Meeting Venue:
Presiding Officer’s office, 4th floor - Tŷ Hywel
Meeting date: 29 January 2019
Meeting time: 08.30 - 09.01
------
------
|
Category |
Names |
|
Committee Members: |
Elin Jones AM, Llywydd (Chair) Rebecca Evans AM Darren Millar AM Rhun ap Iorwerth AM Neil Hamilton AM |
|
Committee Staff: |
Siân Wilkins (Clerk) |
|
Others in attendance |
Manon Antoniazzi, Chief Executive & Clerk of the Assembly Gwion Evans, Head of the Llywydd's Private Office Lowri Hughes Elin Roberts, Policy Adviser to the Llywydd Helen Carey, Welsh Government |
The minutes for the meeting were agreed by the Committee for publication.
Tuesday
Wednesday
3 Week Timetable of Government Business
The Trefnydd circulated revised hard copies which detailed the following changes:
Tuesday 5th February 2019
·
Statement
by the Minister for Health and Social Services: Unscheduled Care
Winter Delivery (45 mins)–
postponed until 12 February
·
Debate:
The Substance Misuse Annual Report (60 mins)
–
postponed until 12 February
Tuesday 12th February 2019
· Statement by the Minister for Health and Social Services: Unscheduled Care Winter Delivery (45 mins) – postponed from 5 February
· Debate: The Substance Misuse Annual Report (60 mins) – postponed from 5 February
3 Week Timetable of Assembly Business
Business Committee determined the organisation of Assembly business and agreed to schedule the following items of business:
Wednesday 20 February 2019 –
· Debate on the 'Wales’ future relationship with the Committee of the Regions’ report (30 mins)
· Debate on the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee report: Everybody’s Business: A Report on Suicide Prevention in Wales (60 mins)
· Member Debate under Standing Order 11.21(iv)
·
Time allocated to the United Kingdom Independence Party (60
mins)
Member Debate: selection of motion for debate
· Business Managers selected the following motion for debate on 6 February:
NNDM6950
David Rees
To propose that the National Assembly for Wales:
1. Welcomes the investments made by the Welsh Government to support a sustainable future for the steel industry in Wales in recent years.
2. Recognises the challenges facing the Welsh steel industry following the UK's departure from the EU.
3. Calls on the Welsh Government to continue supporting the Welsh steel sector which is a key industry for the Welsh economy.
4. Calls on the UK Government to address the high costs of energy facing the steel sector in the UK in comparison to electricity costs in the EU.
Supporters:
Jayne Bryant
Suzy Davies
Russell George
John Griffiths
Huw Irranca-Davies
Bethan Sayed
Caroline Jones
Dawn Bowden
Mike Hedges
Vikki Howells
Jack Sargeant
Dawn Bowden
Alun Davies
Mike Hedges
Vikki Howells
· Business Managers agreed to schedule the next Members Debate on 20 February and selected the following motion for debate:
NNDM6947
Huw Irranca-Davies
To propose that the National Assembly for Wales:
1. Notes that:
a) young people in Wales have some of the lowest levels of physical activity in the United Kingdom, contributing to rising levels of obesity and associated health issues such as diabetes 2;
b) several communities in Wales suffer from illegally high levels of air pollution, with one community experiencing the worst air quality outside London;
c) congestion on the roads is estimated to cost the Welsh economy £2bn every year;
d) targets for carbon emissions from transport in Wales have consistently not been met;
e) levels of walking and cycling in Wales are in decline, with falling levels of active travel to school being a particular concern; and
f) each of these issues could be ameliorated if the Active Travel (Wales) Act 2013 was effectively implemented.
2. Calls on the Welsh Government to refresh its ambition for active travel in Wales by producing a comprehensive active travel strategy including ambitious targets and a detailed plan for long term investment in active travel infrastructure.
Active Travel (Wales) Act 2013
Supporters:
Dai Lloyd
Russell George
Vikki Howells
Neil McEvoy
Jenny Rathbone
National Assembly for Wales – Official Languages Scheme
Assembly Commission's Annual Report on its Official Languages Scheme
Business Managers discussed the paper and agreed with the Trefnydd’s proposal that Government and Assembly Officials meet in the first instance to explore how we can improve the statistics and issues noted in the paper.
Business Managers raised their concern over other public bodies which submit monolingual English only documents only, and noted that they may wish to explore (i) which, if any, public bodies regularly do so and (ii) the way in which committees commission calls for evidence reflect the duty on public bodies to submit bilingual documents.
Business Managers also raised the issue that the Explanatory Memorandums referred to in the letter are not subsequently translated after the relevant tabling or laying deadlines have passed. This should also be considered in discussions with WG officials.
Standing Orders
Proposals to amend Standing Orders: SO12 - Questions to the Counsel General and Deputy Minister and Chief Whip
Business Managers agreed the proposed procedure for questions to the Counsel General and Deputy Minister and Chief Whip, and agreed in principle to the proposed Standing Order changes. A report will be circulated to Business Managers outside of Committee this afternoon and if agreed, a motion to amend Standing Order 12 will be added to tomorrow’s Plenary agenda, preceded by a motion to suspend Standing Orders in order to allow the motion to be debated.
Business Managers agreed with the Trefnydd’s proposal to review the changes in a few months’ time.
Any Other Business
Rhun ap Iorwerth stated that Members from his party had raised the allocation of supplementary questions with him. They had concerns over a few recent instances where they were not called to ask supplementary questions in Plenary. The Llywydd explained her approach to calling supplementary questions but noted that fluidity was also crucial, and that which Members were called in which instance is always determined by time pressures and party balance.