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23 June 2026, Plenary

Statement by the Cabinet Minister for Rural Resilience and Sustainability: Priorities for Rural Resilience and Sustainability

… there will be things happening in the meantime and we're not just all looking at each other waiting for nine months from now. Resilient supply chains—absolutely, we need resilient supply chains, and climate change is one … Wales, isn't it? It's all doom and gloom. It's glass half empty all the time. And, of course, you started off with the usual line about 'crazy' net zero. Well, let's give you …

5 March 2025, Plenary

Plaid Cymru Debate: Agricultural Property Relief

… change that Keir Starmer and the Labour Party were trying to deliver, and we didn't have to wait too long to see what that change meant to rural Wales; the plans around inheritance tax are a real … speaking to farmers in my own constituency of Ynys Môn and across Wales, what I've heard time and time again is that plans that families had who have been working the land diligently for decades, often for …

9 May 2023, Plenary

& 8. The general principles of the Health Service Procurement (Wales) Bill and the financial resolution in respect of the Health Service Procurement (Wales) Bill

… published. As the Bill provides flexibility for changing circumstances, I am glad that the Welsh Government is waiting for the decisions made in England before proceeding here in Wales. I do not criticise the context or circumstance … should agree to the general principles of the Bill. However, I would urge the Minister to use her time here today to update the Senedd with further clarity—which you have done to a degree so far, but …

11 October 2023, Plenary

Debate on a Member's Legislative Proposal: A Bill to promote responsible dog ownership

… that does work and what we can do here, so that we don't have to wait for other places to do things, and reflecting on some of the words that the Minister said at the end there … next week. I'd hoped to be there, but I am chairing the Finance Committee at the same time, so I might have to send a member of staff to listen in, but I'd appreciate a conversation …

2 October 2024, Plenary

Debate on the Climate Change, Environment and Infrastructure Committee Report, 'Natural Resources Wales—Annual Scrutiny 2023-24'

… emphasis on maintaining these facilities now, but bringing in external expertise to run catering and retail facilities. However, time is important, as is continuity, so we have concerns about that. I will be visiting Ynyslas at the weekend … monitored, we have polluted rivers, and marine life is suffering. Planning applications are being held up waiting for responses from NRW, and, when developing legislation such as the sustainable farming scheme, we need experts to be able …

10 July 2024, Health and Social Care Committee

Health and Social Care (Wales) Bill: evidence session with organisations supporting children in care

… that we were waiting for an Act to come forward. It begs the question if we weren't waiting for an Act to come forward, why hasn't it happened sooner. Something else that's really important … home so you can maintain those links. It might not mean living in the residential home full time, but perhaps retaining access to a key worker, or being able to go there for advice and to access advocacy …

4 March 2025, Plenary

Statement by the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care: Update on Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board

… arrived and from the moment I arrived, the staff were all brilliant. I sat down in the packed waiting room, the screen on the wall said half an hour to triage, then two and a half hours … how even she had to personally search the hospital for trolleys when she should be treating patients at times when ambulances were queueing up outside accident and emergency. So, behind your assurances, when will you finally start engaging …

5 December 2023, Plenary

Statement by the Minister for Health and Social Services: Waiting Well: An update on progress

… the NHS was an opportunity to celebrate all that the NHS has achieved and also to take time to reflect on what the future holds. We know that people are living longer, that they will have increasingly complex … recovery plan, issued in April 2022, and in particular to focus on the need to reduce our long waits for NHS treatment. But our focus can't solely be to increase capacity of services to deal with the …

28 September 2023, Economy, Trade, and Rural Affairs Committee

Cost of living pressures and the Young Person's Guarantee - Panel 1

There is a growing body of evidence, obviously—you've probably heard it in this committee many times before—indicating that certain groups of young people and adults are disproportionately affected. Lower income households are more disproportionately affected … area and they were oversubscribed in the summer, which meant that young people coming out of schools were waiting. And we know that that waiting period is a risk for young people making the transition between school and …

7 May 2025, Finance Committee

Post-legislative review of the Public Services Ombudsman (Wales) Act 2019: Evidence session 2

