National Assembly for Wales

To propose that the National Assembly for Wales:

Notes the Children, Young People and Education Committee Report - Degrees of Separation? The Impact of Brexit on Higher and Further Education, which was laid in the Table Office on 4 December 2018.

Note: The response by the Welsh Government was laid on 1 February 2019.

Fighting for Future Services – the case for protecting services at Withybush hospital.

The National Assembly for Wales:

Notes the report of the Economy, Infrastructure and Skills Committee on its Inquiry: Mobile Action Plan Update, which was laid in the Table Office on 24 January 2019

Note: The response by the Welsh Government was laid on 13 March 2019.

To propose that the National Assembly for Wales:

1. Notes that, whilst foreign affairs is a matter currently reserved to the UK Government and Parliament, Section 62 of the Government of Wales Act 2006 provides that “The Welsh Ministers, the First Minister and the Counsel General may make appropriate representations about any matter affecting Wales”.

2. Recognises the substantial Kurdish community in Wales.

3. Notes that a resident of Wales - İmam Sis, a young Kurdish man - is on an indefinite, non-alternating hunger strike as of 17 December 2018, which was initiated to protest the isolation of the Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan who has been imprisoned by Turkey since 1999 under conditions which are understood to contravene the Turkish state’s legal obligations in relation to human rights.

4. Notes that hunger strikes are taking place across Europe and the world, including by Leyla Güven, an elected member of the Turkish Parliament.

5. Notes that Turkey is a signatory to several international human rights treaties, including the European Convention of Human Rights as a member of the Council of Europe.

6. Expresses its concern at the reasons behind the hunger strikes.

7. Recognises that the ultimate aim of the hunger strikes is to see a peaceful, political solution to the Kurdish question in Turkey.

8. Affirms the importance that human rights obligations are upheld in Turkey.

9. Calls on the Welsh Government, on behalf of the National Assembly for Wales, to write to the Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment calling for the committee to visit Imrali Prison to assess the conditions of Abdullah Öcalan.

Government of Wales Act 2006

To propose that the National Assembly for Wales:

1. Recognises the continuing women against state pension Inequality campaign.

2. Calls on the UK Government to make fair transitional state pension arrangements for all women born on or after 6 April 1951, who have unfairly borne the burden of the increase to the state pension age (SPA) with lack of appropriate notification. 

3. Calls on the Welsh Government to make representations to the UK Government in support of the WASPI campaign.

4. Calls on the Counsel General to consider what action the Welsh Government could take in relation to the expected litigation against the Department for Work and Pensions for the alleged mishandling of raising the state pension age for women born in the 1950s.

To propose that the National Assembly for Wales in accordance with Standing Order 26.47:

Approves the Public Services Ombudsman (Wales) Bill.

'Public Services Ombudsman (Wales) Bill'

To propose that the National Assembly for Wales, in accordance with Standing Orders 17.3 and 17.13(ii), elects Janet Finch-Saunders (Welsh Conservatives) as a Member of the Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister in place of David Rowlands (United Kingdom Independence Party).