23 May 2023 , Plenary
Statement by the Deputy Minister for Climate Change: Update on Bus Services
Well, to deal with those in reverse, as I explained, we’ve already been working on exactly such a policy since I was given the post two years ago now, and we’ve done a huge amount of work in modelling what that would be. So I absolutely share the ambition for…
23 May 2023 , Plenary
Statement by the Deputy Minister for Climate Change: Update on Bus Services
Thank you for the support. In terms of the final point, very little is commercially viable; I think that's the point. So, all of it requires, more or less, ongoing support, otherwise it will cease, and that's the grim situation that we are in. What we've been…
23 May 2023 , Plenary
Statement by the Deputy Minister for Climate Change: Update on Bus Services
Thank you. I'm not sure there were many questions for me there. I think the question I did manage to understand is the role of the fare cap that has happened in England. This is a source of enormous frustration to us, because we've been working on modelling a…
23 May 2023 , Plenary
Statement by the Deputy Minister for Climate Change: Update on Bus Services
Thank you. Simply put, COVID blew up an already brittle business model. In the face of sustained reductions in passenger numbers, we’ve had to provide significant additional support to keep services running, and this has prevented mass cancellations of…
23 May 2023 , Plenary
Statement by the Deputy Minister for Climate Change: Update on Bus Services
Diolch yn fawr iawn, Llywydd. I am keen to update Members of the Senedd on the future of bus services across Wales. The last few years have been the most challenging period for the bus industry since the ill-advised privatisation on the mid…
10 May 2023 , Plenary
Short Debate: Are salmon facing extinction from the rivers of Wales?
Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. It's excellent to hear from two species champions, of the sewin and of the salmon, to inform this debate, and, clearly, there's a strong theme in the contributions of all three speakers today about the threat to a number of species, to…
10 May 2023 , Plenary
Debate on the Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee Report—'Annual report on the National Infrastructure Commission for Wales—2022-23'
I'd like to engage, if I might, with Janet Finch-Saunders’s criticism, because I think they're worthy of a proper discussion. I think some are fair, some are not. So, her first question is: how independent is the commission? She cited as her evidence that she…
10 May 2023 , Plenary
Debate on the Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee Report—'Annual report on the National Infrastructure Commission for Wales—2022-23'
Diolch yn fawr, Dirprwy Lywydd, and I'd like to thank all Members who contributed to that thoughtful discussion about the progress report on the infrastructure commission's work. I think it's fair to say that the overall theme is of a cautious welcome, and I…
3 May 2023 , Plenary
Short Debate: Investment in highway maintenance: The route to a resilient road network
Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd, and thank you very much to Carolyn Thomas and Mike Hedges. And they are both formidable contributors to this debate, because they have so much knowledge. Carolyn has first-hand experience of the challenges of running a transport…
3 May 2023 , Plenary
Questions to the Minister for Climate Change
I think I've addressed that, and I regret that she's continuing this line of argument.
3 May 2023 , Plenary
Questions to the Minister for Climate Change
Llywydd, I really do regret the tone the Member has struck yet again. Our exchanges are becoming, I think, caricatures of themselves and are degenerating from a pretty low base, I must say. Let's try, both of us, to do better. Let me just set the facts out…
3 May 2023 , Plenary
Questions to the Minister for Climate Change
I'll just remind Natasha Asghar she's no longer at the Welsh Conservative conference in Newport. I think we deserve to have a more serious consideration of matters in this Chamber. She seems unable to adapt the question from the one I've already answered…
3 May 2023 , Plenary
Questions to the Minister for Climate Change
Thank you very much. The Member makes some very strong points. It is significant, isn't it, that more and more towns and cities across the UK and across Europe are now adopting 20 mph as a default limit. None that I'm aware of have reversed that decision…
3 May 2023 , Plenary
Questions to the Minister for Climate Change
Thank you very much. I once again pay tribute to John Griffiths in his role in campaigning for this policy over many years before it became more widely supported in this Chamber. John was among a small number of others who made the case for this. And, in…
3 May 2023 , Plenary
Questions to the Minister for Climate Change
It's disappointing that the Member keeps repeating falsehoods, even though she knows they are falsehoods. I think it does a disservice to all of us when this kind of inflammatory approach is taken. I'd hoped that she would be better than that, but I'm still…
3 May 2023 , Plenary
Questions to the Minister for Climate Change
Thank you. The Wales 20 mph taskforce group set out the recommendations that the Welsh Government should take forward for the implementation of 20 mph on residential streets and busy pedestrian areas, and I was pleased that the Conservatives supported that at…
26 April 2023 , Plenary
Plaid Cymru Debate: HS2 redesignation
I won't, no. Luke Fletcher rightly said at the beginning that this is daylight robbery, we are being deprived of investment. This is a very simple thing, really. This is an England-only project, and we should be getting a devolved consequential from that…
26 April 2023 , Plenary
Plaid Cymru Debate: HS2 redesignation
I won't take an intervention. [Interruption.] I won't take an intervention, no. It is not true that we are not investing in north Wales. We have set up the North Wales Transport Commission, led, again, by Lord Burns, who is currently developing a pipeline of…
26 April 2023 , Plenary
Plaid Cymru Debate: HS2 redesignation
Diolch, Llywydd. The Government will be supporting this motion this afternoon, and I’m grateful to Plaid Cymru for bringing it forward. The sadness I have listening to this debate is I listened very carefully and I don’t see anybody disagreeing with the…
26 April 2023 , Plenary
Plaid Cymru Debate: HS2 redesignation
How?
22 March 2023 , Plenary
Plaid Cymru Debate: Bus emergency scheme
Well, the bus industry says it themselves; they're very clear that, without it, the bus industry would have collapsed. And I would say this seriously to the Conservative speakers: we have made choices in this Government to support bus, and we would like to…
22 March 2023 , Plenary
Plaid Cymru Debate: Bus emergency scheme
Yes, I will.
22 March 2023 , Plenary
Plaid Cymru Debate: Bus emergency scheme
Diolch yn fawr iawn, Llywydd. I'd like to thank Plaid Cymru for tabling this afternoon's debate on this vital subject and for the many excellent contributions across the Chamber setting out the stark challenges that we are facing. I think there's a strong…
22 March 2023 , Plenary
Plaid Cymru Debate: Bus emergency scheme
Formally.
22 March 2023 , Plenary
Topical Questions
I appreciate that Darren Millar is committed to his divisive narrative of trying to pit different parts of Wales against each other. The facts, I'm afraid, don't support his position. We do spend investment roughly equivalent to population shares across…
