Mark Isherwood: The annual cost to the Welsh NHS for treating people who are made ill by living in a cold, damp home is approximately £67 million annually. Evidence by National Energy Action shows that a cold home can worsen arthritic conditions and rheumatic conditions, and increase propensity for falls. GP consultations for respiratory tract infections can increase by up to 19 per cent for every 1...
Mark Isherwood: Diolch. Can I start by saying I've given a minute to David Melding, who will be speaking after I conclude, with your indulgence? A household in Wales is in fuel poverty if they spend 10 per cent or more of their income on energy costs. As chair of the cross-party group on fuel poverty and energy efficiency now, I also recall the hard work of the cross-party group on fuel poverty in the third...
Mark Isherwood: Last Thursday, the Economy, Infrastructure and Skills Committee visited the Anglesey enterprise zone board and we met representatives of the board—Anglesey council, Menter Môn, third sector, businesses and education—and they told us how important the significant electricity transmission infrastructure is not only to the development of Wylfa Newydd, the new nuclear power station, but to...
Mark Isherwood: Sea bed surveying and mapping are of key importance to our economy. The Irish have already acted on this. The EU is now starting too. There's a danger that both Wales and the UK will be left behind. Bangor University has the biggest university-run sea bed research vessel in the UK, the Prince Madog, which is key both to our economy and to fisheries management as we look to the future. But,...
Mark Isherwood: Significant opportunities exist for the agri-food sector in north Wales, including improved supply chain collaboration and associated efficiency improvements. In fact, the brand Wales encapsulates premium fresh produce backed up by great taste, the quality of Welsh grassland, the family farm tradition, the commitment of all in the supply chain and the location of abattoirs and processing...
Mark Isherwood: 8. What opportunities has the Welsh Government had to research sea beds off the coast of Wales? OAQ51737
Mark Isherwood: Thank you. My 12 years as a voluntary, unpaid housing association board member taught me that a well-run association, a non-profit association, can be the most effective vehicle for delivering social housing and tenant empowerment. Do you recognise what we learnt—that top-down tenant engagement, top-down consultation, was ineffective, whereas getting down, bottom-up, engaging with tenants,...
Mark Isherwood: Will you acknowledge the fact that the last Labour budget cut police funding by £548 million up to 2014 and that further cuts would have followed by the subsequent economic announcements made by the then opposition Ministers in UK Government?
Mark Isherwood: Well, with Welsh police budgets funded, as we've heard, by Home Office, Welsh Government and council tax, we will support the motion. The Conservative-led UK Government elected in 2010 inherited £545 million-worth of police cuts from Labour’s final budget, to be made by 2014. Labour’s deficit reduction and spending plans under Mr Miliband would have meant equivalent police budgets to...
Mark Isherwood: Could I call for single statement, please, on services for people in Wales with dystonia, a neurological condition that can affect any part of the body? Responding to the health Secretary's statement last September here on the Welsh Government's neurological conditions delivery plan, I noted that the number of people living with the condition had doubled in Wales to 5,000 since the plan...
Mark Isherwood: Both the Economy, Infrastructure and Skills Committee and the External Affairs and Additional Legislation Committee have gathered evidence from people like the Canadian consulate in Brussels, the Irish Government and others, giving us examples of how low-friction trade occurs across borders and through ports. We know that Irish Ferries last month confirmed their order for what will be the...
Mark Isherwood: You referred to the borrowing cap. Would you agree that when the borrowing caps were first introduced, following exit from the housing revenue account by agreement with local authorities, it was expected that those would be devoted primarily to helping the stock transfers that had not met the Welsh housing quality standard to achieve the Welsh housing quality standard? How, therefore, are you...
Mark Isherwood: Yesterday, EU negotiator Michel Barnier said he respected the UK's decision to rule out any form of long-term customs union, but he did add—and I'm sure the First Minister will be alluding to this—that, without a customs union and outside the single market, 'barriers to trade in goods and services are unavoidable', which, of course, is exactly the position we would expect at the start...
Mark Isherwood: I only wish to raise a single item and call on the Welsh Government to have a Government debate on prevention and early intervention services, which its legislation and its statements continuously and rightly support, but in practice its actions are stripping out these services at huge additional cost to our health services and social services, which are at crisis level. Last week, we heard...
Mark Isherwood: Six years ago, in February 2012, it was reported that a patient had to wait in an ambulance for more than seven hours outside of Ysbyty Gwynedd because of a hospital bed shortage. Last December, Betsi Cadwaladr University Local Health Board released figures showing that 1,010 patients had faced handovers of more than an hour outside their hospitals in October. Last month, with ambulances...
Mark Isherwood: What support does the Welsh Government provide for families with children with additional learning needs?
Mark Isherwood: The petition submitted to the Petitions Committee by Whizz-Kidz rightly calls for disabled people to get the right to access full public transport when required—a call I first heard some 15 years ago on the Equality of Opportunity Committee, something we've all sequentially signed up to, and yet, we are we are. In his response to the Petitions Committee report, the Cabinet Secretary for...
Mark Isherwood: You will know, as a Government Minister, that you have to have the freedom to ask your officials to do blue-sky planning, including all options, including some which you may be horrified by, so that the Government, in private, can decide what to prioritise, bring forward, propose and make public. An early draft of ongoing analysis in support of the UK Government's Brexit negotiations and...
Mark Isherwood: You will recall in the last Assembly the three opposition parties then worked together to secure concessions from the Welsh Government. We took them to the line over the Violence against Women, Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence (Wales) Act 2015, and that included a commitment from the Welsh Government, alongside support from Peter Black from your party then and Jocelyn Davies from Plaid...
Mark Isherwood: Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on progress in implementing the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014?
