Part of 2. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:19 pm on 29 June 2021.
Llyr Gruffydd
Plaid Cymru
2:19,
29 June 2021
Thank you for that response. I would be very pleased if you could confirm that those funds are all open and live at the moment. I have been contacted by some communities, including Llanrhaeadr-yng-Nghinmeirch and Cyffylliog in Denbighshire, who have agreed to work with a company to bring fibre broadband to the area, taking advantage of the funding that is available from the UK Government, and the intention then of benefiting from the additional funds that come from the Welsh Government. Before the election it was said that that funding would come to an end because of the electoral period. Since then, they're still awaiting assurance that those funds are open again, and that, of course, as you can imagine, is the cause of some frustration, because there are over 1,000 homes in the area I'm talking about—the Majority of them have poor access to broadband. And we know about other areas in Wales, mostly in rural areas, that are facing the same situation. So, can you confirm when these communities will have confirmation that funds are available to tackle a problem that continues to be a problem that is more than any one of us would have wished?
Ministers make up the Government and almost all are members of the House of Lords or the House of Commons. There are three main types of Minister. Departmental Ministers are in charge of Government Departments. The Government is divided into different Departments which have responsibilities for different areas. For example the Treasury is in charge of Government spending. Departmental Ministers in the Cabinet are generally called 'Secretary of State' but some have special titles such as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Ministers of State and Junior Ministers assist the ministers in charge of the department. They normally have responsibility for a particular area within the department and are sometimes given a title that reflects this - for example Minister of Transport.
The term "majority" is used in two ways in Parliament. Firstly a Government cannot operate effectively unless it can command a majority in the House of Commons - a majority means winning more than 50% of the votes in a division. Should a Government fail to hold the confidence of the House, it has to hold a General Election. Secondly the term can also be used in an election, where it refers to the margin which the candidate with the most votes has over the candidate coming second. To win a seat a candidate need only have a majority of 1.
