Joyce Watson: 4. Will the First Minister make a statement on Welsh Government action to tackle forced labour in Wales? OAQ(51050)
Joyce Watson: I’d like to thank Darren for giving me time to speak in what is a really, really important debate. The issue of gambling that I want to focus on is football games. I am a huge football fan and I’ve noticed recently that I cannot watch a football game without being bombarded on the tv in my sitting room to bet on the next outcome—whether somebody’s going to score a goal, whether it’s...
Joyce Watson: If you throw it, you need to take it back.
Joyce Watson: Your insinuation.
Joyce Watson: Will you take an intervention before you go any further?
Joyce Watson: Thank you. I thank you for taking the intervention. Do you agree with the House of Commons research library that the Conservative Government has built the fewest number of houses in England and Wales since Baldwin?
Joyce Watson: Thank you, Cabinet Secretary.
Joyce Watson: We move on now to a statement by the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government on local government reform, and I call on the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government to make the statement. Mark Drakeford.
Joyce Watson: And finally, Hefin David.
Joyce Watson: I’ve got a number of speakers who want to be called, so if individuals can get to their questions, maybe I can get through the list, and if Ministers can equally be brief. Jenny Rathbone.
Joyce Watson: My visit to Srebrenica, going to that memorial at Potočari, meeting the survivors of the genocide—that experience stands out as one of the most important things that I’ve done, both politically and personally. Srebrenica was the final act of the worst European genocide since the war, and, in remembering its victims, we must never forget the 20,000 to 50,000 women and girls, mostly...
Joyce Watson: Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. The first thing I’d like to do is to thank David Melding for creating an opportunity for me and, as he said, 50 per cent of the Assembly Members, to meet two fantastic families and their very courageous children, and also for creating an opportunity for us here today to recognise their condition and to ask for some support in that regard. That event was called ‘Too...
Joyce Watson: I want to use some quotes here from the Association of Teachers and Lecturers union. I want to use them particularly because they’re not party affiliated, so that the obvious can’t come back from the other side. And they actually do state in their evidence that the use of agency workers in the public sector comes at an extremely high risk, and that it undermines the right of hard-working,...
Joyce Watson: Will you take an intervention?
Joyce Watson: One reason that strike action in the public sector in Wales is comparatively rare—and I will make a very rare comparison with England here, because I don’t usually do that. But we have seen in the last few years high-profile disputes in England within the public sector, like the one the junior doctors staged, and it was bitter and it was vitriolic. We haven’t had that here in Wales, and...
Joyce Watson: Leader of the house, I’d like a statement on discretionary housing payments, please. Figures from Shelter Cymru have clearly shown that £100,000 of this money, which was there specifically to help people whose housing benefit didn’t cover the cost of their rent, was sent back by local authorities to Westminster last year. Five councils, three of those in my constituency, did account for...
Joyce Watson: What discussions has the Welsh Government had with local authorities regarding discretionary housing payments?
Joyce Watson: At the end of this week, Cabinet Secretary, I will be travelling to the north of my constituency. In fact, I will be traveling to Harlech. When it comes to arranging meetings or any other events in Harlech, there is a natural place where we settle upon that is mutually convenient and extremely important to the area, and of course I’m talking about Harlech castle. I know that the community,...
Joyce Watson: Thank you, Cabinet Secretary.
Joyce Watson: We will move on now to the statement by the Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Infrastructure: historic environment policy and legislation. I call on the Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Infrastructure to make the statement—Ken Skates.
