2. Business Statement and Announcement

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 2:50 pm on 30 April 2019.

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Photo of Rebecca Evans Rebecca Evans Labour 2:50, 30 April 2019

Thank you, Vikki Howells, for raising these issues. I will certainly ask the Minister for local government to provide you with an update on Welsh Government action and the action of our partners in terms of preventing grass fires. I understand that the number of fires this month has been relatively modest and that, overall, they're likely to be far short of the level that we had in April 2015. But when you provide me with the figures that you've seen for grass fires in your constituency, then, certainly, I think that we do still have a serious issue here to address, and I've seen it certainly in my own constituency of Gower in recent weeks. I'll make sure that that advice is forthcoming to you. 

And on the issue of the EU citizens, we are disappointed, to say the least, at the lack of document scanning locations that have been provided in Wales and we recognise the huge difficulties that this will cause to EU citizens without having access to Android phones, which they would need otherwise to send that documentation. I do understand that the Home Office is looking to provide more scanning locations, and we would certainly like to see more of those in Wales. I know that the Counsel General has written to the Home Office about this matter, and if you'd like to share some more specific examples of your own constituents and the trouble that that has caused, we'd certainly be able to use those as a case study.

Of course, we're providing additional support to EU citizens via Citizens Advice, to provide information about the settlement scheme, and we've also contracted with a Welsh law firm to provide a EU citizens immigration advice service here in Wales. That service will deliver a public awareness campaign about EU settled status and an individual advisory service that will encompass a legal service that is sensitive to the circumstances of individual applicants, including any family members that they might have, to enable an understanding, completion and submission of those settled status scheme applications, and we'll shortly be making a written statement about these services.