Minister make a statement on the likely improvement in journey times between Newport and other destinations between south Wales and London following electrification? OAQ(5)0061(EI)
Mark Reckless: I’m grateful to the Cabinet Secretary for his statement, and I’ve got four questions. Firstly, I recognise that, when he says that 30 hours of provision a week, 48 hours a year will be the most generous offer available in the UK, he is right. The delivery is still to come, but I would credit both him and his party, and the Welsh Government, with the ambition and what they’re trying to...
Mark Reckless: The outgoing President suggested that the UK mind find ourselves at the back of the queue if we voted for Brexit. Given what has happened with the referendum result, the election of a new President today, but also the stalling of the transatlantic trade and investment partnership negotiations and the formidable challenges they face, is it actually possible that Wales within the United Kingdom...
Mark Reckless: What assessment has the First Minister made of whether the Wales Bill respects the 2011 referendum decision?
Mark Reckless: The Member says that we should know how much the Government is spending. He will recall, as do I, that before the election great play was made by the Labour Government of the £70-odd million they’d be spending every year on climate change projects. Indeed, the previous Cabinet Secretary criticised quite strongly those who thought this money might, in any sense, be better spent elsewhere,...
Mark Reckless: I apologise, I haven’t read all the Counsel General’s speeches, but I am delighted to ask him a question. He anticipates this upsurge in litigation to the Supreme Court with disagreement and uncertainty on the basis of the Wales Bill, at least in its current form. I wonder what consideration he’d given to the resource implications for his office of such an upsurge in litigation.
Mark Reckless: I’m grateful to the commission—in particular the Welsh commissioner, June Milligan, having taken over from Ann Beynon, who I’d like to thank for her work in that role—for this report, ‘Towards a Fairer Wales’. I think it’s important to understand that this report is from the Wales committee that is chaired by the Welsh commissioner as the lead officer of the EHRC, who supports...
Mark Reckless: I commend the Cabinet Secretary and the Government, on the whole, on the system that is proposed. It doubtless will provide much more flexibility and support for working parents, but I disagree with his assertion that that flexibility and support for working parents has previously been part of the Welsh system. Five 2.5-hour sessions without flexibility makes it far harder for two parents to...
Mark Reckless: To speak more about the financing, as a father of a two-year-old and a four-year-old I’ve experienced both the Welsh and the English systems for childcare. It’s clear that the provision in Wales, largely, in schools is good in quality, but the inflexibility of five 2.5-hour sessions means that it’s very difficult for many working parents to take advantage of it, and the rate at which...
Mark Reckless: Diolch, Lywydd. Cabinet Secretary, you told the Finance Committee this morning that there was £10 million in the budget for the coming year for pilot schemes for the Government’s childcare plans. The overall budget, I think you said, when it’s fully operational, will be £84 million. Can we therefore assume that around one in eight areas will benefit from a pilot, and when will we be...
Mark Reckless: I’m grateful to the Cabinet Secretary for the statement and the substance in it. You’ve already heard, I think, from three members of the Climate Change, Environment and Rural Affairs Committee, and I think Members have determined we would like to do at least a short inquiry on this—likely to be on the full day, Thursday 10 November—and I would like to ask if you’d be available to...
Mark Reckless: We're looking forward to the extra money from Brussels, which will stand the Welsh Government and the UK Government in good stead in due course, once we leave. The Plaid statement earlier we had from Adam Price—I think he said just now that ‘we will deliver together’, and I think he was quoted in the media earlier as saying that waiting times in the NHS will be reduced on account of...
Mark Reckless: I thank the Cabinet Secretary for his statement and advance notice thereof, although I think I must have missed his phone call. [Laughter.] I have, though, got the copy of the budget during the First Minister's statement—[Interruption.] Oh well, never mind, never mind. I've been doing my best to at least scan-read the budget since my question at First Minister's questions, while, of course,...
Mark Reckless: If the Government’s mind is still open on this matter, will the First Minister note that university participation at this income level is already high? Mark Drakeford will be setting out later the financial pressures the Welsh Government faces and, just in response to my party colleagues earlier, you said that you weren’t able even to estimate a start date for construction on the metro,...
Mark Reckless: 5. What will be the cost of giving means tested grants to newly eligible students from households earning between £50,020 and £81,000? OAQ(5)0219(FM)
Mark Reckless: For the record, I had seen scope for the HS2 to support the Rochester and Stroud economy at the time that it was promised to have a cross-London link to take direct trains from Ebbsfleet to Manchester and Birmingham. That was then taken out of the project, and I withdrew my support and agreed with my colleague that it would not benefit the Welsh economy.
Mark Reckless: Will the Member give way?
Mark Reckless: I’m grateful. I was a little surprised by reference to continuous declines and then citing Abergavenny and saying it was down 39 per cent. I’ve found Abergavenny has been thriving as a town and there’s much positive commercial there, and then in Newport, Friar’s Walk and the development there, I think, has led to more people coming back into the town centre. I just wonder if the...
Mark Reckless: Surely if the Cabinet Secretary hasn’t met the Secretary of State for DEFRA or other UK Ministers sufficiently for the Member’s liking, is that not a matter that has two sides to it, and should there not be some responsibility taken by Ministers in London for not reaching out sufficiently to Welsh Ministers?
