Environmental Priorities

Part of 2. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs – in the Senedd at 2:55 pm on 15 May 2024.

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Photo of Huw Irranca-Davies Huw Irranca-Davies Labour 2:55, 15 May 2024

Thank you, Paul. First of all, at the outset, can I just reiterate my empathy with those residents who have been having to suffer what they've had to suffer for the past weeks and months there? This needs a resolution, I absolutely, entirely agree with you. Just to reassure you, both the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care and I, and our officials, are in close liaison on this because the two organisations that are critical to resolving this include Public Health Wales, who, of course, have issued advice to local residents and people on the ground. They're also taking forward, I'm informed, work to obtain monitoring data to inform a full health risk assessment. They have given advice to the public at the moment. From my perspective as the Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs, NRW are very clear what our steer is and what our priority is: that the enforcement orders that have been put in place to do the work on the ground and to resolve the problem need to be done for the benefit of local residents. There are deadlines with this, as you're fully aware as well, and NRW are aware that they have a range of enforcement powers that they can take if those measures to benefit local people are not adhered to, and that's what I would say. I don't think this is a question of an inquiry; this is a question, I have to say, for you and also for residents, of seeing the enforcement bodies on the ground, NRW, but also Public Health Wales, doing the work that they should do in order to resolve these issues very promptly and speedily now, because it's been going on too long for those local residents.

Cabinet

The cabinet is the group of twenty or so (and no more than 22) senior government ministers who are responsible for running the departments of state and deciding government policy.

It is chaired by the prime minister.

The cabinet is bound by collective responsibility, which means that all its members must abide by and defend the decisions it takes, despite any private doubts that they might have.

Cabinet ministers are appointed by the prime minister and chosen from MPs or peers of the governing party.

However, during periods of national emergency, or when no single party gains a large enough majority to govern alone, coalition governments have been formed with cabinets containing members from more than one political party.

War cabinets have sometimes been formed with a much smaller membership than the full cabinet.

From time to time the prime minister will reorganise the cabinet in order to bring in new members, or to move existing members around. This reorganisation is known as a cabinet re-shuffle.

The cabinet normally meets once a week in the cabinet room at Downing Street.