Andrew RT Davies: I welcome the chairman’s statement this afternoon. This is something that we had in our manifesto at the Assembly election last year—rejected by the people of Wales, hence the Government’s sitting on this bench here. But I do think there’s a wider issue here that, with the increasing number of appointments and the stature that has been highlighted previously by the Plaid Cymru speaker...
Andrew RT Davies: Leader of the house, obviously, as you just pointed out, the export of live animals under very specific conditions and stringent animal health protections is a lawful practice, but one thing that would help add value to livestock here in Wales would be to have a very strong processing sector. The cattle sector, for example, has very limited capacity and is concentrated in very few hands. In...
Andrew RT Davies: I have the letter here—it is in the public domain, so you can comment on it—that was sent to James Price at the beginning of March that clearly itemises the allegations that were made against the chair and how those allegations were rebuked. There are some very serious allegations levelled against the previous chair and also the current chief executive of Sport Wales. Sport Wales handles...
Andrew RT Davies: I am told that the review has been concluded, First Minister, and, on 13 February, the Welsh Government’s deputy permanent secretary, James Price, dismissed all the allegations made against the then chair and offered him three options to move the situation forward, all of which saw him continuing his involvement in some shape or form within Sport Wales. What happened in the very short...
Andrew RT Davies: Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. First Minister, why did the Welsh Government decide last week to sack the chair of Sport Wales given that, upon his appointment, the then incoming chairman was told by the Welsh Government representative that he was entering a toxic environment and that he was tasked with tackling a dysfunctional and insular organisation? Does all your Government agree...
Andrew RT Davies: I well remember the first time I walked into this Chamber, in 2007, and Claire was the other side, there, to take the oath of office for newly elected Members. I didn’t realise the mosaic in front of us here—the Heart of Wales—was there; I just set my eyes on the clerk of the Assembly and walked straight across the mosaic, and sent the fear of God into the clerk. I was, at that stage,...
Andrew RT Davies: First Minister, thank you for your statement this afternoon. It clearly is an historic day—the Prime Minister triggering article 50 that begins the formal negotiation process after the referendum result in June last year. I do take exception to your paragraph that talks about the Welsh Government being left out of the loop and not included in the negotiation process. I have to say that the...
Andrew RT Davies: Can I raise a point of order, Presiding Officer?
Andrew RT Davies: Cabinet Secretary, obviously earlier in the week it was well documented that four of the health boards are facing significant financial challenges, double what their equivalents over the other side of Offa’s Dyke are facing, and it will be a real struggle for many of these health boards to be able to reconfigure some of their services whilst managing those budgetary pressures. How confident...
Andrew RT Davies: Cabinet Secretary, obviously, the city deal concept is going to be the driver of much economic activity and regeneration, both in the Swansea area and the Cardiff area. With the Cardiff city deal, 10 local authorities make up that agreement, many of them in the Valleys areas. The way we measure success, obviously, is via gross value added and economic activity coming out of the Valleys. Where...
Andrew RT Davies: Leader of the house, I’ve raised on several occasions the state and condition of the A48 and, in particular, the stretch between Culverhouse Cross and Bridgend, sadly to no avail. I don’t seem to get much of a response back from the Welsh Government as to what their maintenance arrangements are going to be, but, today, we’ve also had a very timely reminder of the need to make sure that...
Andrew RT Davies: Cabinet Secretary, thank you for your responses so far. The pictures that came out from many of these fires were dramatic, in the negative sense, over the weekend, because, obviously, there is the potential to life—not just of the firemen and women, obviously, who are tackling these blazes, but also residents in close proximity to the blazes as well. I well remember your colleague Leighton...
Andrew RT Davies: I deliberately used four out of six, because, obviously, Powys health board does not have a district general hospital within its area, and the high end of acute services is in the district general hospitals, and those seem to be the health boards that do clearly have a big deficit problem, as I’ve used Abertawe Bro Morgannwg with a projected deficit next year of £52 million. You talk about...
Andrew RT Davies: In fairness, Betsi is in special measures, run by the Welsh Government, but you can’t divorce the ability to put money into the health service from maintaining the services that people rely on, and my question to you was about the endorsement of the Cabinet Secretary’s point that no services would be lost because of money. When Abertawe Bro Morgannwg, one of the four health boards, is...
Andrew RT Davies: Thank you, Presiding Officer. Yesterday, First Minister, we learned that four health boards in Wales have a chronic deficit position, and I think that’s a fair comment—a chronic deficit position. The Welsh Government have drawn a line in the sand and said that they will not be bailed out. The health Secretary did say that no services will be lost anywhere in Wales because of a lack of...
Andrew RT Davies: Minister, obviously with the childcare proposals that the Government are putting forward, there have been submissions from the Government that you’re going to be using the school estate in some aspects to provide some of this capacity. Will you envisage that cover supervisors would be encouraged or trained to help support the Government’s roll-out of the 30 hours of free childcare over...
Andrew RT Davies: Leader of the house, can we have a statement from the Cabinet Secretary for health, please, on paediatric rheumatology services in Wales? Sadly, in Wales, we do not have any paediatric rheumatology services—dedicated services—and in particular we do not have any teams to help young people who are diagnosed with arthritis at very young ages, very often at school age, and this causes a huge...
Andrew RT Davies: I welcome that. I would have liked, maybe, a more definitive mark as to where you would like to see GVA over the period growing to from where it is at the moment, at 74 per cent. But it is important that Cardiff has got a city deal and that Swansea city region has got a city deal. Obviously, north Wales desperately needs the growth deal to be delivered. Yesterday in ‘The Guardian’, you...
Andrew RT Davies: And you are confident, First Minister, with this deal, that GVA, which is about 74 per cent of the UK level in the Swansea city region, will increase over the 15 years of the deal. So, can you give us some firm indicators that you will be benchmarking, and you Government will be benchmarking, as success? What can we expect in the three, five, eight and 10 years when this deal will be coming...
Andrew RT Davies: Thank you, Presiding Officer. Can I first of all wish you many happy returns, First Minister? As someone who’s got many years to go before I hit the milestone of 50, I look forward to maybe you telling me what it’s like. [Laughter.] But I wish you all the best on your birthday today, and I’d also like to send best wishes to the Cabinet Secretary for rural affairs who, obviously, is...
