Andrew RT Davies: Thank you, Presiding Officer. First Minister, if I can take forward the points on PISA again, it was notable in your responses to the leader of Plaid Cymru that not one backbencher behind you had the wit to listen to you. All of them were looking at their computers, and rightly so. The Labour Party needs to be embarrassed by today’s results, after 17 years of leading education here in...
Andrew RT Davies: Thank you. I’m grateful to you for taking the intervention. This has been debated extensively in the Chamber here about the revaluation, and I take it the Valuation Office Agency is an independent body, and the Government has no influence over that. In fairness, the Government has put £10 million of its own money on the table, but do you recognise the severity that certain businesses are...
Andrew RT Davies: Thank you very much, Bethan. You mentioned Bridgend town centre and as someone who’s very familiar with Bridgend town centre, going back to the 1970s when it was a market town, one thing that the shopkeepers in Bridgend do need—and they’re not trying to recreate some era of the 1950s and 1960s—is consistency from the local authority about what plans they have for development. We’ve...
Andrew RT Davies: Will you give way?
Andrew RT Davies: Speaking as a Member for Cardiff via the South Wales Central region, will the Member recognise that it is welcome that the footfall has increased in Cardiff centre, but it has predominantly been focused on the St David’s 2 redevelopment, which is an all-singing, all-dancing retail development and eating option and, very often, people don’t break out into the wider Cardiff experience, and...
Andrew RT Davies: Cabinet Secretary, the National Association of Head Teachers recently pointed the work of the consortia, praising some aspects of support, but made the point that there’s considerable challenge—and I’m the first one who would want challenge within a system, because, obviously, that progresses the system, hopefully, but they were pointing out a serious lack of support from the regional...
Andrew RT Davies: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. Two points if I may, to you, Minister. The first is that you touched, in the earlier response, on the fact that the Bill envisages capturing—that the current tax take is about £40 million, and obviously, reports say that this is a declining tax, and ultimately, it could be as low as £27 million and falling. So, have you looked at the legislation as a...
Andrew RT Davies: Leader of the house, I would like to identify myself with the sentiments of the Member for Cardiff North. As someone, along with Jenny Randerson, who was in the third Assembly dealing with this matter, progress needs to be made on this, and whilst announcements keep coming out, either from Westminster or from here, with the best intentions, it cannot be right that this has been allowed to...
Andrew RT Davies: I appreciate I don’t seem to be able to get a figure out of you today, First Minister. I have paid tribute to the actions the Government have taken so far, but it is quite clearly identified that there are only pockets of good practice, regrettably, in the Welsh NHS. I’ve given you the figure of one in 10 and I’ve given you the figure that 15 times more people die of sepsis than of road...
Andrew RT Davies: Thank you for that, First Minister. I was specifically looking for a target from yourself, as the First Minister and the Government. I appreciate there might not be hard and fast figures there at the moment, but the figure I did put to you is that, at the moment, only one in 10 patients are actually receiving that screening and that support that most probably would help and actually save...
Andrew RT Davies: Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. First Minister, if I could return to the first question today, on sepsis, I'd like to commend my colleague, Angela Burns, who now chairs the all-party group on this particular issue—after going through some pretty horrendous experiences herself she is able to bring those personal experiences to the table. This is an issue that, obviously, through...
Andrew RT Davies: I would like to congratulate Angela for bringing the debate, as someone who has dyslexia. I do find it interesting, sometimes, when you’re looking at certain pages, or certain things that you’re trying to compute, and then, obviously, express yourself. But maybe some people have cards dished out differently, and obviously my dyslexia was made up by my dashing good looks when they were...
Andrew RT Davies: I’m grateful to you for taking an intervention. Obviously it’s been touched on in the debate—business rates and the valuation of property are a longstanding tax system in this country. Therefore, by your comments, do you believe that any reform of that system would rely on a property base to it, rather than maybe a turnover tax system or some form of recognition of the internet? Because...
Andrew RT Davies: I welcome the opportunity to take part in today’s debate, albeit about half an hour ago I wasn’t taking part in the debate, but now I am. So, if the Chamber can bear with me, I’ll be grateful. But it is a really important issue, and the motion that is before us today touches on—as the Member for Neath highlighted—regeneration of the high street and the importance of that...
Andrew RT Davies: I’m now moving on in life at the princely age of 48, and, as my sons keep telling me, I should be put out to pasture, so much so that our latest bit of big data kit, called the Scorpion, they keep me well away from for the damage I might cause with that. But it’s an important point that we need to be educating and allowing people to develop through the industry so they can make use of...
Andrew RT Davies: There is huge scope for that, and as someone, obviously, who has been regularly inspected, having been in farming for 25 years, I see the pros and cons of that because the landscape is a moving feast, and the rigidity very often of a snapshot from a Google image or something that inspectors are relying on does cause some problems very often. But there is scope to improve that aspect of it as...
Andrew RT Davies: Thank you, acting Presiding Officer. It’s a pleasure to take part in this debate, albeit a little sooner than I thought I was going to be taking part in the debate. I do declare an interest, being a farmer, and just in case I do stray into areas that people might think conflict with my interests, I do put that on the record. On our farm, in the Vale of Glamorgan, we make great use of...
Andrew RT Davies: Minister, obviously, we’ve had the autumn statement today. We know the city deal is in place. As I understand it from the autumn statement today, the Welsh Government will be getting an additional £400 million, and it’s going to be vital, combining the city deal with the additional resources that have been made available today, that the productivity of the Cardiff city deal area is...
Andrew RT Davies: Will the Minister make a statement on what the Welsh Government is doing to engage with farmers in South Wales Central?
Andrew RT Davies: Leader of the house, is it possible to have a statement from the Cabinet Secretary for health, please, in relation to the situation that the accident and emergency department at the University Hospital of Wales found itself in on Sunday? I appreciate these pressures are across the United Kingdom and I appreciate they do spike at certain times of the year, but when you do have a paramedic...
