6. Debate: The Prosperity for All Annual Report and the Legislative Programme

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 3:57 pm on 9 October 2018.

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Photo of Carwyn Jones Carwyn Jones Labour 3:57, 9 October 2018

Indeed, in our manifesto we had a commitment to removing the defence of reasonable chastisement, which we intend to keep to. But no indication of what a programme for government of a Conservative administration in the Assembly would look like, which is disappointing. 

In terms of legislation outside this Chamber, there's no tribalism involved—we don't see it in that way—but there is a serious issue in terms of capacity, if I'm honest with you. We have a heavy legislative programme. We have Brexit, which will cause us more difficulty in terms of capacity, and it can be difficult to offer support to Bills from outside the Government programme because of that capacity. These are busy times, and it can be difficult to do that. So, there's no question of tribalism here; it's a question of ensuring that we can get our own business through first, which, as a Government, I believe we are entitled to do, and then we'll have to see if there's any spare capacity, taking into account Brexit, to see what can be done for legislation outside Government. So, it's not a political decision, necessarily—it's more to do with what we think we can do without jeopardising our own programme. 

When it comes to health, well, in terms of the Bill itself, there's a White Paper the Member will know has been published. As he will know, we are putting more resources into health, again, as we've done year after year, because we know that health is an area that people will judge us on when it comes to how we perform as a Government. 

He talks of empowerment of local councils. His view is there is no need to restructure local government. There is a need, definitely, to ensure local government works together because he cannot, surely, suggest that the structure of local government in Wales has been marvellous for years. We had six local authorities in special measures for education, we had one local authority that had completely collapsed to the extent that we had to take it over, and his own local authority had real problems in terms of the then chief executive and in terms of its delivery. What I have noticed is that the education consortia have done wonders in terms of ensuring better results in schools, in terms of provision of courses across regions, and that is one of the areas where local authorities have to work together in the future.

Regional planning is another. My colleague here, Hefin David, has made this point many, many times. You cannot, if you're a planning authority, just simply plan for within your own area; you have to work with other local authorities in order to ensure that there is a proper regional plan to deal with housing need.

And, of course, we know that we have provided more support for local government than would be the case in England; that's not to say they've got more money—we know there have been cuts in local government—but it's been far worse in England, with even talk now of the revenue support grant disappearing in England. That is a recipe for rich areas to get richer and for poor areas to get poorer. So, we will work with our local government colleagues to help them through the difficult times that they've had—there's no question about that—and there are difficult times, certainly, ahead.

When it comes to GCSE results, I'd remind you that we introduced this year a more difficult and more rigorous process when it came to GCSEs, making sure that young people tried the exam at the time that was right for them, not right for the school. We made sure that more and more pupils, for example, are taking double science GCSE rather than the BTEC, and all this, we thought, would have a significant effect on results that would push results downwards this year, but that's not what's happened. So, even though more rigour has been introduced to the system, we have seen results, at the very least, stay steady. 

In terms of post-legislative scrutiny, in some ways that's a matter for the Assembly and its committees, but as a Government, of course, we understand the need to review legislation and, of course, we work with the Law Commission to take forward that process to see how we can further improve Welsh law in the future. 

Am I over time, Dirprwy Lywydd?