, Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister
COVID-19 recovery and winter pressures on public services
Well, of course, Dirprwy Lywydd, we made many assessments of a potential tourism levy, drawing on the very successful experience of such levies in other parts of the world. The approach we intend to take is to offer local authorities a discretionary power to…
, Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister
COVID-19 recovery and winter pressures on public services
Presently, the threat to the hospitality industry doesn't come from restrictions at all, because there are almost none. The threat comes from people making their own decisions and seeing the threat that omicron represents and voting with their feet, and that…
, Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister
COVID-19 recovery and winter pressures on public services
Thank you to Mr Evans for the question, of course.
, Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister
COVID-19 recovery and winter pressures on public services
Chair, could I first of all agree with what John Griffiths said? It was the most fantastic effort by our local authorities and third sector partners in finding emergency accommodation. Since March 2020, when the crisis began, over 15,300 people have been…
, Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister
COVID-19 recovery and winter pressures on public services
Well, I have to give you a slightly provisional answer here, Chair, because, had you been asking me even a couple of weeks ago, I think I could have given you quite a straightforward 'yes', that that is under consideration. I've been in meetings with the…
, Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister
COVID-19 recovery and winter pressures on public services
There are a number of ways, Chair, in which we are able to have that long-term assessment. We are in—as John Griffiths said—very, very regular dialogue with local authority leaders in Wales. Indeed, ministerial colleagues have met local authority leaders on a…
, Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister
COVID-19 recovery and winter pressures on public services
Yes, Jack, there are. I can tell you there are many ways in which we talk directly to young people. I've been lucky enough myself to do that on a whole string of occasions, and the themes are very clear, and they come through every time: anxiety about exams…
, Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister
COVID-19 recovery and winter pressures on public services
That is absolutely part of the plan, but this is very complex, as Jenny will know; there are so many moving parts and so many uncertainties in it. But planning is definitely going on that, if schools in significant numbers have to move temporarily to remote…
, Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister
COVID-19 recovery and winter pressures on public services
Thank you very much again, Jack, for that, and to Jayne Bryant as well. So, you will have seen that, yesterday as well, Jeremy Miles issued a written statement on an additional package of support for learners in the short and medium term of £24 million, £7…
, Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister
COVID-19 recovery and winter pressures on public services
Thanks very much, Chair, and thank you, Jack. So, some colleagues will have seen the letter that the education Minister, Jeremy Miles, sent yesterday to headteachers. That is where the two days for planning at the start of the next school term come from. In…
, Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister
COVID-19 recovery and winter pressures on public services
I'll ask Judith, probably, to answer the second question. Truthfully, Chair, I don't think my view is the determinative one here; it is the view of the national health service in Wales, because that's how those plans and those numbers are derived. The…
, Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister
COVID-19 recovery and winter pressures on public services
Well, Chair, the single biggest practical barrier is the fact that people have to wait for 15 minutes after they have been vaccinated. Many, many of our high-street pharmacists have quite a small consulting space, and just the number of chairs they have for…
, Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister
COVID-19 recovery and winter pressures on public services
Well, Chair, as far as the first point is concerned, the Welsh Government continues to want to follow the advice of the JCVI, which is that, even with this rapidly accelerated booster campaign, we should vaccinate people in clinical priority order. So, that…
, Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister
COVID-19 recovery and winter pressures on public services
I’ll ask Judith to come in, if you don’t mind, in relation to the question you asked originally about vacancies, but the figures announced by the health Minister are the eighth year in a row in which training places for the Welsh NHS have risen. They have…
, Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister
COVID-19 recovery and winter pressures on public services
Thank you very much for that. I think we can be very proud of the immediate response we have had within the health and social care field and more widely to a call to people to come forward to staff the very much stepped-up vaccination effort that we are…
, Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister
COVID-19 recovery and winter pressures on public services
On the first part of Mr George's question, Chair, when we published the winter plan on 21 October, we also provided just under £10 million to regional partnership boards, because those are the vehicles, the primary vehicles, for bringing together national and…
, Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister
COVID-19 recovery and winter pressures on public services
Thank you, Chair. So, the recovery plan was produced, as you said, in the final months of the last Senedd term. It has been overtaken by the programme for government that was created following the election, and the latest version of the programme for…
, Committee for the Scrutiny of the First Minister
COVID-19 recovery and winter pressures on public services
Diolch, Dirprwy Lywydd. I'm joined this afternoon by two senior officials of the Welsh Government: Judith Paget, who's the director general for the health service in Wales, and Reg Kilpatrick, who leads on the overall Welsh Government response to the pandemic.
, Plenary
Voting Time
In favour.
, Plenary
Voting Time
Thank you very much, Llywydd—[Inaudible.]
, Plenary
Questions to the First Minister
Llywydd, I was very pleased recently to spend an evening at the Brecon barracks and to meet with some very senior, committed staff there. Llywydd, there are no issues that lie between the Welsh Government and the UK Government on this matter; it is entirely a…
, Plenary
Questions to the First Minister
Llywydd, the appointment of a veterans commissioner for Wales is an initiative of the UK Government, announced without any prior discussion or notification with the Welsh Government. Nevertheless, this week the Deputy Minister for Social Partnership is…
, Plenary
Questions to the First Minister
I'd like to thank Mabon ap Gwynfor for those points. Of course, I am aware of the case of David Graves, and I sympathise with him on everything that has happened and the experiences that he's had. I've seen nothing from Donna Ockenden, if I'm honest. So, if…
, Plenary
Questions to the First Minister
I thank the Member for his question. Supporting mental health is a priority for this Government, as set out in our 'Together for Mental Health' delivery plan. We are supporting mental health services in north Wales through the targeted intervention framework…
, Plenary
Questions to the First Minister
We do, of course, keep the scheme under review. In the last year, prior to the pandemic—so, the last year you think would be a fair comparison—then, over 20,200 students were supported by the EMA scheme, at a cost of nearly £18 million. And, on top of that…
