Meeting Venue:
Committee Room 1 - Senedd
Meeting date: 8 December 2015
Meeting
time: 09.00 -
10.55
This meeting can be viewed
on Senedd TV at:
http://senedd.tv/en/3291
|
Category |
Names |
|
Assembly Members: |
William Powell AM (Chair) Russell George AM Bethan Jenkins AM Joyce Watson AM |
|
Witnesses: |
Dr John Cox, Petitioner Nesta Lloyd-Jones, NHS Confederation Rob Southall, petitioner |
|
Committee Staff: |
Steve George (Clerk) Kath Thomas (Deputy Clerk) Gill Eveleigh (Deputy Clerk) Matthew Richards (Legal Adviser) |
Transcript
View the meeting transcript (PDF 248KB) View as HTML (203KB)
The Chair welcomed everybody to the meeting. There were no apologies.
William Powell declared the following interest under Standing Order 17.24A:
He knows Mr Lloyd Jones and has given procedural advice to the petitioners.
Russell George declared the following interest under Standing Order 17.24A:
He has visited the tree with Mr Lloyd Jones and made representations at a public inquiry meeting held at Newtown.
The Committee considered the petition for the first time and agreed to write to the Minister to ask her to set out whether she supports the preservation of the tree and what action she intends to take to ensure its protection.
William Powell declared the following interest under Standing Order 17.24A:
He is a member of Powys County Council and is a school governor.
Russell George declared the following interest under Standing Order 17.24A:
He is a member of Powys County Council and is a school governor.
The Committee considered the petition for the first time and agreed to write to the Minister to:
· Seek his views on the additional information provided by the petitioners;
· Ask what research has been done into the effect of pupils receiving their primary education outside of Wales and their secondary education in Wales and whether education consortia hold any information on the number of pupils affected in this way.
The Committee considered the petition for the first time and agreed to await the views of the petitioner on the Minister’s letter.
The Committee considered correspondence from the Deputy Minister and agreed to:
· seek the outstanding response from the Welsh Ambulance Service;
· seek the views of the petitioner on the Deputy Minister’s letter; and
· return to the matter in the new year once those responses have been received.
The Committee considered correspondence on the petition and agreed to close it as there seems little more the Committee can do to take matters forward.
The Committee considered correspondence on the petition and agreed to:
· await the petitioners’ views on the Deputy Minister’s earlier letter and correspondence from NPTC Group;
· close the petition if no response is received by the end of January.
The Committee considered correspondence on the petition and agreed to ask the petitioners to consider accepting the offer of a meeting with officials in the first instance and to feed back to the Committee to allow Members to consider how best to take matters forward.
The Committee considered correspondence on the petition and agreed to:
· write again to the Minister for Education and Skills to ask if he has any further observations on the petitioners’ latest letter, in particular for his views on the task and finish group’s views in relation to music hubs as a model; and
· write to the WJEC to seek further information on its plans relating to resources for the National Youth Orchestra.
The Committee considered correspondence on the petition and, given that the Minister seems to have addressed the petitioners’ concerns and has previously agreed to ensure that their views are taken into account in developing the new guidance, agreed to close the petition.
The Committee considered correspondence on the petition and agreed to await the petitioners’ views on the Minister’s letter.
The Committee considered correspondence from the Minister and agreed to seek the petitioner’s views on the Minister’s letter but in doing so, to indicate that the Committee is minded to close the petition as there seems little more the Committee can do to progress the issue in this current Assembly.
Members considered correspondence on the petition and were minded to close the petition given that the main issues it raises are being taken forward via the Historic Environment (Wales) Bill. However Members expressed disappointment that both Visit Wales and the Wales Tourism Alliance did not appear to have responded to requests for information and agreed to write again to both organisations and consider the petition further once responses had been received.
The Committee considered correspondence on the petition and agreed to:
· Close the petition as the Committee has taken this matter as far as it can; and
· In doing so ask Mr O’Brien, Chief Executive, WEFO:
o for his comments on the petitioners’ letter and for his response to their specific questions; and
o to meet the petitioners to discuss their concerns.
The Committee considered legal advice that indicated that this is a non-devolved matter on which the Assembly does not have the power to implement the action called for in the petition. Given this, the Committee agreed to close the petition. In doing so, the Committee agreed to forward a summary of the legal advice on to the petitioner.
The Committee asked the witnesses questions about their experience of the Assembly’s petitions system.
The Committee agreed the motion.
The Committee considered the evidence ahead of preparing its report.
The Committee considered a paper on the review of petitions along with the oral evidence heard in the earlier session and agreed to consider recommendations for possible changes via correspondence in the first instance.
The Committee agreed to defer consideration of the petition until further information has been received from the Minister following his evidence session on 24 November.