Jenny Rathbone: 6. What is the biggest challenge facing the Welsh Government in meeting its 2030 carbon reduction target? OAQ52669
Jenny Rathbone: I think this is a very skilful budget, under very difficult circumstances. We all have to note the £800 million that might have been available if we'd managed to maintain the amount of money that could have been expected in line with inflation, if the UK Government wasn't continuing to stick with this austerity programme, which is causing so much pain to so many of our citizens. I think...
Jenny Rathbone: What can the Welsh Government do to increase life expectancy in Wales?
Jenny Rathbone: I agree with those who say that we really haven't done enough over the last five years. I was involved in the drafting of this Act, and, really, our progress on implementation and impact has been pretty disappointing. I think that we have to now pursue at pace the change that we must make—£62 million has been suggested, I think, by Adam Price. This is small beer—absolutely small...
Jenny Rathbone: Thank you for giving way. I just wonder whether the committee have analysed how many children we're actually talking about, given that only 3.8 per cent of the working population is unemployed. How many children are we talking about?
Jenny Rathbone: I was pleased to hear Steffan Lewis, in his remarks, mention food security as one of the major issues that we need to consider in the possibility of a 'no deal' with the European Union situation because I, like you, would hope that Mrs May can come up with a deal that we can all sign up to, but the Parliamentary arithmetic in Westminster makes it very difficult to see how that's going to...
Jenny Rathbone: Two issues, leader of the house. One is that I'm very concerned at the two reports recently issued by the United Nations Children's Fund about the extent of the damage to children from air pollution. One report says that children in around 2,000 schools across the UK are being exposed to illegal and unsafe levels of nitrogen dioxide pollution. I'm sad to say that several of them are in my...
Jenny Rathbone: How is the Welsh Government planning to achieve a 43 per cent reduction in vehicle emissions by 2030?
Jenny Rathbone: I hadn't intended to speak about immigration, but I think Gareth Bennett's remarks require some challenge, because I absolutely don't think that the issues we face in our economy are to do with too many people looking for work. I think it's much more about our attitude towards the people capital that we have and how we deploy it, and in the context of automation that's an extremely important...
Jenny Rathbone: Thank you very much, Paul Davies, for raising these important issues around people on the autistic spectrum, which are complicated. However, I'm not convinced that a Bill is the right response. This is not a party political matter, and we're going to be given a free vote, so—. I don't think it should be under any circumstances a party political matter. For example, the example given by...
Jenny Rathbone: I absolutely agree with you that compulsory mergers are unlikely to produce good local government, because people will be focusing on that rather than on the services they need to deliver. So, I welcome very much your proposal to go ahead with voluntary mergers where local authorities feel comfortable about merging, but we obviously have some considerable challenges ahead, as you say, not...
Jenny Rathbone: It's hard to follow that. I think we'd all like to think that the Chequers deal is not dead in the water, but the idea that this is fun and games is obviously not the case. If people like Justine Greening are saying that the UK Parliament is incapable of making a decision, it's extremely scary. The majority of my constituents are involved in a services business of one sort or another, whether...
Jenny Rathbone: When does the Welsh Government expect the public inquiry into the M4 around Newport to publish its findings?
Jenny Rathbone: Having met a large group of mesh survivors here with Jane Hutt on Monday, both women and men, it's clear to me that the issue of informed consent is quite a major one, because people were not informed about potential complications and it's disappointing that it's taken the medical profession so many years to really listen to their patients and understand the level of suffering that people...
Jenny Rathbone: What is the Welsh Government doing to embed the partnership work being done in public service boards?
Jenny Rathbone: It’s very difficult to disagree with David Melding. Good housing is a right for all, and so thought Nye Bevan. He was the one who drove the very high standards of social housing that we were blessed with in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Obviously, we would be well served to come back to those higher standards, because those houses have lasted the test of time and are sustainable. Whilst I...
Jenny Rathbone: Well, ninety years after all women got the vote, we haven't used it that well in getting the changes we needed in promoting women's economic equality. That's particularly around women's primary role in looking after children, because women and men are paid roughly the same until they have children. It's after they have children—for most women, it is descending into living in poverty. The...
Jenny Rathbone: Yes, I'll wind up to say that I think this, in conjunction with the failure to control the obscenely high salaries of the very large companies, may undermine the whole process of large companies' business and it now needs reforming substantially.
Jenny Rathbone: I had intended to speak about Capita, but the mere mention of the name reminds me of the meeting that Jane Hutt and I had this morning with victims of, mainly, vaginal mesh implants, who, unprompted, were absolutely apoplectic about Capita's role on behalf of Department for Work and Pensions in assessing these people as to whether or not they were still eligible for attendance allowances...
Jenny Rathbone: One of the issues that I'm concerned about, which is a huge ethical issue, is the increasing conjoining of the gambling industry with sport. There's research done by Goldsmiths college in London that shows that gambling logos are on televised matches most of the time. This is deliberately trying to inject into the minds of children that gambling is a part of being a sports fan, and it seems...
