2. 2. Business Statement and Announcement

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 2:24 pm on 26 September 2017.

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Photo of Mr Simon Thomas Mr Simon Thomas Plaid Cymru 2:24, 26 September 2017

Could I ask for two statements from the Government? First of all, I’m sure, like me, business manager, you were really excited to hear John McDonnell promise to bring back private finance initiative in house, bringing it back home. So, could we have a Government statement about bringing home Welsh PFI, the cost to the Welsh taxpayer of doing that, and the policy of Welsh Government to bring back PFI payments in house? Because you don’t need to wait to elect a UK Labour Government; you can do it now, here in Cardiff Bay, and you can do it tomorrow. The people, for example in Ceredigion, where we have the first PFI school in Wales built for Penweddig—. It’s a very good school, but it’s very expensive when it comes to certain maintenance aspects of the contract. I’m sure Ceredigion County Council would love to know how you’re going to buy that back and give them the money to improve the education service even better than it is currently in Ceredigion. So, please, a statement on your policy on PFI and when we can expect the Labour Party policy announced over the weekend to be enacted here in Wales.

The second statement I’d like to request from perhaps the Cabinet Secretary for Environment and Rural Affairs is—. We heard the interchange between Leanne Wood, the leader of Plaid Cymru, and the First Minister on the extraction of Hinkley C construction mud and the placing of that mud in the Cardiff flats, as I understand it. There’s some controversy as to whether that is radioactive, whether it contains any substances we should be concerned about. Quite simply, a statement from the Government setting out the simple factual way that this application was gone through, who made the decision making, when it was made, and an assurance given that the conclusion of that statement was that no radioactive material is being deposited in Welsh waters—I think that would set everyone’s minds at rest.