The campaign will run until the five pence minimum charge for a single-use carrier bag is introduced on Saturday 1st October 2011.

The money raised by the charge will not be going to the Government but will be passed on to good causes, particularly those benefiting the environment, by retailers.

As a result of the charge, the Government expects to see a 90 per cent reduction in the number of bags distributed in Wales, and for retailers to pass on up to £3 million to environmental and other projects.

The scandal involves more than a thousand employers who have made underpayments of nearly one and half million pounds and it seems Cardiff employers are the worst offenders, with Swansea and Llandudno following close behind. The worst industry for underpaying employers is the hospitality sector.

Ms Wood said: “Low paid workers must be protected, but the law must be brought down as hard on employers as it is with benefit fraud. Why are prosecutions not brought against employers? Why are benefit claimants and rogue employers not treated the same?”

The Plaid Cymru Assembly Member went on to say she had approached the government and had received assurances that Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs would press for prosecution where there is clear evidence that an employer has committed an offence. Despite these assurances, nothing to date has happened.

A recent Estyn report noted that standards of achievement have improved and that elected members and education officers show strong leadership and consistent support for schools. However, the report also highlighted that further improvements were needed, particularly in the secondary phase.

To oversee these improvements, the Council has established an implementation board that will be chaired by the Council’s Chief Executive, Jon House, and include other senior officers as well as representatives from the Welsh Local Government Association, the Welsh Government Department for Education and Skills and headteachers.

Part of the action plan will focus specifically on this partnership initiative to drive-up standards in KS4 and the model could be used as a blueprint for school improvement not only across South East Wales but the rest of the country as well.

Initially, additional support will be provided to secondary schools where there is more challenge and improvement needed to ensure all pupils throughout the city are given the best chances to succeed.  Tailored plans for individual schools will help them further develop strategies to raise aspirations, increase literacy and numeracy and improve attendance and behaviour.

Extra funding will be jointly provided by Cardiff Council and the Welsh Government in the first year to resource the programme which will begin this autumn. Future years of the programme will be funded via the Council and the South East Wales Consortium.

Executive Member for Education and Lifelong Learning Cllr Freda Salway said: “Education is a key priority for Cardiff which is why we are determined to ensure that where there is room for improvement that improvement shall be made.

“The establishment of this partnership shows the seriousness with which the Council takes raising standards as this not only increases the educational attainments of our pupils but their life chances as well.”

Leader of Cardiff Council, Cllr Rodney Berman, said: “I am pleased that we have established this groundbreaking partnership which I believe will act as a trailblazer for the rest of the Wales in driving up standards in our schools.

“It is imperative that we do all that we can to ensure that our pupils have the best possible chances to succeed as it is not only in our interest but in the wider interest of Wales that everyone in the education system achieves their full potential.

“By investing in this improvement programme now we will be reaping dividends for the future.”

Cardiff Conference of Secondary Head teachers (CCSH) said that “CCSH members value the additional resources which will be provided by this tripartite initiative to support headteachers and their schools in the continued desire and drive to further raise standards and better the life chances of each individual child.”

Education Minister Leighton Andrews said: “I have been open and honest when discussing the challenges which face education in Wales and have outlined the positive actions I want to see implemented to raise standards and performance across the board.

“Following Estyn’s Inspection of Cardiff it is encouraging that the Local Authority recognises the need for change and they are taking affirmative action to benefit our young people which we fully support.”

Cllr Peter Fox (Monmouthshire), WLGA Education Spokesperson said: “This is an excellent initiative and proves that Cardiff council is serious about raising standards and outcomes for children and young people. Local government in Wales has said that education is its number one priority and in this instance Cardiff is proving that it means to deliver on that promise.”

When giving oral evidence to the Mathias Review, Councillor Berman made clear his view that the only way to restore confidence in the electoral review process was to install new Commissioners to the Local Government Boundary Commission for Wales. He has therefore welcomed today’s announcement by Carl Sargeant AM that he is terminating the appointment of the three existing Commissioners.

In response to today’s statement in the Senedd by Carl Sargeant AM, Councillor Berman said:

“The Mathias Review paints a picture I recognise that amounts to nothing less than a catalogue of disaster since 2008.  Clearly, fault lies in the first instance with the Welsh Government for not starting the review process quickly enough and for setting the Boundary Commission an impossible timetable to work within. But there was also a failure on behalf of the current Commissioners for accepting that timetable in the first place.

He went on to say that:  “The Mathias Review also shows that the Welsh Government did not give sufficient resources to the Boundary Commission to enable it to carry out this work effectively within the required timeframe.  However, much of the criticism does, I think, need to be directed towards the Commissioners themselves. As the report recognises, they decided on a more radical approach to the local government boundary reviews than their predecessors without first establishing whether such an approach had the support of Welsh Ministers or the Welsh local government community.

