, Plenary
Debate on a Member's Legislative Proposal: A Bill relating to planning processes for quarry development
Just on that point, I think you've made the point that the Minister did what she did, but she did so because she had to minimise the risk of a judicial review, and that judicial review on the current planning grounds would have led to that decision being…
, Plenary
Debate on a Member's Legislative Proposal: A Bill relating to planning processes for quarry development
Would you take an intervention?
, Plenary
Questions to the Senedd Commission
I think it would be helpful if the Member fed into the Member reference group that exists on this, of which Carolyn Thomas, I think, is a member as well. I think it's perfectly reasonable to make the point, but I think it would also need majority support…
, Plenary
Questions to the Senedd Commission
I think you might be referring to the resource impact assessment that accompanied the Senedd Bill that my friend Mick Antoniw took through, now the Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Act 2024. The resource impact assessment was lower than the current…
, Plenary
Questions to the Senedd Commission
The estimated costs of enlarging the Senedd Siambr to accommodate extra Members are included in the Senedd's draft budget for 2025-26 as part of the capital costs associated with Senedd reform. I gave evidence two weeks ago to the Finance Committee, an hour’s…
, Plenary
Business Statement and Announcement
The chief executive of Caerphilly County Borough Council has had her severance package agreed, and has left the authority. The payout was, according to the BBC, £209,000. She hadn't been in work since November, following allegations, according to the BBC…
, Plenary
Questions to the First Minister
Caerphilly County Borough Council has taken proactive action to engage a private company to look at the remediation of the Bedwas tips. It's not without controversy in the community, but one thing I would say is that any work that ERI would do, when it goes…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Senedd Commission Draft Budget 2025-26: Evidence session
Yes. But within that time, the MTRF can get back to doing its work of also finding savings. We don't intend the MTRF to be savings suspended for one year—sorry, permanently. It is intended to be a very short-term measure.
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Senedd Commission Draft Budget 2025-26: Evidence session
Right. I'm not going to predict beyond the election, because a new Parliament will be elected, and there will be a new Commissioner, possibly, or not, here. So, I think I can talk about the next year's budget, and the step change will continue into that. What…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Senedd Commission Draft Budget 2025-26: Evidence session
Well, I wouldn't want to predict—
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Senedd Commission Draft Budget 2025-26: Evidence session
Well, if you think of it logically, we've got to prepare for another additional 36 Members. You're not going to get the whole accommodation sorted in a year. We're going to decanter to the Siambr in Tŷ Hywel, so that's going to be a challenge that isn't going…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Senedd Commission Draft Budget 2025-26: Evidence session
Absolutely—I completely agree. I just hope nobody does it to today's meeting.
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Senedd Commission Draft Budget 2025-26: Evidence session
So, first of all, the AI governance group is looking at the risk appetite—how much would we want to risk—but, of course, we keep a written record of all proceedings, the Cofnod. So, that is kept as a written record that could be compared against anything that…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Senedd Commission Draft Budget 2025-26: Evidence session
Right. Ed, go on.
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Senedd Commission Draft Budget 2025-26: Evidence session
Is that £118,000 per annum?
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Senedd Commission Draft Budget 2025-26: Evidence session
When it comes to AI, I'm not that intelligent, either artificially or otherwise. It's not something I'm really up on; I'm still waiting for this fourth industrial revolution they keep talking about. But it is having a very definite impact. You will see that…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Senedd Commission Draft Budget 2025-26: Evidence session
I think staff training is a really important part of that as well. We can't keep cutting back on staff training.
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Senedd Commission Draft Budget 2025-26: Evidence session
Yes, and therefore, that dignity and respect is really important, which is why I'm so pleased we've had dignity and respect training. Now, there's probably more detail that Manon would like to talk about with regard to well-being and staff satisfaction.
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Senedd Commission Draft Budget 2025-26: Evidence session
I'm going to hand over to Manon as the chief executive, because she's in charge of staff here. But just before I do, there are two things I want to say. Crèches would be great, but they need to be run, and they will come at a big cost, because you're adding…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Senedd Commission Draft Budget 2025-26: Evidence session
Well, there's training. Staff training has been reduced, yes. And I think that does have a well-being impact. And of course, we mentioned in the supplementary budget session that recruitment was frozen. The refilling of posts was delayed by three to six…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Senedd Commission Draft Budget 2025-26: Evidence session
Perhaps I should have just said that at the beginning. [Laughter.]
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Senedd Commission Draft Budget 2025-26: Evidence session
Yes, we can do that.
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Senedd Commission Draft Budget 2025-26: Evidence session
There's table 5 in my document here, which I want to highlight to you. I imagine it's in the budget document anyway, but I want you to be aware of it. There's a whole host of very expensive things that are coming to an end that will fall over. We've already…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Senedd Commission Draft Budget 2025-26: Evidence session
I think the problem is we've already done that. A lot of stuff has already been put off. Some of it will be, though. Where we can, we will delay stuff into future years. Don't forget that the Commission's only got a year's budget; it doesn't get a three-year…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Senedd Commission Draft Budget 2025-26: Evidence session
Events in the Pierhead are something special—they really are.
