Mike Hedges: 6. Will the Minister make a statement on Flying Start? OAQ(5)0040(ERA)
Mike Hedges: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. First of all, I’d like to express my disappointment at the statement by the Cabinet Secretary. I believe that Communities First is doing an excellent job in my constituency. But I’ve said for years that Communities First and Flying Start should be based on communities, not driven by the way the Office of National Statistics decides to collect data....
Mike Hedges: Does the First Minister agree with me that what is important is outcomes not inputs? And will the First Minister join me in congratulating Swansea council on record-breaking GCSE results, and Pentrehafod School and Morriston Comprehensive School—two Schools Challenge Cymru schools—on their excellent GCSE results?
Mike Hedges: Will the Minister provide an update on the Welsh Government's strategy for developing the ICT industry in Wales?
Mike Hedges: Okay. Can I ask two questions very briefly? [Laughter.] Why do we want to have a city region and another region for services? Surely, the city region is the footprint. I think that you might want to sub-divide within the footprint, but having it across—. Swansea and Neath Port Talbot will be called Janus, because we look east for some things and west for the others. It just does not make a...
Mike Hedges: Can I also thank the Cabinet Secretary for his statement? Councils in Britain are the largest in Europe, as the Cabinet Secretary knows. John Stewart has said ‘the average size of a British local authority is 10 times the average size of local authorities in the rest of Europe.’ At a Gorwel meeting last week, chaired by David Melding, it was stated that Slovenia, a country roughly the...
Mike Hedges: I believe that the Swansea bay city region is developing very well as a vehicle for economic development. I, however, see a more strategic role for it in things like a structure plan. Does the First Minister agree, and will the First Minister look to use the footprint of the Swansea bay city region for Welsh Government-funded public services?
Mike Hedges: 1. Will the First Minister provide an update on the Swansea Bay City Region? OAQ(5)0171(FM)
Mike Hedges: Diolch. Can I first of all thank you, acting Presiding Officer, and, more importantly, can I thank Eluned Morgan for a minute in this debate, and raising the issues? Let me state at the outset I don’t necessarily agree with everything she said, but I think the issues are worth raising, and they are important. Most social services departments in Wales are under more financial pressure than...
Mike Hedges: Thank you, Cabinet Secretary, for that response. As well as the Estyn inspections, schools also undergo an annual assessment by the regional consortium under the GAR—better known as the traffic light system. Why do they produce different results, and which ones should parents pay most attention to?
Mike Hedges: 6. Will the Minister make a statement on Estyn inspection of schools in Wales? OAQ(5)0019(EDU)
Mike Hedges: I welcome the statement by the Chair and the new practice of committee Chairs reporting to the Plenary session. Can I congratulate whoever came up with that as an idea, because I think it does help with the Assembly to make sure that committees don’t work in little silos, but actually inform the rest of the Assembly as to exactly what’s happening? As we move from solely an allocation of...
Mike Hedges: I thank the Minister for that response. I think we’ve seen local authorities doing incredibly well with diminishing funds. The local government data unit’s details on council performance was, I found, very interesting. I can, however, find no evidence that larger authorities are performing better than medium or small authorities. Can the Minister find that evidence from the data?
Mike Hedges: Can I associate myself with the remarks that Dai Lloyd made? I think that almost everybody, if not everybody, who represents the area, and certainly the people who live in the area, are concerned that it seems to be taking a long time for the city deal to actually come to fruition in Swansea as opposed to other places in Britain. What I would like to ask the Minister is: what further needs to...
Mike Hedges: 7. Will the Minister make a statement on the performance of Welsh councils? OAQ(5)0021(FLG)
Mike Hedges: Can I ask for a statement on census data collection for the 2021 census? What input does either the National Assembly or Welsh Government have on the boundaries of lower super output areas? These data, as you know, are used by the Welsh Government to target anti-poverty programmes. The mix created can—and has in my constituency—led to some of the poorest parts missing out because they...
Mike Hedges: First Minister, do you agree with me that it’s of prime importance, in devolving any taxes, for Wales to suffer no detriment from the devolution of those taxes? Will you press for independent arbitration to resolve disputes with the Treasury? I don’t want to sound pessimistic, but I have a feeling that we may end up with the odd dispute with the Treasury. And if the Treasury acts as judge...
Mike Hedges: I very much welcome the statement by the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government on the land transaction tax. We know, on the land transaction tax, it’s a volatile and cyclical tax. We also know that it fell by £110 million between 2007-08 and 2009-10. We also know that the rate of increasing revenue in the south east, especially London, is greater than in the rest of the United...
Mike Hedges: This is the second cyclical set of GCSE results that have been achieved since Schools Challenge Cymru was launched. I visited Pentrehafod School and Morriston Comprehensive School on GCSE results day to be told that Pentrehafod had achieved their best ever GCSE results, and that Morriston had increased their A* to C grades by 17 per cent. Can I ask the Cabinet Secretary for Education to make...
Mike Hedges: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I have given a minute in this debate—[Interruption.]
