Joyce Watson: 4. Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on support in improving road safety in Mid and West Wales? OAQ(5)0154(EI)
Joyce Watson: You did.
Joyce Watson: As you know, Cabinet Secretary, two of those local health boards that are affected are in my region. Before the hares start running—and they already have today—I would like you, if you will, to please restate that services will not suffer, and I will ask you also if you will bring back to this Chamber the programme for action that you intend to ask those health boards to implement to...
Joyce Watson: I thank you for that answer. The new treatment fund certainly does demonstrate the Welsh Government's commitment to delivering on their 2016 election pledge and, as I understand it, that new treatment fund will help expedite access to new medicines that have been recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, NICE, and the All Wales Medicines Strategy Group, for a whole...
Joyce Watson: 6. Will the First Minister provide an update on the new treatment fund? OAQ(5)0533(FM)
Joyce Watson: It’s really hard for us to think here that, in 2017, young girls across the UK, and possibly in Wales, are actually missing school because they can’t afford the sanitary protection that they need. And it is quite clear that this is an issue of poverty. So, I ask you, Cabinet Secretary—or Minister—if it’s possible for you to assess the prospect of working with schools, through...
Joyce Watson: Thank you. That brings today’s proceedings to a close.
Joyce Watson: I call on the Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Infrastructure to reply to the debate.
Joyce Watson: Thank you for allowing me to take part. I don’t want to repeat anything that’s already been said, so I want to focus my contribution to today’s debate on the different methods of waste collection. There are three main types. The method advocated by the Welsh Government in its collection blueprint is kerbside sort. That involves the users sorting the dry recyclable waste into different...
Joyce Watson: I’m sure that you will recall coming to Kidwelly and visiting the new houses being built at Morfa Maen in 2013 under the then Labour leadership of Carmarthenshire County Council—the first council to build council houses in Wales since the 1980s. We now have 11 home-owning Welsh authorities that have exited the housing revenue account subsidy, and that does mean that they now retain their...
Joyce Watson: Last week, I asked what was being done to prevent female genital mutilation and to support those who are affected by it. A year ago, on International Women’s Day, the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children and BAWSO, supported by the Cardiff and Vale University Local Health Board, launched Voices Over Silence, and it’s a project aimed at doing just that. It is a Welsh...
Joyce Watson: We are, here in the Welsh Assembly, a young institution, but this Assembly has indeed got a very proud record of honouring and enacting the principles and the aims of International Women’s Day, as do successive Welsh Labour-led Governments. Since devolution, we’ve been amongst the most gender-balanced legislatures in the world—the first to elect an equal number of able women and able...
Joyce Watson: Thank you very much for bringing this extremely important debate forward here today. I’m going to focus my minute on young carers, those under 18 years of age, who, according to the 2011 census—it identified over 11,500 young carers in Wales offering ongoing care and emotional support to their family members. Young carers often experience isolation, bullying, and they struggle...
Joyce Watson: Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on community pharmacy services in Mid and West Wales?
Joyce Watson: I thank you for that answer. It is somewhat amazing that there have been no protection orders whatsoever issued and, consequently, no prosecutions for FGM in Wales. It is a crime against the person and it is the brutal abuse of minors, and we need to, in my opinion, call it out for what it is: it is child abuse—nothing more, nothing less. So, what I’m going to ask, Cabinet Secretary, is:...
Joyce Watson: 9. Will the First Minister make a statement on female genital mutilation protection orders in Wales? OAQ(5)0470(FM)
Joyce Watson: I want to also pay some tribute to Pembrokeshire Disabled Bowlers Club. They actually run a scheme for all disabled people, whatever your disability. I spent some time there, in Milford Haven leisure centre, with them last Monday. What was absolutely clear about it was that people who had previously been absolutely isolated were now coming together as a collective group. I want to pay tribute...
Joyce Watson: I’m really pleased to make a contribution to this afternoon’s debate, in part to celebrate LGBT History Month, and I speak today as the Assembly Commissioner with responsibility for equality and diversity. I want to thank Hannah Blythyn for bringing forward this important debate today, which has also been supported by Jeremy Miles, Adam Price and Suzy Davies. It is hugely important that,...
Joyce Watson: That has been, Janet, a lifelong ambition of mine, and I think everybody everywhere can join in that. And that is what we do. But, anyway, going back to the report, in Wales, the percentage of required IDVAs to support victims at high risk of abuse is 73 per cent, and, although this does compare well to many areas in England, like the Midlands, whose percentage is a very poor 40 per cent,...
Joyce Watson: Just a second. Of why support to victims of domestic abuse must be a priority.
