3 February 2026 , Plenary
& 7. The Public Health (Minimum Price for Alcohol) (Wales) Act 2018 (Continuation) Regulations 2026 and The Public Health (Minimum Price for Alcohol) (Minimum Unit Price) (Wales) (Amendment) Regulations 2026
Thank you very much. The regulations before the Senedd today build on and look to continue the success of minimum unit pricing policy in Wales. Minimum unit pricing was introduced with a clear purpose: to reduce the health risks associated with excessive…
21 January 2026 , Plenary
Short Debate: The need for a national plan to improve Tourette syndrome services
Thank you very much for the opportunity to respond to this debate. I would like to thank Lee, of course, for tabling this short debate, and all Members—Carolyn, Mabon, John and Mark—for bringing their support for those with Tourette's syndrome to the Siambr…
20 January 2026 , Plenary
Statement by the Minister for Mental Health and Wellbeing: Women’s Health Hubs
Thank you so much, and thank you for raising that as well. That's something that I can certainly take away and I can discuss then with the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care, because this would be very wide ranging. It would also be really…
20 January 2026 , Plenary
Statement by the Minister for Mental Health and Wellbeing: Women’s Health Hubs
Thank you so much. So, all of the health boards will have a physical offer. Some of them may do the referral, the information or the conversations, initially, through digital, and that's again based on the need and usually the way that the population is…
20 January 2026 , Plenary
Statement by the Minister for Mental Health and Wellbeing: Women’s Health Hubs
Of course. Well, I have to say I'm really pleased and proud of Powys. They've been a pleasure to work with. I think that, as a health board, they are one of the ones that have really embraced the idea that this is a real opportunity to take the pathfinder…
20 January 2026 , Plenary
Statement by the Minister for Mental Health and Wellbeing: Women’s Health Hubs
Absolutely. Thank you so much, Jenny Rathbone, for that question, and you are right when it comes to early detection, especially endometriosis. One of the things that we know is that a lot of women's health conditions are trivialised. We're told, about our…
20 January 2026 , Plenary
Statement by the Minister for Mental Health and Wellbeing: Women’s Health Hubs
Thank you so much, Mabon, and for welcoming, again, the hubs, and the research, which is so vital to us moving forward. As you said, women's research has been hugely underprioritised. So, just to reassure you—. I think the big things here were in terms of the…
20 January 2026 , Plenary
Statement by the Minister for Mental Health and Wellbeing: Women’s Health Hubs
Thank you very much, and thank you so much for welcoming this and being, overall, very supportive of the work that we're doing here. And it is true, the women's health hubs were introduced in England, or started to be rolled out in England. In one of the very…
20 January 2026 , Plenary
Statement by the Minister for Mental Health and Wellbeing: Women’s Health Hubs
Prynhawn da. Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. Last month, we marked the first anniversary of the women's health plan. The plan, which was developed by the NHS and is being implemented by the NHS, is a real catalyst for change. It is an opportunity to close the gender…
9 January 2025 , Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26 - evidence session 1
Thank you very much.
9 January 2025 , Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26 - evidence session 1
And I echo that as well—[Inaudible.]
9 January 2025 , Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26 - evidence session 1
The RPBs do get funding that they use for the waiting well, for the assessments, which I think is really crucial. And also, then, as I said, I work quite closely with the Cabinet Secretary for Education on the additional learning needs and how that all works…
9 January 2025 , Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26 - evidence session 1
They will be with us by the end of the financial year. There was a decision made on that, I think, because, as many people will say to me, strategies and plans need to have the funding to go with them. And so, that's something that I've talked a lot about…
9 January 2025 , Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26 - evidence session 1
If I can come in and add there as well a little bit on the inreach programme that we have in schools. I work quite closely with the Cabinet Secretary for Education on this; of course, we have quite a lot of crossover. There has been a decision made that that…
9 January 2025 , Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26 - evidence session 1
Absolutely. A postcode lottery is something that I see across my whole portfolio, because obviously, I have neurodiversity, I also have learning disability and I have mental health and dementia. So, these are things that, again, with the NHS executive, I've…
9 January 2025 , Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26 - evidence session 1
It does really help. I have a wonderful lead on this area on the NHS executive, who I meet with regularly. As you probably understand, I have a particular interest and focus on eating disorder provision. I think that a lot of the work that's being done in…
9 January 2025 , Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26 - evidence session 1
Yes, I always put my headphones on.
9 January 2025 , Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26 - evidence session 1
As you said, the money is set aside for mental health. It has parity with our health budget, which I think is really important. I think it’s really good in this space to go back to when the committee heard evidence last year from my predecessor’s predecessor…
9 January 2025 , Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26 - evidence session 1
At the moment, we are getting the data through; we need to validate it, though. They are meeting with officials on a weekly basis. If it’s okay, Chair, I will bring Albert Heaney in at this point, as he will be the person who will be leading on this.
9 January 2025 , Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26 - evidence session 1
No. To be very clear, the £3 million is one-off funding, and that was because, again, it was part of the overall objective of the Welsh Government to find the areas where we feel that the waiting lists are having the biggest impact and to bring those down…
9 January 2025 , Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26 - evidence session 1
Absolutely. So, obviously, I've already touched on the £3 million—up to £3 million—for the health boards to bring down those longest waiting times, and that was very much in line with the exercise that the First Minister did over the summer, and knowing that…
9 January 2025 , Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26 - evidence session 1
Yes. So, currently, as of September 2024, there were 20,770 children on the waiting list. We don't have the more recent data at the moment, as we're going through this period of trying to bring those waiting lists down. But, yes, modelling then, using demand…
9 January 2025 , Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26 - evidence session 1
—as we progress that, because I think that that could be very significant. But it comes back to all of the comments that have been made and the comments that you've made, Carolyn Thomas: how do you present that in a way that doesn't feel as if you're…
9 January 2025 , Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26 - evidence session 1
If I can come in as well, I also have responsibility for the Food Standards Agency and energy drinks, and so we have recently been able to publish the consultation that we did on energy drinks for under-16s. There's a lot of research there to show that that…
9 January 2025 , Children, Young People, and Education Committee
Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26 - evidence session 1
Absolutely. Just to come in as well, just to point out that it is not just out of the Welsh Government budget either. I recently met with Cardiff and Vale, and through the work with the Welsh Local Government Association, which invested money, and the…
