David Melding: Minister, whilst the situation is gradually improving, absenteeism is still a concern in nearly a third of our secondary schools. Those who are eligible for free school meals are twice as likely to be absent as those who are not on free school meals, and just under a fifth of those on free school meals are persistently absent, with dire effects on their educational attainment. Yet less than...
David Melding: Sorry.
David Melding: 9. What measures are in place to improve school attendance, especially amongst pupils who receive free school meals? OAQ(5)0025(EDU)
David Melding: What is the Welsh Government's assessment of the new house building needed to meet demand in the Welsh housing market?
David Melding: Presiding Officer, may I add my congratulations to you and the Business Committee for introducing this procedure. I only wish it had applied in the fourth Assembly when I was Chair of a committee. Perhaps there is a direct link with the fact that I am no longer a Chair that we can now be trusted to exercise this type of scrutiny and feedback in the Chamber. I think that how the Government...
David Melding: Cabinet Secretary, do you regret the decision to raise the threshold required to trigger a referendum? Because we’ve seen all around the UK now that the use of elected mayors has revived local government and, indeed, is at the heart of devolution within England. Many people feel that these questions at least should be put to the electorate, without absurdly high qualifications to trigger...
David Melding: 1. Will the Minister make a statement on the process to establish elected mayors in Wales? OAQ(5)0019(FLG)
David Melding: Minister, I walked into work this morning and I’ll also walk home. I walked across the barrage from Penarth. I sometimes take the other route across Pont y Werin bridge. That’s a slightly longer walk. Neither of these routes would have been available to me five or six years ago. The only way I could have walked into the Assembly then was down Penarth Road, a much longer route and a very...
David Melding: Thank you, Presiding Officer, for your indulgence. Can I welcome the commitment to deliver an extra 20,000 affordable homes, First Minister? By my calculation—and I would like you to confirm this—that means that you are raising the target for the next five years for the housing market to produce not 8,000 homes a year, but now 12,000 homes a year. I do hope you can confirm that, but I do...
David Melding: Cabinet Secretary, I’m sure you know that only a highly integrated policy across Government areas is going to really tackle child poverty. For instance, the level of economic inactivity has a big impact on the number of children living in poverty. I do hope you’ll be talking to your colleagues, the economic Minister and education Secretary as well, so that we can see FE course, HE...
David Melding: Cabinet Secretary, you’ll be supported if you bring forward legislation in this area from this Conservative anyway. [Interruption.] Well, I do recall in previous Assemblies that I was joined by a number of colleagues on these benches in saying it’s time to move on and end this practice. I have to say that I don’t completely agree with the wording of this question, because, clearly,...
David Melding: Minister, I think in most countries that have succeeded in encouraging the generation of power locally, they have adapted the market to give an incentive to allow this, including control or access to the grid. I know these powers are not with you, but are you discussing with the other jurisdictions ways in which we could open up the market and encourage local generation?
David Melding: First Minister, I don’t know if I’m going to come to your aid, but anyway, let me just remind the Chamber that, over the last 15 years, we’ve built on average 8,000 homes a year in Wales, when trends indicated that we needed to build 12,000 homes a year to keep up with demand. If we are to have any catch up, we probably need to go beyond 12,000 homes a year. The sad fact is that if we...
David Melding: How will Brexit impact the Welsh Government's skills strategy?
David Melding: I have to say, observing this, Cabinet Secretary, that you’ve not come to the Chamber and said, ‘Wonderful; we have an agreement and on this basis, we can secure the project’. So, I think your grounds are somewhat suspect. I have to say that, in your answers to Mr Price and to Mr Hamilton, you have not been at your finest hour. There was some real scrutiny, particularly from Mr...
David Melding: I’d like, Cabinet Secretary, to talk about that Estyn report and ask a specific question. As you said, practice is patchy and the report concluded that looked-after children still face too many barriers to doing well at school, and obviously we must remove those barriers. But it did indicate that looked-after children do best at schools with strong pastoral support, better tracking of...
David Melding: First Minister, I do agree with you that the impact of Brexit has to be very, very carefully considered, and that will take a lot of time and a lot of commitment. I am particularly concerned on environmental policy. I realise that it’s early days, but there are some really massive issues to consider. For instance, on the future of the EU’s energy efficiency directive, how are we going to...
David Melding: First Minister, perhaps I can turn matters a bit more constructively. I think it’s very important that politicians, and particularly Ministers, listen, and I hope you’ll identify ways in which your Ministers, either individually or collectively, can listen to the vital interests out there of stakeholders, and individuals indeed. Your predecessor used to have open-mike sessions of the...
David Melding: Thank you, acting Presiding Officer. I particularly agreed with your emphasis on economic inactivity because this, unfortunately, is one of the main drivers for our relatively low GVA and, indeed, our falling GVA in the last 20 years or so under Governments of both parties in terms of who’s been in power in Westminster. Economic inactivity is not the same as unemployment. Obviously, they...
David Melding: First Minister, we’ve heard that the metro deal is central to this whole concept. Unfortunately, two weeks ago, I think we realised that there’s a great gulf between areas like Cardiff and the Valleys areas to the north, and this was reflected in the voting pattern. And the metro does give us a chance to integrate the economic future of these two very important parts of the south Wales...
