Speeches by Ranger.

“5. What assessment she has made of the adequacy of the performance of rail services operating from north Wales.”

“Rail plays a vital role in the north Wales economy, so I welcome the recent announcement of 12 additional services per week between Holyhead and London. However, that remains a shadow of the pre-covid timetable, which saw up to 14 daily direct services. The north Wales line regularly sees more cancellations and poorer …”

“Almost following on from that, you have spoken about how you have to be honest about what you are good at and promote that. I am thinking in a sector, but cross-region, if you have a specific cluster in your area that you are expert at, there might be something in Wales, for example—relating to Manchester or Scotland—t…”

“In recent months, we have seen massive changes on a global economic scale—turmoil, you might want to call it. It was interesting that you mentioned the US briefly before. With things such as tariffs and the conflicts going on, and trade deals that we are doing, but other countries are doing as well, there are lots of c…”

“This is to both of you. I would be interested in what your experience is of prospective investors and whether they find it difficult to navigate the different layers of government in the UK—national, devolved, local, and maybe also all the different growth agencies, investment zones and that kind of thing that is going…”

“Just to add to that before I move on, would you say there is a disincentive, or is the work they are doing overcoming that disincentive, do you think?”

“Thank you. The same question to you, Joe, please.”

“If you could have one wish on how this interaction between the different levels could be improved, what would that be?”

“Your wish, Mark?”

“That is very interesting. Thank you very much.”

“5. What steps she is taking to strengthen the Union.”

“Supporting people into work is the right thing to do, not just economically but morally. I therefore welcome the recently announced UK Trailblazer programme in north Wales, which will do away with the one-size-fits-all approach and will instead meet people where they are, giving them a greater chance to secure stable a…”

“Great. You said, “The institutional independence of S4C is well established and understood by Government”, but what would you do if you ever felt that was under threat?”

“You touched on the relationship with Government and politicians, but what kind of relationship would you like to have with Government and with Ministers in this post?”

“We would like to just take a look at growth and the green transition in this context. Mary Lewis, can you let us know how the remediation of former industrial sites will improve the environmental and economic outlook of nearby communities?”

“That is fascinating. Thank you very much.”

“I just wanted to move on to look at contaminated land in a bit more detail, if possible. Kirsty, how effective in practice is the contaminated land regime across Wales?”

“In your written evidence, you noted that the number of recorded sites seems suspiciously low. Is that the reason for that?”

“Nadia De Longhi and Mary Lewis, could you give me an assessment of how the state of contaminated land in Wales has changed since the NRW last published its report in 2016?”

“On that point, is there a plan to do that full comprehensive study again? Do you have a timescale for that, or is it being looked at in a different way?”