Part of 2. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Climate Change and Rural Affairs – in the Senedd at 2:28 pm on 19 June 2024.
Huw Irranca-Davies
Labour
2:28,
19 June 2024
Hefin, thank you very much for that question. I'm glad you're focused, with your experience and your chairing of that group, on this area, because there is great potential within agri-tech for students as well. If we have the latest technology and equipment available for students to use as part of agricultural courses, that is a real bonus. We're supporting their skills development, we're developing their practical experiences, and getting them to be able to see how to use these technologies on farms as they enter employment.
So, we have, Hefin, recently supported our further and higher education institutions delivering agricultural or agricultural related courses to invest in technology. In 2023, six institutions—five further education and one higher education—were offered support to purchase capital items that would benefit students in their learning. So, the grant value there was £211,000. Just out of interest, two of these institutions were based in north Wales, Llysfasi and Glynllifon, and FEIs and HEIs across Wales that deliver agricultural courses have been invited to apply for the support that's available in 2024. We've made a budget available of £360,000 and we'd encourage all Members—Hefin and everybody else—to encourage their local colleges and universities to apply for this. Hefin, I'm glad you focused on this, because there are real opportunities in those advanced skills within technology and agriculture.
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.
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