Joyce Watson: We now move on to item 3, a statement by the Minister for Social Justice: Refugee Week 2022: Healing. I call on the Minister for Social Justice, Jane Hutt.
Joyce Watson: Yes.
Joyce Watson: I would absolutely agree with that, because it's not just about the surface water that they create, but it's about the micro particles of plastic that will be going down the drain as well. So, I'd absolutely agree with you and you just caught me, because I was about to finish urging the Minister to be bold in her policies coming forward, which she has been in the past, so to be bolder than...
Joyce Watson: May I thank Llyr and my committee colleagues for their work on this extremely important piece of work? From the conversations I have, and the correspondence I receive, I would suggest there is a growing public concern about the quality of our waterways. There's been a lot of media attention, rightly, on the Severn and Wye rivers, and the impact of pollution from chicken farms, for example. I...
Joyce Watson: I'd like to take this opportunity to welcome the appointment of the endometriosis clinical nurse specialist in Hywel Dda. Some 163,200 women in Wales live with this debilitating and painful condition, and 19,625 of those live in the Hywel Dda area. Endometriosis is a condition that often has gone undiagnosed for many years, and it's fantastic that each health board now has a nurse specialist...
Joyce Watson: Minister, we're waiting to see what happens today with the scheduled flight of asylum seekers to Rwanda. But I would be grateful for a Welsh Government update on its discussion with the UK Government on this particular matter. The Counsel General provided a useful account last week, but it would be good to have an oral statement that Members might have an opportunity to speak to. It's an ugly...
Joyce Watson: —about 'us', and that is all of us.
Joyce Watson: Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd, and I'm really pleased to have an opportunity to speak on the statement today, and I really, really do welcome it. If we're going to look at—and this plan is—ending institutional racism and systemic racism, then we clearly have to tackle those institutions where we find the prevalence. Of course, that will be in education and it will also be in health. We've seen...
Joyce Watson: Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. I thank you for the statement today, Deputy Minister, and I want to completely dissociate myself from the comments of Joel James and his anti-trade-union stand, and accusing them of all sorts of unsubstantiated statements. I'm a proud member of a trade union myself. So, I do welcome this Bill. It is a key component of a wider push to make work in Wales much fairer, and...
Joyce Watson: I thank you for you answer, Minister. The Welsh Government is of course using every tool in its box to put money back into people's pockets, but the UK Government doesn't seem to realise or care about the scale of the emergency my constituents and people up and down the country are facing. Do you agree with me that it should bring forward an emergency budget now, including a windfall tax on...
Joyce Watson: 2. Will the Minister provide an update on the Welsh Government's cost-of-living financial support package? OQ58104
Joyce Watson: What assessment has the Welsh Government made of the impact the UK Government's Northern Ireland protocol Bill will have on the Welsh agri-food sector?
Joyce Watson: I welcome, of course, this statement today. I want to focus particularly on three areas that I think are critical to any justice system. The first is ensuring the separation of the justice system from any political interference or influence. And, of course, that's playing out in Westminster, as we speak. That is hugely important if people are going to have faith in the system: first in...
Joyce Watson: I'm pleased to be speaking in this hugely important debate today. We've heard about the number of diseases that are unique to women and also a whole host of other diseases that disproportionately impact women's health and well-being. One of the key focuses of the Welsh Government's 'A Healthier Wales: our Plan for Health and Social Care' is preventative healthcare, and a number of the...
Joyce Watson: I'm really pleased to speak in this debate today, and I thank Llyr for his expert chairing, and my fellow committee members for bringing forward the report and the recommendations. There's a lot to unpack, but the clear message we received was about the need for the national marine plan to consider the cumulative impacts of developments. I think that the economy Minister's statement...
Joyce Watson: Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. We've already seen, of course, some of the damage from the oven-ready Brexit, or the half-baked idea, as I prefer to call it, on the ports in Wales, because they're bypassing our ports already. So, we've already seen that. It is, of course, Prime Minister Johnson who came up with this grand plan—which is not so grand, apparently, according to him now. So, I want to...
Joyce Watson: If David Cameron hadn't, as he put it, 'cut the green crap' a decade ago, we'd be further along on renewable and nuclear and energy efficiency, and households would be paying less for energy, not more. So, I agree that we need to catch up, but the other side of the coin to energy generation is energy efficiency. So, can you say, Minister, how the forthcoming new Warm Homes programme might...
Joyce Watson: I'm really pleased to be speaking in this debate. It's a really important topic. It has a profound impact on so many people's lives. Alcohol harm in Wales, and indeed the UK, is a significant issue. When you take a step back and look at how frequently it's pushed on us at every given opportunity by advertising, it's extremely hard to ignore. If you were to believe advertising and the hype...
Joyce Watson: Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. I welcome the statement. Recently, we discussed at the Climate Change, Environment and Infrastructure Committee the skills that will be necessary. Mark Bodger from the Construction Industry Training Board Wales said that they would be more than prepared to step in to that space. And of course, we've got the upcoming Net Zero Wales skills plan, and I understand that'll...
Joyce Watson: I thank you for taking the intervention. And, yes, it is right that the pandemic was supported at a UK level, but what I'm interested to hear you explain is whether you think that that shouldn't have been the case. Because, surely, in a pandemic, it is the duty of the Westminster Government, the overarching body of the four nations, to protect all of its citizens. I was a bit unclear from the...
