Mark Isherwood: Thank you. I think the key message from that project was the need for independent third sector organisations to be involved in design and delivery with the statutory sector— adopting models that weren’t introduced originally in the situation of budget constraint or austerity or whatever you want to call it; they were introduced because they made life better. One of the organisations, as...
Mark Isherwood: Diolch, Llywydd. In the summer edition of the Bevan Foundation’s ‘Exchange’ newsletter, the director of the Bevan Foundation, in an article entitled, ‘Learning to Love Local’ says that the January 2017 White Paper, ‘Reforming Local Government: Resilient and Renewed’, once again focuses on collaboration, and she then says that, essentially, the public is being asked to agree to...
Mark Isherwood: 5. How is the Welsh Government utilising the assets in our localities to tackle inequality? OAQ(5)0165(CC)
Mark Isherwood: How is the Welsh Government increasing energy efficiency in Wales?
Mark Isherwood: Simply, given your current comment there and your earlier comment in your first referral to the amendments, and amendment 1—amendment 1 commits that no decisions currently taken by the devolved administrations will be removed, and talks about the opportunity of bringing more decision making to the devolved level. From what you’re saying, you don’t oppose that, and surely, in recognising...
Mark Isherwood: Will you give way?
Mark Isherwood: Diolch. We celebrate the fact that the National Assembly for Wales is the national Parliament of Wales and I’m pleased to move amendments 1 and 2, noting that the UK Government’s February 2017 policy paper, ‘The United Kingdom’s exit from, and new partnership with, the European Union’, states: ‘we have already committed that no decisions currently taken by the devolved...
Mark Isherwood: Thank you for that. Without commenting on the adjectives you’ve used, because this isn’t the opportunity to do so, you have said that the initial assessment of possible new stations has prioritised the proposal for a station at Deeside industrial park, Northern Gateway, for further appraisal. How would you respond to the statement by the Wrexham Bidston Rail Users’ Association? The key...
Mark Isherwood: 6. How is the Welsh Government increasing transport infrastructure in North Wales? OAQ(5)0174(EI)
Mark Isherwood: Diolch. Given your references to Ireland, particularly, and David Rees’s reference, as Chair of the external affairs committee, to our visit yesterday—he referred to Irish Government officials and Ministers who are obviously speaking to their counterparts in the other 26 EU member states regarding the negotiating position of the Commission—how do you respond, given your statements and...
Mark Isherwood: An estimated—we heard—12,000 to 14,000 people are currently living with hepatitis C in Wales, around half undiagnosed. It’s one of three main causes of liver disease and the only one of the five big killers in Wales and England where deaths are rising. It therefore represents a significant public health challenge. As I said in January’s debate on the contamination of blood, in the...
Mark Isherwood: The recent Hepatitis C Trust report, ‘Hepatitis C in Wales: Perspectives, challenges & solutions’, concludes with a number of key recommendations for action as follows: the inclusion of a commitment to eliminate hepatitis C ‘as a serious public health concern…within the Welsh Government’s forthcoming Public Health Bill. ‘The implementation of a public awareness campaign aimed at...
Mark Isherwood: On 21 January 2015, I led an individual Member’s debate here that called on the Welsh Government to introduce an autism Act for Wales, and Members voted in favour. Eight months ago, I led a non-partisan debate recognising the need for specific legislation for autism and calling on the Welsh Government to bring forward an autism (Wales) Bill during the fifth Assembly term. Its defeat, on...
Mark Isherwood: Thank you. In September 2010, the WLGA made a commitment to increase school delegation rates to 80 per cent in two years, working towards 85 per cent within a further two years—i.e. 2014. When I questioned your predecessor in March last year, he expressed his understanding that every local authority in Wales had surpassed the 85 per cent delegation rate and said that the Welsh Government...
Mark Isherwood: 7. Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on the level of school funding in Wales? OAQ(5)0137(EDU)
Mark Isherwood: I call for two statements. First, to add my voice to the calls for a Cabinet Secretary for health statement on cervical screening, in this Cervical Screening Awareness Week. We know that cervical screening prevents up to 75 per cent of cervical cancers from developing, but uptake in Wales is at a 10-year low, and diagnosis levels are worryingly high. You referred rightly to the need to target...
Mark Isherwood: One intervention only, yes.
Mark Isherwood: Yes, there are, and the UK Government is working hard in consolidating the position broadly and broader beyond Brexit. But this debate hasn’t got time for me to answer that. I’ll probably answer it further in a different scenario.
Mark Isherwood: Plaid Cymru, of course, as I’ve said, exists to divide the British people. The Prime Minister said she wants us to be a truly global Britain, the best friend and neighbour to our European partners, but reaching beyond the borders of Europe too, building relationships with our old friends and new allies alike. Although the Labour-Plaid Cymru White Paper calls for full and unfettered access...
Mark Isherwood: Diolch, Llywydd. The Prime Minister has made it clear that the current devolved settlement must be respected as funding schemes and initiatives are returned from the European Union, and that there will be no land grab on competencies. She’s also stated this means strengthening the devolution settlements, ‘But never allowing our Union to become looser and weaker, or our people to drift...
