By Mark Isherwood

MS for North Wales

Responding to the Statement by the Social Justice Minister on ‘Holocaust Memorial Day 2024’, I stated “that the past informs the future, and that those who fail to learn from the past are doomed to repeat its mistakes and its atrocities”. I called on the Welsh Government to “hardwire education about the Holocaust, including the horrors that happened in Auschwitz-Birkenau and other death camps, into our Schools and wider information sources for each generation”.

Questioning the First Minister about regulator Ofcom's proposal that Royal Mail reduce letter deliveries to as few as three days a week, I noted that the Prime Minister had pledged to maintain Royal Mail's obligation to deliver letters six days a week and asked what proposals he had, “where consumer demand has changed drastically, but, at the same time, the public want that universal six-day service”.

Questioning the Social Justice Minister, I again raised concerns that falling numbers of Teachers of the Deaf, and other issues with the Welsh Government's Additional Learning Needs (ALN) reforms, is hindering deaf pupils, “where deafness is not a learning difficulty, but deaf children are being disabled by the continuing inequity in outcome, and where the gap between deaf children and their hearing peers risks becoming even wider, in breach of the Equality Act”.

I also made fresh calls for the Social Justice Minister to provide a timescale for the introduction of a Welsh Benefits System integrating all the benefits the Welsh Government is responsible for, stating “This was first raised with us almost a decade ago by the sector, in Committee, and in this Chamber by myself and others”. The Minister again failed to provide a timescale.

I sponsored and spoke at the ‘Equal Power Equal Voice (EPEV) Event 24’ in the Senedd, highlighting the underrepresentation of disabled people in politics. EPEV is a mentoring programme aiming to increase diversity of representation in public and political life in Wales.

Other engagements included the “Housing Justice Cymru: A New Hosting Report” event, which I co-sponsored; Epilepsy Action; Chairing a meeting of the Welsh Parliament Public Accounts and Public Administration Committee; an update for North Wales MSs on Nuclear sites in the region; and meetings with the National Deaf Children's Society, with Centrica plc, which includes British Gas, with Alabaré Homes for Veterans Cymru, and with Living Wage Wales.

I also visited Citizens Advice Flintshire for an update from their Chief Executive Officer on their cost-of-living data and key service delivery activities.

For my help, email Mark.Isherwood@senedd.wales or call 0300 200 7219.