, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Residential Outdoor Education (Wales) Bill: Evidence Session
I fully understand. But you're not demurring from that opinion of the Minister—that that element could actually be done in a different way? I was looking to your side there, at Jennifer and Manon; the Minister is correct in that assertion, yes?
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Residential Outdoor Education (Wales) Bill: Evidence Session
Thank you for that. That's helpful. Just one other question related to this issue of how your aims are taken forward. The Minister has made clear previously that, on the issue of making residential outdoor education a mandatory part of the curriculum, he's…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Residential Outdoor Education (Wales) Bill: Evidence Session
So, the funding is clearly a bespoke element of this legislation that couldn't be done in the same way through adjustments to existing legislation or regulations.
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Residential Outdoor Education (Wales) Bill: Evidence Session
That's brilliant, thank you. Jennifer, you wanted to come in on this.
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Residential Outdoor Education (Wales) Bill: Evidence Session
You're not anticipating that there might be some tweaking of this, going forward.
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Residential Outdoor Education (Wales) Bill: Evidence Session
Sometimes we'll have Ministers in front of us and they explain to us on this committee and others, 'We're futureproofing this by taking these powers, but giving the flexibility to change it in future, because it might—.' That's not quite what you're saying.
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Residential Outdoor Education (Wales) Bill: Evidence Session
So, this—I'll come to your colleagues now—you see very much as belt and braces, then. It could be done through other means, but you see this as—. It was interesting you mentioned futureproofing as well. Can you just expand on that a little bit, because you're…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Residential Outdoor Education (Wales) Bill: Evidence Session
Thank you for that. Thank you for summarising the purposes and your concept behind the Bill and why it's necessary. Could I ask you: do you think that the aims of the Bill, which you've laid out, could be met in any other way that isn't legislative, because…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Residential Outdoor Education (Wales) Bill: Evidence Session
So, with that, we're going to turn to our first substantive item today, which is item No. 2, where we're going to look at the Residential Outdoor Education (Wales) Bill. We have with us Sam Rowlands MS—Sam, good to see you—the Member in charge of the Bill…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Introductions, apologies, substitutions and declarations of interest
Welcome to this hybrid meeting of the Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee. We do have apologies today. We're normally fully quorate, with everybody here, but, once in a while, this happens. We've got apologies from our committee member Alun…
, Legislation, Justice and Constitution Committee
Introductions, apologies, substitutions and declarations of interest
Good afternoon. Welcome, everyone.
, Plenary
Questions to the Minister for Social Justice and Chief Whip
Indeed. Thank you for that response, Minister, and I noticed in their analysis of this, including the work with citizens in Wales, as well as experts, and building on the Thomas commission, of course, they not only concurred with what has previously been said…
, Plenary
Questions to the Minister for Social Justice and Chief Whip
5. What consideration has the Minister given to the impact of the recommendations of the Independent Commission on the Constitutional Future of Wales on social justice? OQ60594
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Annual scrutiny of the National Infrastructure Commission for Wales
So, I guess my short supplementary to that is—. I accept that what you've got is a very well-informed, but personal opinion based on the science and the evidence as you know it, and so on. My worry is that what we have is that you are an organisation, as a…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Annual scrutiny of the National Infrastructure Commission for Wales
In their regular assessment of UK infrastructure—the second assessment, published back in October—they made several recommendations. One of them was around a hydrogen pipeline. Now, you've touched already on some of the technical issues around hydrogen and…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Annual scrutiny of the National Infrastructure Commission for Wales
—you are being consulted, you're getting a heads-up on things. Can I turn to one specific thing, and, Chair, genuinely I'm not heading back to steel just for the sake of it, but because it's directly relevant to this?
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Annual scrutiny of the National Infrastructure Commission for Wales
Okay, but it sounds like, from what you're saying, that it's dovetailing nicely—
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Annual scrutiny of the National Infrastructure Commission for Wales
If I turn to your working with the UK National Infrastructure Commission—and you've previously described the relationship as 'good' in previous evidence sessions—how is it at the moment? How effective is that working relationship, and, in particular, can I…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Annual scrutiny of the National Infrastructure Commission for Wales
Got it. That's really helpful. But you are the infrastructure commission and there is an issue here, I would argue, around whether we see primary steel making as part of the net-zero transition, as part of the UK sovereign infrastructure—you can see where I'm…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Annual scrutiny of the National Infrastructure Commission for Wales
It's around 17 per cent of the whole of the UK—
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Annual scrutiny of the National Infrastructure Commission for Wales
So, you're one of those people who is going to raise that.
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Annual scrutiny of the National Infrastructure Commission for Wales
Thank you. One other particular question here. Two of the commissioners—you, Dr Clubb, and also, if I'm pronouncing this right, Eurgain Powell—sit on the Wales net-zero challenge group. One of the streams of that is how could Wales meet energy needs by 2035…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Annual scrutiny of the National Infrastructure Commission for Wales
One of the three areas that you've commissioned consultancies to look at work on—. They're all quite interesting: renewable energy projects, capturing the value of them to Wales, et cetera. But one of them is engaging mid Wales communities on renewable energy…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Annual scrutiny of the National Infrastructure Commission for Wales
Thank you. I want to turn to renewable energy. You have been quite challenging for the Government in this. We're sort of accepting now that when the Minister says they're doing a deep-dive into something, that's gold standard, but you've said the deep-dive…
, Climate Change, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee
Annual scrutiny of the National Infrastructure Commission for Wales
Yes, indeed, and it's the reverse of my previous line of questioning of you. If you have that independence, and you clearly value that independence, then how do you see your relationship with Government in terms of being critical or holding a scorecard…
