Janet Finch-Saunders: Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on current orthopaedic treatment waiting times in Wales?
Janet Finch-Saunders: First Minister, in the allocation of Welsh Government funding grants to our businesses and our organisations, one hopes that there are sufficient checks and monitoring process on the use of our taxpayers’ money. Now, questions have arisen recently over Kukd, Kancoat and the AWEMA scandal, and I am aware of £900,000 in north Wales where two directors of a bus company faced criminal action,...
Janet Finch-Saunders: Will the First Minister make a statement on the current special measures status of the Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board?
Janet Finch-Saunders: A tiny, further intervention—
Janet Finch-Saunders: A tiny intervention—
Janet Finch-Saunders: Can I just intervene quickly? Thank you.
Janet Finch-Saunders: I was very proud to be a member of Conwy County Borough Council and its cabinet, but I’m no longer a member of Conwy County Borough Council.
Janet Finch-Saunders: I can assure the Member that I have very much consulted on this, as has my colleague Darren Millar. We will work to deter and prosecute those guilty of fly-tipping. Gwynedd and Blaenau Gwent have seen a 30 per cent increase in spend on tackling their fly-tipping problems, all as a result of reducing the frequency of collection services. Fly-tipping incidents of small van loads have risen by...
Janet Finch-Saunders: Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I’m just trying to think whether I can find a nice poem about bins, but there we are. [Laughter.] Last September, and much against the wishes of my constituents, Conwy County Borough Council halved bin collections from fortnightly to monthly in some wards. Thousands of residents since have taken to signing online petitions and have taken to Facebook, on...
Janet Finch-Saunders: In reducing bin collections, my authority, though, now allows cherry-picking as to what items the company operating the local recycling and waste disposal centre will accept, often turning people away, with simply nowhere to dispose of their residual waste. Introducing the four-weekly scheme in Conwy, the cabinet member boasts of having surveyed and consulted with residents. Yes, they did...
Janet Finch-Saunders: [Continues.]—of being held to ransom by a small minority of union members who could disrupt the lives of millions of commuters, parents, workers and employers at short notice, and without clear support from the union’s members. Cabinet Secretary, if a teacher or a public service manager on high salaries—£40,000 or £50,000—strikes, many parents on much lower salaries are then...
Janet Finch-Saunders: Thank you, Cabinet Secretary. We appreciate that trade unions are valuable institutions in British society, and that many dedicated trade unionists have a strong history of working hard to represent their members, campaigning for improved safety at work and providing support to their members where needed. However, it is only fair that the rights of unions are balanced equally with the rights...
Janet Finch-Saunders: Thank you. I appreciate you taking an intervention. You’ve heard so many times about the integration of health and social care. Moving forward, after the social care and well-being Act, nothing has changed. The amount of wasted resources at the moment, through bedblocking and delayed transfers, it’s just really unbelievable. I would ask you: which one of your Government Ministers is...
Janet Finch-Saunders: I actually welcome the Cabinet Secretary’s final local government settlement for 2017-18, and we also welcome the commitment to a funding floor for local government settlements, as outlined in the programme for government. This, of course, complements the Barnett formula funding floor introduced by the UK Government and we hope that this will lead to some longer-term financial stability for...
Janet Finch-Saunders: Will the Member take an intervention now, please?
Janet Finch-Saunders: Will the Member take an intervention?
Janet Finch-Saunders: Diolch, Lywydd. Assembly Members, I am blessed to represent a constituency that is home to Snowdonia national park, providing a unique visitor experience, a safe natural habitat for much of our nation’s rare flora and fauna, all whilst protecting and enhancing our natural beauty and cultural heritage, and its own local development plan. A fifth of the park is statutorily protected for its...
Janet Finch-Saunders: Thank you. One thousand and five pupils are now registered at pupil referral units in Wales, and the number of pupils increase in each age group from about 11 to 15. Over 51 per cent of those registered at a single PRU and over 40 per cent dually registered are around 15. Now, I know from my own experiences in my constituency, where I’m dealing with cases, that, sometimes, pupil referral...
Janet Finch-Saunders: Cabinet Secretary, you’ll be aware that I raised this issue with your predecessors during the last term, but from April to the end of last year, the press and public were excluded from all or part of over 28 per cent of local authority cabinet meetings. Indeed, over half of authorities excluded the press and public from many meetings, with 100 per cent of meetings in the First Minister’s...
Janet Finch-Saunders: 6. Will the Cabinet Secretary make a statement on pupil engagement with the education system? OAQ(5)0069(EDU)
