Suzy Davies: 8. Will the Minister set out how the Welsh Government plans to incorporate Welsh language training with vocational qualifications? OAQ(5)0024(EDU)
Suzy Davies: Can I thank the Welsh Government for tabling this debate? I hope that the administrations in the other nations of the UK will give as warm a welcome to the final charter as the Welsh Government has. Reading statements by the Secretary of State and the Minister has been as heart-warming as opening a Hallmark Valentine’s card. We even have the Minister applauding a strong financial settlement...
Suzy Davies: First Minister, the health board’s integrated performance report of July 2014 states, and I quote, that ‘The Health Board continues to experience significant challenges in the delivery of the Urgent Suspected Cancer referral target in particular.’ At that time, they were reaching 86 per cent of the target rather than the 95 per cent that the Government was looking for. Notwithstanding...
Suzy Davies: Thank you for that answer, First Minister. The Welsh Government’s decision to stick with its existing business scheme hasn’t received the reception you might have liked in your own constituency, First Minister. Traders are already vocal in the criticism of the highest business rates in my region, and perverse rates incentives to keep shops empty. In Bridgend town, in particular, they’re...
Suzy Davies: 4. Will the First Minister set out the next stage of the Welsh Government’s small business rates relief scheme? OAQ(5)0158(FM)
Suzy Davies: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer, and I move the amendments in the name of the Welsh Conservatives. May I thank Plaid Cymru for bringing this matter of Welsh as a second language back to the Chamber so soon in the Assembly term? The Government amendment shows that there are constraints, might we say, on your cosy relationship after all. But, by bringing it back so quickly, it shows that...
Suzy Davies: Yes, can I also be associated with those remarks? And Mike Hedges is quite right to say we’re all rather concerned about this. The membership of the board is pretty evenly balanced between public sector and private sector, but there’s no place on it for business membership groups like the Federation of Small Businesses or other key organisations that really could help maximise use of...
Suzy Davies: I’ll be as quick as I can on this. We hear, albeit anecdotally, that one of the deterrents to recruitment and training in Wales is this rather unfortunate myth that you have to be able to speak Welsh to work in the Welsh NHS. But it’s a Government priority—and it’s one that I agree with—that key individuals within professional primary care need to be able to speak Welsh in order to...
Suzy Davies: Thank you for your statement, First Minister. In it you mentioned a ‘what works’ approach and innovative delivery. There’s a nod in the shared challenge and opportunities section of your pamphlet today to the Government not having a monopoly on good ideas nor on delivery. In which portfolio areas do you anticipate seeing more co-production, more localism and less command and control by...
Suzy Davies: Well, thank you for that, First Minister. On Saturday, I joined a number of colleagues from here, actually, at Swansea’s Stand as One rally. Although Swansea, along with Port Talbot, have managed to resettle a very modest number of refugees, most local authorities in Wales haven’t. Now, Welsh Government and Assembly Members have been clear that we want to welcome refugees here. You...
Suzy Davies: 2. Will the First Minister outline the Welsh Government's response to the current refugee crisis? OAQ(5)0146(FM)
Suzy Davies: Front-line capacity in the NHS is on the verge of turning from a weakness into being a threat to the sustainability of the service as it’s modelled today. While that threat might be manifesting itself across the UK to varying degrees, it’s mattering most here in Wales now. This debate is not tabled just to have go at Welsh Government, although we do invite you to be frank here. This...
Suzy Davies: None of this is instead of a robust front-line professional well-trained NHS workforce. But we will not stop inappropriate arrivals at A&E—choosing well will mean nothing—until people can get hold of a GP or a specialist nurse when they’re anxious about their health, however many helplines we have. We won’t stop people reaching mental health crises until we have more psychologists, as...
Suzy Davies: Confidence and appropriate skills to help people join the workforce, of course, are key to tackling child poverty, and it’s important that children grow up in an environment that values their talents and their aptitudes and that helps them to develop those in order to expand their own horizons. But the adults in the lives of some of these children themselves may need some help to help...
Suzy Davies: It’s slightly tricky one here, but thank you very much, Dirprwy Lywydd. Cabinet Secretary, I appreciate that this statement is about major sporting events, but I wonder if you could give us some indication as to where there’s common ground with major cultural events, particularly in terms of sustained legacy, and on which I hoped your statement would have been a bit more detailed,...
Suzy Davies: Diolch, Lywydd. Thank you as well, Cabinet Secretary. I found your answers quite helpful, actually, because I think we all share the same view on the quality and the effectiveness of the plant, but, despite that, any drop in investment is always going to be of concern to the workforce. The First Minister says that the problem is tariffs. You’ve said that there is a global drop in demand for...
Suzy Davies: Following representation by the Prime Minister, Theresa May, the G20 members agreed to set up a forum to tackle the issues of overcapacity and production in the global steel market, so the UK is moving ahead and getting world leaders to confront and answer the central question as well as dealing with the issues they’ve already been acting on until recently. Now, I accept that the Welsh...
Suzy Davies: Diolch, Ddirprwy Lywydd. Can I thank my own party for tabling this debate today and for not being afraid to put forward the first three points of this motion? Because these points are not motherhood and apple pie or sentimental hand wringing. Loss of life on this scale is both unimaginable and unconscionable, with consequences for every community. They remind us, as if we need reminding in...
Suzy Davies: Well, thank you for that answer as well. If I am hearing you correctly, there will be a sort of cross-over between the dementia strategy and the carers strategy, in terms of the input that goes into both from the Carers Alliance, for example. I know that what I’m going to ask you next is something that is of great importance to everybody here in the Assembly, and that’s the fact that, in...
Suzy Davies: Thank you for that response. I’m not quite sure if it’s quite said that there will be a fund introduced as a result of the carers strategy, but I’ll watch out and hope for the best on that for now. Moving on, some good news from the Princess of Wales Hospital in my region and, indeed, from the Betsi Cadwaladr University Local Health Board as well: as a matter of course, they’re now...