“I have also had my own concerns, which I raised at the time, that the Commissioners had completely misunderstood the mathematics that had been set out in the Directions that were provided to them by the former Minister, Brian Gibbons, at the outset of the process. I believe this contributed to mistakes being made and reviews then being delayed, leading to innumerable complaints from councils right across Wales.

“One of the biggest concerns I now have is how much public money has been wasted during the past three years, given that new Commissioners will be appointed by the Welsh Government and, once in place, will effectively have to start the whole boundary review process again from square one.

“The initial deadline for the completion of these electoral reviews in time for the 2012 local elections has clearly been missed, but I am alarmed to also read that the Mathias Review recognises there is now a risk that they might even now not all be completed to the relevant standard in time for the 2016 local elections either.”

Up to £110 will automatically be credited to the accounts of pensioners who qualify for the discount.

Cardiff Council’s Pensioner Reduction Scheme is funded by the Welsh Government. There is no need to apply for the reduction or contact the council as the money will be allocated to council tax accounts which meet the correct criteria.

To be eligible for the scheme, the person concerned must be:

*       liable to pay council tax in respect of a chargeable dwelling which was their sole or main residence on June 1, 2011

*       one of the persons liable must have reached the age of 60 or over by June       1, 2011

*       he or she must be in receipt of partial council tax benefit as at June 1, 2011

Where two or more people are jointly liable for council tax, they will be eligible for the reduction if one or all of them meet the criteria.

Following implementation of the scheme, any money remaining from the Welsh Assembly Government’s allocation to Cardiff will be used in conjunction with Age Concern. Both the council and the charity are proactively encouraging take-up of benefits in pensioner households and these funds will contribute to that scheme.

Executive Member for Finance Councillor Mark Stephens said: “I am delighted Cardiff is once again able to work with the Welsh Government to adopt the Pensioner Reduction Scheme. We are committed to giving extra help to the households most in need and the council has worked hard to ensure this is the best and most appropriate discount plan to offer.”

Jenny Randerson

Commenting on the publication of the Assembly Government’s Higher Education Strategy: For Our Future, Welsh Lib Dem Shadow Education Minister, Jenny Randerson AM said: “Higher Education does need to change and I welcome the intentions behind this strategy, but without real detail on improving research and development and exploiting this to build a better economy, we will never build a world class Higher Education system.

“I am also deeply concerned that the parting gift from Jane Hutt that will be remembered, will not be this announcement but will be the devastating financial cuts in the draft budget and the ever widening gap between funding for Welsh Universities compared to England.

“Next year, Labour and Plaid Cymru are slashing 5% from across the University budget when they should be freezing central administration budgets and investigating the misspending of money in the NHS.”

Committee Chair Ann Jones AM said: “It is vitally important that people are able to work for as long as they want or need to

More tailor-made programs are needed to get older people back into the workforce according to a new report from the Equality of Opportunity Committee for the National Assembly for Wales.

An inquiry by the committee found previous periods of economic downturns have had a greater impact on older workers and initial figures suggested the current recession was no exception.

While evidence submitted for the report showed there were a wide variety of programs and policies that may be helping older people find employment, not all of them take the specific challenges they face into account.

Committee Chair Ann Jones AM said: “It is vitally important that people are able to work for as long as they want or need to.

“Enabling older people to work longer not only benefits the individual through allowing them to remain active and maintain social contacts, it eases the pressure on the pension system.”

“It also reduces pensioner poverty whilst making a valuable contribution to society as younger workers gain valuable skills and knowledge from older colleagues.”

While the committee found plenty of anecdotal evidence of discrimination against older people in the work place, a lack of available information meant establishing actual facts to back up the claims proved difficult.

“Another important finding in this report is the lack of robust monitoring and evaluation of the extent of discrimination, and the effect of outcomes of Welsh Government policies on older people,” said the Assembly Member for Vale of Clwyd.

“Therefore one of our recommendations is that the Welsh Government works in partnership with key stakeholders, including older people themselves, to reveal the nature and extent of employment related discrimination against them.”

Other recommendations within the report are:

• The Welsh Government ensures that the development of all employment related policies and programmes specifically considers the particular challenges facing older people, and encourages the same across the public and private sectors.
• The Welsh Government routinely monitors and evaluates its business and employment support programmes in relation to age, as well as other equality strands so that it is possible to assess the impact of a programme on, for example, older women or older disabled people. To inform flexible and prompt reactions in times of economic change, information must be readily available to enable the assessment of the impact of on older people.
• The Welsh Government urges the UK Government to remove the mandatory retirement age.
• The Welsh Government collects information on the age of candidates applying for positions of employment in the organisation, as well as the age of those actually appointed.

