, Petitions Committee
Updates to previous petitions
I'd better declare a late declaration—
, Petitions Committee
Updates to previous petitions
No problem. This will be the third time that we will have talked to this, firstly in September 2023 and again in October 2023, and now, obviously, again. Very clearly, there is a desire to make the Senedd more representative of the Welsh population. I think…
, Petitions Committee
Updates to previous petitions
I'm happy to take your approach, Chair. And also, you know, I thank the petitioners for the work they have done in shining a light on some of the issues, and you've just reiterated some of them there. I am extremely concerned about how many pets might not be…
, Petitions Committee
New Petitions
Thank you, Chair, and I thank Mr Evans for putting forward his petition. Obviously, he raises some points of concern to him and I'm sure they might be shared by many other people, but sometimes the wider public don't always, perhaps, understand the nature of…
, Petitions Committee
New Petitions
If I could, Chair, I think it's only fair that the petitioner has, perhaps, a few views from the group. There are many issues that, as you said, have been very well rehearsed about, perhaps, some of unworkability of some of the original views that were…
, Petitions Committee
Introductions, apologies, substitutions and declarations of interest
And with regard to P-06-1461 about universal actions in the sustainable farming scheme, I declare that I am a farmer.
, Finance Committee
Welsh Government First Supplementary Budget 2024-25: Evidence session
Maybe, Chair, in a similar way, when we present or you present the annual budget, there's usually a summarised, quite easy-to-read narrative that explains the bulk of what's happening. An easy-read narrative, recognising as well that there's a lot of scrutiny…
, Finance Committee
Welsh Government First Supplementary Budget 2024-25: Evidence session
That's money you can't spend anyway.
, Finance Committee
Welsh Government First Supplementary Budget 2024-25: Evidence session
So, a lot of that £215 million is part of the £500 million, which is now—
, Finance Committee
Welsh Government First Supplementary Budget 2024-25: Evidence session
Thank you for that. Moving back into the education realm a bit, I still want to understand—and I'm sure many people looking in do—a little bit more about the £215 million reduction in education, and what that actually means. So, an actual layperson's…
, Finance Committee
Welsh Government First Supplementary Budget 2024-25: Evidence session
Thank you, Chair. Carrying on that theme of health for a moment, the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care mentioned in September the modelling scenarios for winter and key areas he would wish to be considered, or to be focused on. I just wondered how…
, Finance Committee
Welsh Government First Supplementary Budget 2024-25: Evidence session
Thank you for the clarity on that. While we're talking about health budgets, can you provide any update on the financial position of NHS bodies, in regard to their resilience, as we move forward to the winter?
, Finance Committee
Welsh Government First Supplementary Budget 2024-25: Evidence session
I’d like to explore a few points around those funding changes within MEG, to try to understand those a little bit better. To kick off, the supplementary budget includes a £141.3 million consequential allocated to support allocations to the Welsh NHS. Can you…
, Finance Committee
Welsh Government First Supplementary Budget 2024-25: Evidence session
In fairness, one of the things that I did when I got here was to get the definitions of all of those elements. And they are freely available on many of the documents around the budget. There’s usually a glossary at the end, which gives you some insight into…
, Finance Committee
Welsh Government First Supplementary Budget 2024-25: Evidence session
This is something I was going to raise a little later on, but it's pertinent now, because I think when you look at the headline figures—. Let's look at the education figure. It looks like, 'Education has been reduced by £215 million, isn't that horrific?…
, Finance Committee
Welsh Government First Supplementary Budget 2024-25: Evidence session
I've always wrestled with this concept of changing capital to revenue, because it's something that, in a previous life, we so could not do, because, obviously, capital is for infrastructure and you can't service, you can't do it regularly, so how can you…
, Finance Committee
Welsh Government First Supplementary Budget 2024-25: Evidence session
I think so.
, Finance Committee
Welsh Government First Supplementary Budget 2024-25: Evidence session
Only a little one. It's really how the relationship now is going to be more conducive for change, probably, or I would hope so. I've often wondered in the past—. We know the Secretary of State's role is sometimes questionable on what it achieves for Wales…
, Finance Committee
Review into the operations, processes and investigations carried out by the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales: Evidence session
Chris, you captured it, actually. I think people have a right to a private life, and social media is a big part of people’s private lives now. It’s quite appropriate that anybody could make a judgment. It could be a political decision, something's made it to…
, Finance Committee
Review into the operations, processes and investigations carried out by the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales: Evidence session
Thank you. Thank you, Chair.
, Finance Committee
Review into the operations, processes and investigations carried out by the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales: Evidence session
I'm not suggesting you have to do that, but it's worth reflecting on whether that strengthens any—. I think the report is strong and I think it gives a lot of clarity and a lot of reassurance to a lot of people, but belt and braces is always important with…
, Finance Committee
Review into the operations, processes and investigations carried out by the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales: Evidence session
A couple more questions from me, not too many. I was just wondering, do you think that there is any future role for the review team to conduct any follow-up work, or anything? Do you envisage anything like that?
, Finance Committee
Review into the operations, processes and investigations carried out by the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales: Evidence session
Thank you for that. That's answered of the questions I was going to ask. Perhaps in addition to that, do you feel that there might be any further need to engage with this committee to inform us of any updates against any of the actions that you're carrying…
, Finance Committee
Review into the operations, processes and investigations carried out by the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales: Evidence session
That takes us on to my next set of questions, really. You've accepted all of the recommendations and lessons learnt from the review. Could you give us some clarity now on how you will go about implementing them? What mechanisms are in place to ensure that you…
, Finance Committee
Review into the operations, processes and investigations carried out by the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales: Evidence session
So, just for us to be clear, and you don't need to repeat your answer, but, yes, I'm reassured that Dr McCullough and her team had access to all of the correspondence that they would have received pertinent to the review. If she had felt that there was…