… abroad schemes here whereby people, if the medical treatment isn't available here or if they have to wait too long, can have it done in another EU country or indeed in the UK. This is particularly pertinent … own-initiative investigation into this. I take Margaret's point that they can take some time, but actually sometimes they can be very quick. I'll come back maybe to the consultation in a minute. Maybe not having …

16 November 2023, Children, Young People, and Education Committee

Do disabled children and young people have equal access to education and childcare? - evidence session 12

… got very big patient populations. Language barriers are another issue, obviously. LanguageLine consultations, for example, take double the time that other consultations would take. So, access is a wide question to tackle, really. In primary care we don … work from that point of view. If we looked at that, and we weren’t on these long waiting lists, and we found a way to assess the needs and put the support in place earlier …

22 March 2022, Plenary

Questions to the First Minister

… able to tell him today that the three GPs who were expected to be recruited at that time have now all been recruited, the last one joining in January. I'm also glad to say that project Flex … other local interests—they will go out to a public engagement in May. They've got to wait until then because of the local authority elections, but they've got to a point where they're able …

2 April 2025, Plenary

Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Welsh Language

… rather be in work. But if you have a universal credit system, for example, where you have to wait five weeks before you get any help at all, then taking the risk of leaving benefits and going into … Wales was 6.5 per cent, down 3.6 percentage points compared to the previous year. At the same time, youth unemployment across the whole of the United Kingdom was 11.4 per cent, and rose over that previous year. There …

29 January 2025, Plenary

Short Debate: Will the bells of Rhymney fall silent? Protecting community assets in the Valleys

… are already lagging behind compared to Scotland and England, and if we lose more community assets while waiting for the legislation to come before us, our communities will all lose out. Now, there are examples of places where … help the Government achieve more than one target or priority. These assets are spectacular places. It's high time that we celebrated and appreciated them before they become mere monuments to a lost world, and values and people …

6 June 2024, Health and Social Care Committee

General scrutiny session with the Minister for Mental Health and Early Years

… consists of the Welsh Government, health boards, local authorities and private sector health and care providers. I'm waiting on a report from them on how they're progressing on delivering the national actions arising from the implementation … look at my writing for, which is care-experienced young people and care-experienced parents. In another time, before this position that I have now, I was in the privileged position of chairing the Children, Young People and …

14 January 2026, Plenary

Plaid Cymru Debate: The Senedd election

… believe there is a Senedd Member who does not want a sustainable NHS, ensuring patients are not left waiting years in pain for treatment. The question is, how do we improve the health of people in Wales … does not need to be devolved to Wales, Scotland and Ireland or the English mayors at the same time, what we should have is a list of items that are available to be devolved, with each Parliament and …

30 November 2022, Plenary

Debate on the Finance Committee Report—'Post-EU funding arrangements'

… heard from Mike Hedges that bids have been resource intensive for local authorities, very much driven by time pressure rather than a more strategic take when it comes to influencing which projects are being put forward. No necessity … the end or very nearly at the end of the first year now, and local authorities are still waiting for confirmation on the SPF investment plans. It isn't conducive to the best use of resources. The …

8 January 2025, Finance Committee

Welsh Government Draft Budget 2025-26: Evidence session 4

… and a half times more likely to be in part-time work. They're three and a half times more likely to be out of work in order to deal with caring responsibilities. When women are in work … social care, in local authorities, and funding was low. There are improvements this year, but we'll wait to see how that comes out. I think in all of this the devil will be in the detail. Childcare …

11 June 2024, Plenary

Statement by the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care: Six Goals for Urgent and Emergency Care Two Years On

… that there are significant and serious issues in the health system, and the recent statistics showing the longest waiting lists on record in the Welsh NHS are clear proof of that, along with the catalogue of failings … with deadlines by the next Senedd elections in 2026. How likely are those to be met by that time? And to take one example, a particularly important target is that each person assessed as having an urgent primary …

7 January 2025, Plenary

Questions to the First Minister

… was Ann Jones before you, the great champion for the Royal Alexandra Hospital, and she reminds me every time I see her. The fact that we've got this additional capital will make life a lot easier for … the business case yet, I know the health Minister hasn't seen the business case either. We'll wait for that to come forward, and then make a decision …