Julie James: Formally.
Julie James: Amendment 9, proposed by Rhys ab Owen, would add disposable e-cigarettes to the Schedule, meaning that they would be banned. Amendments 6, 8 and 10 are consequential to this amendment. Of course we recognise that there's anecdotal evidence of an increased littering problem with single-use e-cigarettes, but this is a complex area, as Rhys himself has just set out, and requires much further...
Julie James: Diolch, Llywydd. Turning first to amendments 11 and 12, tabled by Janet Finch-Saunders, both amendments aim to achieve the same goal, namely to align the definition of 'single-use' to that applied elsewhere, such as in Scotland. The amendments propose the addition of 'conceived' to the terms 'designed' and 'manufactured' currently in the Bill. We discussed these amendments in committee at...
Julie James: Thank you very much, Jenny. One of the things you'll see when we publish the plan by the end of this week is a very useful infographic, which, Deputy Llywydd, I happen to have a rush copy of in front of me. What that does is go through some of the statistics I was responding to Janet Finch-Saunders using. It sets out very neatly which indicators are red and amber and why, and what we need to...
Julie James: Yes, thank you very much, Delyth, for that series of things. So, just going through them in order, yes, we absolutely bring up the grid issues every single time I meet anybody even remotely relevant to it in a ministerial group—we bring it up. I’m in the queue to see the new energy Minister. I hope he stays in post long enough for me to actually see this one—the last one left post...
Julie James: Thank you, Janet. I completely agree with you that much of what we've achieved, of course, is only possible with the people and the communities of Wales, and that means communities in a geographical sense but also communities of interest like, for example, our businesses, our industries, our agricultural sector and so on. So, I completely join with you in that—I'd do it more loudly, only,...
Julie James: Diolch, Llywydd. Llywydd, last month, world leaders came together at COP27 to focus on the climate emergency. Following difficult negotiations, there was both hope and disappointment. Hope came from the agreement for developed nations to create a fund as early as next year to cover loss and damage. The fund will support the most vulnerable nations and communities in their battles with the...
Julie James: Yes.
Julie James: Diolch, Deputy Llywydd. I move the motion.
Julie James: —[Inaudible.]—a few of the things—I'll do them in reverse order, if that's okay. In terms of the issues raised around the VAWDASV concerns that Women’s Aid have raised, obviously I’ve had them raised with me as well, and my officials have, and I’ve recently had a meeting with the Minister for Social Justice on this point. The Renting Homes (Wales) Act, just to remind everyone, is...
Julie James: Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. The Renting Homes (Wales) Act 2016 (Amendment of Schedule 12 and Consequential Amendment) Regulations 2022 do three principal things. Firstly and most importantly, they amend the renting homes Act to improve security of tenure for current tenants. Tenants with a periodic assured shorthold tenancy that converts to a periodic standard occupation contract on 1 December...
Julie James: Will you take an intervention, just to be really clear?
Julie James: If there's an orphan building—that's what we call them—where the developer has gone bankrupt and we cannot trace a development company with liability or responsibility for that, then that will be paid for out of the Government's fund, which is considerably more than the consequential we were given.
Julie James: I'm just coming on to that. So, as I was just saying, this provides assurance for leaseholders that they will not have to pay for fire safety works that they are not responsible for, and that the remediation works will be progressed. In Wales, we've worked with developers to secure this commitment to remediate. Now, this is the bit that answers your question, Andrew. The formal legal...
Julie James: Yes, of course.
Julie James: Thank you very much for the opportunity to discuss the important issue of building safety in Wales. As many Members have already mentioned, building safety forms part of the co-operation agreement. Today, Llywydd, the Tories want to focus on sections 116 to 125, and I'm very pleased, Llywydd, that they managed to correct their original error when they tabled the debate. We are, in fact,...
Julie James: Thanks, James. I'll do my best with that. It's quite a long list of things. Just to say that planning for drainage and sewerage services has a lot of interdependencies. Water companies have got to meet their statutory duties under environmental legislation. They have to work with the local authorities who have responsibility for flood prevention and significant drainage assets, and they have...
Julie James: Thank you, Jane. We have discussions with Dŵr Cymru, and indeed Hafren Dyfrdwy, all the time. We have a very close working relationship with NRW and our water authorities, for obvious reasons, and as I was just saying in response to John, we're currently conducting a number of reviews about who has what responsibility to do what in this area. We've got a co-operation agreement investigation...
Julie James: Yes, thank you, Peter. So, our river basin management plans, our river catchment management plans are the main mechanism that we use to improve water quality. We implement the plans—I know that you know this already—on a catchment partnership and cross-sectoral co-operation between a wide variety of stakeholders, local authorities, non-governmental organisations, farmers, angling bodies,...
Julie James: Yes, absolutely, John. I was delighted to come along to one of the meetings, and I know that you've been working very hard there on the Gwent levels, which are a real green lung for the conurbation around them—very, very important for all kinds of biodiverse reasons, but, actually, very important for humans as well: they literally produce the air that we breathe. So, it's an important...
