Rebecca Evans: Well, in the light of the wider public health context, theatres and concert halls, as Siân Gwenllian says, are required to remain closed to the general public. And, of course, they are however integral to our approach to testing events, which, unfortunately, won't now be able to resume until February at the earliest. So, it will be, at the earliest, February in terms of when we look at those...
Rebecca Evans: Well, I'd be really grateful if Mark Isherwood could send me some more details of the reasons as to why the B&B owners to whom he refers were not eligible for the discretionary fund. He says that he has, but it hasn't arrived with me yet. So, I'd be keen to understand the reasons behind that, because we are, as I've mentioned in response to Leanne Wood, we are looking to explore what we can...
Rebecca Evans: Thank you to Alun Davies for giving me the opportunity to put on record the Welsh Government's thanks for those individuals and volunteers who have worked so hard throughout the coronavirus pandemic to offer that kind of crisis support to families and individuals who really are on the sharp end of things as a result of the crisis and as a result of 10 years of austerity. Welsh Government has...
Rebecca Evans: I'm grateful, again, to Leanne Wood for raising this issue this afternoon, and I know that she'll be taking up that first specific case with the council in RCT in order to establish what has happened with that particular grant application. It is the case, of course, that Wales does continue to have the most generous package of support for businesses anywhere in the UK, and the third phase of...
Rebecca Evans: Thank you to Darren Millar for raising this issue this afternoon, and of course we keep all aspects of our regulations and our guidance under constant review. I do understand the challenges that the restrictions on singing in places of worship does place on churches and other places of faith within our communities, and I understand the disappointment that many people feel in not being able to...
Rebecca Evans: Diolch, Llywydd. I have three changes to this week's business. The Minister for Health and Social Services will make a statement today on the update on special measures arrangements at Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board. Consequently, the statement on the Valleys taskforce has been postponed until 8 December. Finally, the debate on the Legislation (Wales) Act 2019 (Amendment of Schedule...
Rebecca Evans: So, just turning to some of the specific areas where there is a high degree of interest, one is the £800 million package of support for the NHS in order to help it stabilise and prepare for the anticipated challenges that the next few months will bring. You'll see that reflected in this supplementary budget, alongside £45 million for the COVID-19 contact tracing workforce, £22 million to...
Rebecca Evans: —Conservative benches.
Rebecca Evans: Thank you, Llywydd.
Rebecca Evans: Okay. So, as I was saying, of course, this supplementary budget looks back at the spending that has been undertaken. And I'm very keen to bring forward that third supplementary budget, to which some colleagues have referred, in order to be very clear about the additional spending that will take place throughout the rest of the financial year. However, we have a really important opportunity...
Rebecca Evans: Diolch, Llywydd. This second supplementary budget is an important part of the budget process, but, as Mike Hedges says, it is a very, very different supplementary budget to the one that we would normally bring forward in a more regular year. Following scrutiny, approval of this supplementary budget will authorise the revised spending plans of the Welsh Government and, crucially, it will allow...
Rebecca Evans: Due to the exceptional circumstances of this financial year as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, I published this interim supplementary budget to provide an update on the Welsh Government's fiscal position. It ensures that the Welsh Government's financial position remains transparent. I'd like to thank the Finance Committee for its consideration of this budget and for the publication of...
Rebecca Evans: I'll just reiterate my thanks, Llywydd, to the committee for their work.
Rebecca Evans: Diolch, Llywydd. I welcome this opportunity to explain the background for this legislative consent motion. I'm grateful to the Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee for considering the LCM, and for the report that it's produced. The committee considers there is no impediment to the Senedd agreeing to the legislative consent motion. The UK Government introduced the Non-Domestic...
Rebecca Evans: I thank Mike Hedges for raising those issues. And of course I'm familiar with Mike's scepticism over the MIM approach, and I think it is helpful to have that level of challenge, because we've had some excellent discussions in Finance Committee particularly, but also several times here in the Senedd, when we've explored the MIM model. There was a particular question regarding borrowing and why...
Rebecca Evans: Well, I'm grateful to Rhun ap Iorwerth for raising those issues, and we've talked several times before about the Welsh Government's approach to investment in public infrastructure and maximising the publicly available sources of capital funding and the least expensive forms of capital before we use these more complex and more expensive forms of investment. And I know this is something that...
Rebecca Evans: Thank you very much to Nick Ramsay for his questions, and also his particular interest in this agenda. Of course, I can't resist referring to Nick Ramsay's first comments about austerity, and the fact that the taps have finally been turned on in terms of investment, but it's unfortunate that it's taken a pandemic for that to happen, and it does show that austerity has been a political choice...
Rebecca Evans: The successful completion of this groundbreaking MIM procurement demonstrates what Wales can achieve in difficult times when we address challenges with creativity. Namely, it's the first public-private partnership project of this scale to be signed in the UK since the outbreak of COVID-19. And it's the first PPP project of this scale where negotiations were completed remotely, and these...
Rebecca Evans: Thank you. Earlier this year, I welcomed the report of the Finance Committee into sources of capital funding and its recommendations regarding the mutual investment model. A lot has happened since that time. Hard on the heels of a decade of Westminster-imposed austerity, from which our capital budget has barely recovered, a pandemic has struck Wales—twin threats that we must address by...
Rebecca Evans: Well, I'm not familiar with the particular trees or the stretch of road to which David Rowlands is referring at the moment. So, perhaps I'll invite him to write to the Minister for transport in the first instance, describing the concerns that you have, so that he can look into it and provide you with a more detailed response.