Jenny Willott MP for Cardiff Central

Commenting on today’s report from the Human Genetics Commission on the DNA database, Nothing to hide, nothing to fear?, Jenny Willott, Welsh Liberal Democrat MP for Cardiff Central, said:

“The idea that the police are arresting people that they normally wouldn’t, in order to obtain their DNA, is deeply worrying.

“This report is right to highlight that the government has made the accumulation of innocent peoples’ DNA a national police priority. But there is no evidence to show that this has actually increased conviction rates.

“This is not only an abuse of the innocent until proven guilty pillar of our criminal justice system, it is extremely costly. Our research shows that it has cost well over £700m.

“The government’s new proposals are nearly identical to the old ones that were thrown out of the Lords only a month ago. I hope that Parliament treats these measures with the same level of respect.”

Jenny Randerson

Commenting on today’s unemployment figures for Wales, Welsh Lib Dem Shadow Economy Minister, Jenny Randerson AM said:

“Another month, another set of figures show that Welsh families are more likely to be facing unemployment and hardship than most other places in the UK.

“We are continuing to see high unemployment, high economic inactivity, and high claimant counts.

“What is even more concerning for me is that all the data is beginning to show a trend of harsh and nasty unemployment among young people. We are at increasing risk of losing a generation to unemployment, poor health and resulting social problems.

“These are problems which will continue long after the recession comes to an end, and the Government’s cuts to the FE and HE budgets will make this situation worse.”

Shadow Secretary of State for Wales Cheryl Gillan MP said: “Unemployment in Wales continues to be a blight on the economy and on the lives of workers and their families struggling to survive Labour’s recession.

“In the last year 600 jobs a week have been lost in Wales. And in the last quarter almost half of all UK jobs lost have been in Wales.

“It’s clear that Gordon Brown and Rhodri Morgan’s plans to help Wales through the recession simply have not worked.

“That’s why Labour needs to take up our plans to Get Britain Working as a matter of urgency, providing more support for young people and creating thousands more apprenticeships and training places to prevent a generation being written off because of Gordon Brown’s recession.”

Shadow Minister for the Economy David Melding AM added: “These figures demonstrate that the short-termism of the Assembly Government’s approach has failed to reverse this damaging rise in unemployment.

“We need answers as to why despite a small fall in unemployment over the summer, we are witnessing a surge in job losses in Wales far greater than other parts of the United Kingdom.”

David Melding AM: “40,000 businesses will pay more in rates next year."

Forty thousand businesses in Wales will be hit by higher rates next year, Welsh Conservatives have learned.

The Assembly Government’s own figures suggest firms across the country will be hit with bigger bills from April, despite ministers claiming to help businesses during the recession.

Welsh Conservatives have also warned that a rise due to revaluation will come on top of a planned 1.5% rise in rates due to the Assembly Government’s decision to phase in a 5% rise over three years.

Shadow Minister for the Economy David Melding AM described the Assembly Government’s decision to lower the level at which business rates bills are calculated as “a smokescreen”.

He repeated the party’s call for the rates revaluation to be postponed until at least April 2011, and said ministers should consider Conservative plans to scrap or reduce the level of business rates for as many as 90,000 firms.

And he warned that the overall uncertainty about the impact of business rates next year was having a destabilising effect on the SME sector.

David Melding AM said: “By the Assembly Government’s own admission 40,000 businesses will pay more in rates next year.

“Instead of helping small businesses during the recession Labour and Plaid Cymru ministers are making life more difficult for them.

“Yesterday’s announcement to lower the level at which rates are calculated, while welcome, is nothing more than a smokescreen.

“If ministers really were on the side of Welsh businesses they would do everything in their power to postpone the rates revaluation planned for April and deliver a meaningful relief scheme to lift thousands out of rates altogether.

“They also need to end the uncertainty about the impact of revaluation and possible rates rise so businesses can plan for the future.

“Businesses want real support from the Assembly Government at a time of economic difficult.

“I acknowledge and welcome the fact as many as 64,000 businesses could see a rates reduction next year. But for tens of thousands more their rates will rise.

“For those businesses the increase will make life even harder as they struggle to cope with the impact of the recession.

“And for some it could determine whether or not they remain trading, lay off staff, or shut up shop altogether.”

BUSINESS RATES TO RISE IN WALES

According to the Federation of Small Businesses, Assembly Government figures predict that around 40,000 businesses will see their rates rise next year [FSB press release, 27 October 2009]. Firms across the country will also receive bills based on the new valuation by April next year. The Valuation Office Agency says the revaluation is not designed to raise extra revenue from business rates – it is used to ensure that business rates liabilities are redistributed in line with changes in the property market.