Questions Without Notice from Party Spokespeople

Part of 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Energy, Planning and Rural Affairs – in the Senedd at 1:37 pm on 13 June 2018.

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Photo of Hannah Blythyn Hannah Blythyn Labour 1:37, 13 June 2018

Can I thank the Member for his question, and, Llywydd, if I may, before I answer, pay tribute to Martin Bishop, the national manager of the Confederation of Forest Industries, who was a valued member of the Cabinet Secretary's stakeholder round-table group on Brexit, and a passionate advocate for the forestry sector, who sadly died in an accident at the weekend? I'm sure Members, and especially Members who knew him, will join me, and the Welsh Government, in paying our condolences to Martin's family, friends and colleagues. Diolch yn fawr.

The Member makes a very valid point, that, yes, it's good to have those ambitions to tackle carbon reduction, and our ambition is particularly for a carbon-neutral public sector, but also actually it's in the whole. One thing in terms of what we've been looking at too is actually how, and not just in terms of the economic action plan, we use public procurement as well, particularly in the public sector, and with any contracts and supply chains, and how we apply green public procurement. And, particularly within my own portfolio, we're looking at actually how, working alongside the National Procurement Service, alongside WRAP, and the Future Generations Commissioner for Wales's office, to develop a range of measures that allow us to identify trends and actions to help reduce the use of plastics, including things like straws within the public sector, particularly within schools. I'm sure other colleagues have received numerous articulate and well-argued letters from primary school children about their campaigns to get rid of plastic straws in their schools. In terms of conversations with the economic action plan, in particular, I and my colleagues across Government are working closely because we identify now that, actually, we need to work together and across Government on this—both myself and my Cabinet Secretary colleague as well.